Frank-an-ankle

Today was my one week follow up after my surgery. Although my doctor was unable to make it, he is currently snowed in in Iowa, a doctor who assisted with the surgery was able to see me. He said that everything looked really well. The swelling was really not that bad, although to me it looked horrible. Which is why I decided to call it Frank-an-ankle. Anywhoot, the doctor gave me a choice between another splint or a boot. I opted to have the boot for a few reasons. 1- I'll be moving to snow country soon and wouldn't be able to get a splint wet. 2- The idea of being in a boot sounded a lot better. 3- Now that I have a boot, I can wear actual clothes if needed (even though I do love lounging around in my jammies). Once I had made my decision, they wrapped Frank-an-ankle back up. I was glad they did because it was making me a queasy. While the boot it ALOT heavier, I already see the benefits of having it. It allows me to be a little more mobile. While I can not put weight on it, it does allow me to rest my foot more easily. Because I can remove it, I will be able to wear jeans and more weather appropriate clothing. It also allows my foot to sit straight. One thing I noticed is that my ankle doesn't sit straight in the splint and I don't want it healing crooked.

My Tips Thus Far:

1- Keep your foot elevated as much as possible. I've had my foot elevated everyday since surgery. Even while I sleep.

2- Ice that sucker. Since it is thickly wrapped, I was instructed to place the ice pack behind my knee. I can feel it working.

3- Take your meds. The first few days were really rough pain wise. I was taking pain killers every four hours. Now they last longer or maybe I don't have as much pain? Either way, I've been able to take half throughout the day and it will last me 6 to 8 hours. I usually take one before bed and than one in the morning. Other than that, they have me on an antibiotic which I take every 8 hours.

Welp, that's all for now.

xoxo

Megs

Christmas...

For Christmas, we went over to Matthew's Mom's house in the morning. By the time I was able to hobble out of bed and get into the car, they had already opened most of the presents. When we got there, we had a couple of gifts to open. I got a new purse (yayy!) and Matthew got a Flip camera. Oh and we got kinect for Xbox!!! Wahoo! I'm excited to try it out when I can walk again. I've just been watching Matthew play all weekend long. Matthew's youngest brother also got kinect and dance central.

Around 2 o'clock, we made our way over to Matthew's Aunt & Uncle's house for dinner. His Aunt Lisa prepared an awesome Christmas dinner. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls. After we stuffed ourselves, we all sat around talking. Well actually everyone else was talking and I was drifting in and out because of the pain killers. Once we had digested some of our food, we opened more presents. Matthew and I received a tent and first aid kit. We are pretty excited about that since we both enjoy camping.

Day 2, 3 & 4 of Surgery

The second day was horrible! I woke up at 4 am in so much pain I was shaking. I have never felt that much pain in my life. I wanted to cut my whole leg off!! After taking some medication, I was able to fall asleep but didn't sleep that long. Day 3 wasn't as bad, but I still feel a lot of pain. The pain killers help but there is still a throbbing, dull pain in my ankle area. Also laying on the couch all day has started to cause my back to ache. I've been keeping it elevated as much as possible, even when I sleep. Day 4 is going pretty well so far. I've been able to go a little longer with out pain medication. Sleeping through the night is pretty hard though.

xoxo

Megs

Surgery

Yesterday was the big day....my ankle surgery. I was pretty nervous the night before and couldn't eat after midnight. I had to be to the surgery center around 7 am to check in. Matthew and I woke up around 6 and got ready to leave. Once we signed in, they took me back pretty quickly. Once I was lying on the bed, I started to get really anxious. The nurse came over and started to put in my IV. For the most part, I did really well. After the IV was put in, I started to feel nauseous. I think it was everything hitting me all at once....surgery, not eating, pain killers, and needles. After dry heaving, I started to feel better. After that, my doctor came back to talk to me about what he was going to be doing. He had decided to add another procedure to the list. Altogether, he performed five different procedures. Luckily, he only had to make one incision. Being put to sleep wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was out after taking one breath. When I woke up, I had some pretty intense pain in my calf. After answering twenty questions, they gave me some more Demorol to help with the pain. Fifteen or twenty minutes passed before they allowed me to start getting dressed. After I was all dressed, they wheeled me into a waiting room where Matthew was waiting for me. The nurse went over a few things with him and gave us the prescriptions for some pain killers and antibiotics. For the most part, my foot was pretty tingly. Apparently, my doctor gave me some pretty awesome numbing medication before I woke up. Supposedly, I can last up to 30 hours.

Day 1
So far today hasn't been too bad. I woke up with some pain this morning. I had decided to take half of a pain killer before I went to bed so that I would be able to sleep. When I woke up this morning I took the other half. My foot is still tingly from the numbing medication. As far as dressing goes, it is wrapped in a splint that makes my foot look three times larger than it is.

That's all for now.

xoxo
Megs

A Rock Concert & A Proposal...

On Saturday, Matthew played a reunion show with his band Haffo. It was really fun to see him play and sing. I could tell he really enjoyed it. There were a lot of people that showed up to support them. He even walked away with money in his pocket. After the show, we went to an after party at his band mates house.

Matthew & I before he went on

Matthew singing his song

On Sunday, we had planned to go hiking and watch the sunset. We didn't end up doing that because Matthew was still pretty worn out from the night before. Instead we played video games and took it kind of easy during the day. Later on, he asked if I still wanted to go up to the overlook. So I got ready and we started driving towards the mountian. When we go up there, the view was so pretty. You can literally see all of Phoenix from up there. The city looked like it was on fire from all the lights. While we were up there, he proposed. Of course I said yes!

Us and the view

The Ring!!!! :)

xoxo

Megs

The Results Are In....

Yesterday, I had my highly anticipated follow up for my ankle. While the MRI showed there were no tears in my tendons (Yayy!), it did show some abnormalities. There are a few areas that will need some work done. For those of you who are like me and need to know everything (lol) I'll explain.

My MRI showed that my peroneal tendon doesn't sit in a groove like it should. Instead of my bone being grooved, it sort of bubbles out. Which in turn causes subluxation. This causes the tendon to become irritated and inflamed. While none of my tendons were torn, the MRI showed that they were inflamed or had thickened. There is also another area of my foot that part of the bone will need to be shaved down because it sticks out too far. This causes the tendon become inflamed and a fluid filled sac as developed to adjust this abnormality. There is also some scar tissue that will be removed.

He basically gave me two options. I could have surgery to correct the problems or I could wait another 5-6 months and see if anything has improved after wearing a brace and taking anti-inflamatories. I decided that it was probably best to go ahead and get the surgery. I explained to him that I didn't want to come back in another 5-6 months with the same problem. He said that most people with injuries like mine chose the same thing because they don't see improvement otherwise. According to my doctor, the normal recovery period for this type of surgery is 6 - 10 weeks. He thinks that I will recover faster since I am younger and in better health than most patients.

My surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. I'm a bit nervous but know that it's better in the long run to get it done. Before I go in, I have to have a blood test and EKG done. I'm hoping to get that done before the week is up. Come to think about it, I think I'm more nervous for a blood test lol!

xoxo
Megs

1 Semester Down...Plenty More to Go!

Well the semester is finally over and Friday is my last day of work! Wahooo! I'm excited to just relax for a couple of weeks before I have to start again in the Spring! I will definitely be enjoying the 75+ degree weather that Arizona has to offer before a make the treacherous journey to Utah for the next semester.

In other news, I will find out tomorrow if I have to get surgery or not on my ankle. All I know is that I'll be pretty entertaining if I have to walk on crutches in the snow :/ Anywhoot, Happy Holidays All!

xoxo
Megs

Ankle Woes....

As most of you know, I damaged my ankle pretty bad last year. After spending four months walking around on it and it never getting better, I finally decided to go to the doctor. There wasn't much that could be done at that point. I was given an ankle brace and instructed to wear it for a few months. I cooperated and was eventually able to stop wearing it. At my last doctor appointment, I was told I would have to wear a brace for the rest of my life while doing any physical activity or have surgery to fix the problem. I choose to wear the brace as I didn't really have the funds to get the surgery.

While trying to workout this summer, I realized that wearing the brace didn't really help that much. Trying to balance on that foot is another story. I recently went back to the doctor to see if there was anything that could be done (ie: surgery). After examining my foot and taking x-rays, He told me that the only possible problem with my ankle is that my Peroneal Tendon is popping and snapping up over my ankle bone (subluxation). Which causes the bone to become inflamed and create a dull, achy pain. He also believes that my tendons have flattened and are starting to tear. So what does this all mean? I'm getting an MRI on Monday which will hopefully illustrate what is going on. Depending on what the results are, surgery is probably the next step in this saga.

Why am I even writing this post?....I've been doing a lot of googleing over the last couple days and have been able to find very little information on this topic. I've decided that I should document my story for other people who may go through this.

Turkey Time....

This year for Thanksgiving, Matthew and I took a trip to good ol' Beryl, UT. I was very excited to go because my WHOLE family was going to be there!!! The house was madness! But I loved every single day of being there. With 19 people in a 4 bedroom house, it was craziness. It was great to be able to spend the weekend with my brothers & sisters. We had a fun time staying up late playing Settlers of Catan and watching movies!

xoxo
Megs

Matthew & I

Dad & Mom

Dad & Aeris

Aeris and Keira

Wait I'm 22 years old...when did this happen?

First of all this year has just FLOWN by! I can't believe that I turned 22 last Friday. It seems like just yesterday I was getting ready to go on my 21st Birthday Cruise! This year for my birthday, all I wanted to do was just sit at home and RELAX! As most of you know, I've had quite the busy schedule with two jobs and five online classes. I just wanted a day to not do anything but veg out on the couch! And I got just that! I got caught up on all the DVR shows that were taking up space and even got some video game time in there! It may not sound like the dream birthday celebration but to me it was!

I had told Matthew a couple months ago we should go to the Suns game since they would be playing on my birthday. He bought tickets and we were so excited to go. He's a HUGE Suns fan! Since he paid for the tickets, I was pretty convinced that going to the game was my only present. I was content with that but I decided I would ask what else I was getting...haha. I thought maybe I would get a jersey since he asked me who my favorite player was. But when I approached him about it, he told me that I wasn't getting anything else and he was just wondering who my favorite player was because they were doing a poll at his work. I believed him. We went to bed that night and in the morning, he left for work. I didn't sleep in too much that day but a couple of hours was all I needed. I got up and went into the living room and saw a present waiting for me. I started laughing. I opened it to find a Suns jersey and a neck massager. Oh and a card that made me cry....happy tears :) I was so surprised!

When Matthew got home from work, we headed out to the game. I wasn't sure where our seats were because I didn't look at the tickets but turns out the mister got some good ones! We were in Row 15 on the lower level! So SO SO close! It was awesome! Totally another surprise. The game was AMAZING! It went into DOUBLE over time! That's right DOUBLE over time! It was so intense. Don't worry, the Suns won!!!

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday! I got everything I wanted and then some! Thanks for all the birthday wishes I received.

xoxo
Megs

Matthew & I at the game

Double Overtime!!

Slam Dunk Half Time Show

Matthew & I again

Halloween

For Halloween, Matthew and I were able to travel home to the mother land. I was so excited to be able to finally take a trip home and see everyone! On Friday night, we visited my sister and her family for a little bit. The kids were really excited because I came baring gifts. Apparently, when we saw them back in July, I had promised my niece I would buy her a princess belle costume for her birthday. I didn't think she would remember....but she did! Don't underestimate the mind of a 3 almost 4 year old!!! She was quite disappointed when no Belle dress showed up for her birthday in September. I told her I would make it up to her and visit on Halloween. When I pulled out the dress on Friday she was so excited. Her face was priceless! I wish I would've gotten a picture of it! She stared at it for a few minutes and then I told her to go put it on. I'm pretty sure she wore that thing all weekend! She was in LOVE with it! After my sister's house, we went to Jessica & Dixon's house for dinner. We planned a little friend get together. I was nice to sit down with everyone and eat a fantastic home cooked meal. In the spirit of Halloween, we dressed up!! Matthew & I were 80's Jazzercisers, Laura & Ian were Katy Perry & Russell Brand, Clare was Medusa and Tyler was a lumberjack, and Dixon surprised us by putting on his Hannah Montana costume from a couple years ago. I was fun to just joke around and laugh! On Saturday, we were able to spend the majority of it with my sister and her family. The kids were SO excited to go trick-or-treating. They almost didn't go because it started to rain around 5 o'clock. After dinner the rain had subsided and we agreed to take them around to a few houses in the neighborhood. They were so excited they ran from house to house! I'm glad I was able to spend the day with them.

xoxo
Megs

Orion, Phoenix, Aeris

Me, Clare, Laura, Jessica

Ian, Matthew, Dixon

D-Back Game

On Sunday, Matthew & I went to a Diamond Backs game. I had won free tickets and when I went to pick them up, I got an extra set. We invited Matthew's friends Troy & Sara to the game. We had a great time. I was happy that they play in an indoor stadium. It was well over 100 degrees that day and the game started at 1 o'clock.

xoxo
Megs

Entertaining ourselves during the boring parts

Our view

Life Lately

Just thought I'd give an update since it's been a minute or two! Life has been busy, busy, busy lately. On a typical day, I work two jobs and work on homework from my five online classes! Most days I want to tear my hair out, but some how I make it through.

Things I'm Looking Forward To:

Moving Out of My Apartment
I'm getting ready move out of my apartment at the end of next month. I'm excited because this will save me rent money, which in turn will help me pay off my credit card. Whooot! If everything goes as planned, I should have it paid off by my birthday! Yahooo! I'm SO FREAKING excited! I have been "paying it off" for the last FOUR years! Wowzers! I've come close a few times but ended up using it again. Once I pay it off, I going to get rid of it!!! Ha!

Visiting UTI'm excited to go back home to visit friends and family in October. Matthew & I are taking a trip to visit my sister up north. While I'm there, I will finally get to see Jessica's baby! I'm so excited to meet this little one in person! Plus I get to take my niece trick or treating on Halloween!

My 22nd Birthday
Holy Crap! Where did the time go?! I can't believe it's almost my birthday again. It seems like just yesterday I was saying goodbye to 2009! Haha! I don't have any big plans for my birthday this year. I think Matthew & I might go to a Sun's game because they are playing that day. Other than that, I'm just excited to hang out....maybe get a massage or something. :)

ThanksgivingI'm excited to go up to UT for Thanksgiving this year. Last year, I spent it at home, steam cleaning my carpets. Yeah I know...I'm a winner! haha! This year I get to spend it with my WHOLE family! Everyone will be there. Drea & her family, John & his family, Chris & his family, and my dad! It will be a crazy trip but so worth it!

Well that is all for now. Thanks for reading :)

xoxo
Megs

The Great Outdoors...

Over the weekend, Matthew and I took a camping trip to Woods Canyon Lake with his friends Troy & Sarah. We had a great time. We camped, cooked, fished and hiked! We all survived the trip but have plenty of bug bites to prove it.

Baby bald eagle

Sarah-Jane & I fishing for crawdads

Matthew fishing

Matthew & I

On another note, my workout routine has been going well. I know I'm only one week into it but I feel better already. Surprisingly enough, I am excited to go running. It has been a struggle to finish the running each day (I blame it mostly on my bad ankle and crappy shoes). I'm going to end up repeating the first week but hopefully I'll be able to start week 2 next week.

xoxo
Megs

C25K

I have decided that I need to start exercising a little bit more. I came across this running program called Couch 2 5K. Since then I have been thinking about starting it. For about 2 or 3 years now, I have been saying I want to run a marathon. Which, if you know me, is really bizarre for me to say! haha! I HATE running! But I think that I finally found a way to ease into! Couch 2 5K is a 9 week running program that requires you to run 20 - 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

I read that to maintain your current weight, you need to do 30 minutes of physical activity 3 times a week. Because I want to get into better shape, I've also decided that I am going to start Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I plan on alternating between both because I tend to get pretty bored with the same thing every day.

I suspect that I will probably have to repeat a couple of weeks in the Couch 2 5K running program but hope that I can keep with it! And once I graduate the C25K, maybe I might start their 10K running program. Don't worry, I'll keep you all posted on how I'm doing :)

xoxo
Megs

Laughlin, NV

This past weekend, Matthew & I made the journey to Laughlin, NV for a semi family reunion. Haha! Most of my family was there and some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was nice to see them all since it had been months and even years since I'd seen some of them. We arrived on Friday night around 10 pm and were too tired to go out and about. Plus we knew we had a long day at the lake tomorrow. So we hit the hay early.

Saturday morning, my mom texted me around 6 am....I know right?! Me, up at 6 am on a weekend...she must be crazy. It's safe to say that we didn't make the first boat trip out on the lake haha! We woke up around 9 am to catch the 10 boat to the other side where my family was hanging out. Little did we know that my family was pretty strict on what time we were suppose to be there. Ha! We got to the lake around 10ish but still had to find parking. After driving around for 5 mins, we finally found a spot. We parked and made our way down to the dock. We looked around for any signs of my family and I couldn't see anyone. We waited and waited until finally I saw two of my aunts walking up. We walked over and they said we had just missed the boat. Grr! haha! We were pretty frustrated because we had been standing there the whole time. They then told us that nobody would be coming back until 1! Just then, my brother Chris walked down to the dock and we told him the same story.My aunts decided that they would recruit Matthew & I to go back into town and get jet skis. I figured since no one was coming back until 1 we might as well. Boy was I wrong! haha! We drove back into town and every place was sold out of jet skis. And I later found out, my family had made several trips back to find us. Too late for that!We got back to the dock around 11:30 and decided to grab a bite to eat. Matthew & I were both starving because we had skipped breakfast. We ate at the restaurant on the dock and enjoyed some interesting conversations with my aunts.

Finally 1 o'clock rolled around and someone came and picked us all up. We made the VERY short journey across the lake where my mom & sister were waiting. I was excited to see everyone. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing.That night we went out to eat with my family at Chili's. Our waitress looked like she pretty much hated life. haha! My order was correct but I think pretty much everyone else had something wrong with it. After dinner, my brother & sister decided to go back to their hotel rooms because their kids were pretty worn out from the whole day. Matthew & I made our way to the Casino that the majority of my family was staying out. We played a few slot machines but didn't really win anything.

The next day, we went to lunch with my brother & sister-in-law at Outback. I got some potato soup that was so delicious! After lunch we decided that we better make the 4 hr journey back home. I told Matthew he could drive because I was a little sleepy. I'm so glad he did because on our way home we got a flat tire! Luckily he was able to pull over before there was too much damage done. The only bad thing was we were in the middle of no where and still 2 hours away from home. Thankfully, he has triple A! Since I have the worlds crappiest jack set for my car, we were unable to get the tire off. We had to wait about 40 mins before someone came out and put my spare on. We were able to make it all the way back to Phoenix with out any problems.

All in all it was a great trip! I'm so glad that Matthew came with me and that I was able to see my family. I didn't take a lot of pictures but here are a few.

xoxo
Megs

Keira & I

Gavin

Aeris & her stuffed thing named Ice Cream

Aeris, Ice Cream, Keira, Angela

Matthew & I

Keira & Gavin

Aeris after a long day at the lake

Matthew walking on the wobbly dock

Aeris

The fish I was pretty certain was going to eat Matthew's hand off!

Just a couple of Ducks waiting for a boat ride!

California Trip : Kate Nash

Last weekend, Matthew & I drove to California to see Kate Nash in concert. Since the concert wasn't until Tuesday, we decided to stay with our friend Rachel in San Diego for a few days. The first night, we went to the beach at sunset. Oh how I miss the beach! I love just watching the waves and feeling the crisp breeze. While we were in San Diego, we walked around and enjoyed the company of Rachel and her boyfriend Eric. One night we had a bonfire down by the pier and played sherades haha. It was a lot of fun. The day of the concert, we had decided that it would be cool to go to a taping of a show. We chose The Price is Right. I'm disappointed to say that we did not have that great of a time. We stood in line for about 4 hours and didn't even get in any of the crowd shots. After the Price is Right, we headed over to the El Rey Theater for Kate Nash. It was a really good concert. It was kind of a smaller venue so we were really close. The pictures didn't turn out as great as I hoped. Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip.

xoxo
Megs

Matthew frolicking on the Beach

Doing yoga on the beach

Rachel's yoga pose

Super Cute the band that opened for Kate Nash

Matthew & I at Kate Nash

Kate Nash

Grand Canyon!!!!

I finally got to see the Grand Canyon! You would think after living in Utah for most of my life, I would've seen it before the age of 21 haha! Anyways, Matthew's friend Joe has a cabin up in Williams, AZ which is only about an hour drive to the Grand Canyon. Since we were up there for the weekend, we decided to take the trip since I had never been. We even took Marty haha. The poor little guy was so tried after walking about 2 miles. But everyone and I mean EVERYONE would walk past us and say "oh cute dog" or something to that effect. It was so funny. Even the macho tough guys would. And there was an old gramps that just loved him! On our way back, we saw this campground that was Flintstones themed. For $5 you can walk around and take pictures. So of course, I paid $5 to get some awesome pictures. So enjoy!!!

xoxo
Megs

Matthew & Marty at the Grand Canyon

Marty & I at the Grand Canyon

Marty after a 2 mile hike :)
Bed Rock

Matthew gettin a little lovin