Day 1: Introduce Yourself

Over the next 30 days I'll be linking up with Katie's Journey for her blog hop and I hope you'll join me!!

Today is Introduce Yourself so here goes...

Howdy, I'm Michal! I'm a 24 year old Texas girl and would not want to live anywhere else. I got married this year on June 11th to the love of my life, Quade, and I absolutely love being a wife!! I can't wait to tell you more about him later on Day 10. :) I graduated last year from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor in Science and I'm 100% Aggie proud since the day I was born.

Even though I love my husband very much, the first love in my life is my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, and without Him my life would be completely meaningless. I have one younger sister, Courtney, and the best mom and dad anyone could ask for. My family has always been unbelieveably close and I feel blessed for that every single day. My sister had a heart and double lung transplant last year on July 22nd and has been doing wonderful ever since. You can read more about that here.

When I was 12 months old, I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). It has given me several bumps in the road in my life, but through my faith in Jesus and the support of my family and friends it is tolerable. I have had a right and left knee replacements and a right ankle replacement all in the last couple years and it's been a great help. 

  Right now my life is pretty much dedicated to trying to be the best wife that I can, looking for a job, and living every day according to God's will.

I'm excited about the rest of the 30 day challenge and hope to get to know more of you through doing it!

Hooray For A Good Update :)

Today was my two week check up for my knee surgery and my doctor was very pleased with how it looks! I finally got my stitches out and permission to take baths again which is a BIGGGGG deal to me!!! I don't know which style you prefer for I will take a relaxing bath over a shower any day unless I have to wash my hair. My doctor also put me on a better pain reliever which is making me feel very good. Unfortunately it's the kind of stuff that I could really get used to and not in a good way but at least it's helping for now. I had a very very bad night Monday night..so bad I started to read things online and thought I was getting a blood clot! Thankfully I was just overdramatizing yet again and I am fine!

I also got to squeeze in an appointment with my ankle doctor which was very important since my parents were starting to have doubts about the ankle replacement surgery not being the best option for me, but after our meeting the surgery still is. I did get some assuring news that for the ankle replacement surgery I'll only be in the hospital one night most definitely since they just put me in a cast and tell me to stay off it for 3 weeks. The great news is in most ankle replacements I won't even have to do physical therapy!!! This sounded great to me since I'm already dreading going back tomorrow for my knee therapy. :(

I've been much happier too that several more of my friends have been checking in on me since my last post and oddly they aren't even readers of my blog so even more proof that I didn't really need that GOD LISTENS but it's always a great reminder isn't it?!

I appreciate my readers so much for your kind words and emails and I promise to get back with you as soon as I can.

God bless!!!

The GOOD, The BAD, And The UGLY of Knee Surgery Recovery

Sorry I am just now giving a report on my knee replacement surgery, but the only technology I have felt like using is my IPhone and it's too time consuming to post from that. My actual surgery really couldn't have gone any better than it did which was a real blessing. Since we had to be there at 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, my family decided to go the night before and stay in the town house that my dad's customer has been letting us use during my sister's hospital stay. I was one of the first surgeries of the day which was much better than the 3 plus hours we had to wait last year from my left knee replacement. I was actually walking on my knee that night getting up to use the restroom instead of using those dreadful bed pans! My doctor was so pleased with my success by the second day he said I could go home Thursday, but I decided to wait until Friday so I'd have an extra day on the good drugs. Since the hospital, I haven't used my crutches or walker and I have my 3rd day of physical therapy tomorrow. This is all the GOOD part of my surgery.

The BAD has definitely been the pain!! The downside of me pushing as hard as I have been to quicken the recovery process is the pain is worse this way. It being worth it in the end is what I keep telling myself, but usually the pain is stronger. Another bad part is definitely the bruising. I have had purple all up and down my entire leg. I would show pictures, but I figure I should spare y'all the agony. Just trust me that it's been bad! I've been down so much using ice packs and pain pills like crazy. Finally, I started using my sister's really strong stuff because I just couldn't take it anymore. I've been this huge emotional baby about everything...over dramatizing over a lot of things like extremes such as my friends don't care enough because they won't come see me or many haven't even called to check on me. I know truthfully once I am rational again that I'm being stupid for thinking every one's world should revolve around me. I was mostly upset when my friend, Amy, told me at the beginning of last week that she planned to come see me over the weekend and then I was the one to contact her Saturday and she forgot she was going to dinner to celebrate an old high school friend's birthday. At least Quade has been an absolute doll though spoiling me! He made me special dinners every night while one of my parents has been taking a turn staying with my sister, who was in the hospital again but is now home. He would ice my knee down anytime I needed to be. He's even looked up wedding stuff with me to cheer me up since no one else has been bringing it up in a while.

The UGLY has been just being sooooo trapped, bored, anxious, and all the above!! I can't go do anything even though I know I am ready to do things. I was way too excited at getting to go to church yesterday just for the reason that I got to get out of the house! If I don't get to go do something fun soon I am going to have a meltdown! I have had way too much time to think about how things used to be when I lived away from home, when I had more freedom, and when my friends lived closer.

Well, now that I've vented some and talked about how the recovery has gone it's definitely time for me to go to bed. It's sad how emotionally and physically exhausted I become after the smallest things still, but hopefully not much longer. I know things will get better..I'm just ready for it to be now!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Aggie Graduation and Ready For Surgery!!

Well this is definitely overdue, but I had to do it.....I am an official graduate of Texas A&M University!!! On August 13th at 7:30 AM my parents proudly took me to the Association of Former Students where I finally got my Fightin' Texas Aggie Ring!! Graduation began at 9:00 and it was wonderful!! :) My future in laws were able to come since my fiance' wouldn't have missed it for the world. I thought it was sweet and funny that my his mom wanted to be there since she figured no one else in the family would ever graduate from there again! :D Prideful moment for me I have to say! They were able to get a lot more pictures that I have not gotten back yet, but I hope to soon. After graduation we went back over to the Association for pictures under the ring replica.

Proudly holding my diploma

Me, Mom, and Dad..wishing my sister were in this picture with us! :(

Love my new Calvin Klein dress!!

Me and Quade

Me, Quade, and Quade's parents, Ken and Mary

After we finished taking pictures I was craving Mexican food and since moving home I have greatly missed Los Cucos so that's where we went. Quade's parents had never been and they loved it!

This was after I got caught admiring my Aggie Ring and everyone laughed at me

My dad gave me a gorgeous frame for my diploma that I could not wait to put in as soon as I got home! I had to show off my ring to my sister first who was so excited for me then I did exactly that.

Tomorrow is another big day for me...the day I get my right knee replacement! I have been off a lot of my meds in preparation for the surgery so I've been in a lot of pain. Some of my meds can thin my blood and cause me to bleed to death and other meds I had to stop increase my risk of infection so all good things to stop but not pleasant. I've been very doped up on Vicodin and Norco...Norco is a higher dosage of Vicodin so I've been on a emotional roller coaster! I feel bad for what Quade has had to put up with and my family. I will be in the hospital probably til Friday and hopefully can give updates from there!

My sister, Courtney, has been happily enjoying being home again and I have been so happy to have her home again!! Last night we watched "The Back Up Plan" together and last week we spent almost 2 full days watching 2 seasons of Mad Men! I'm looking forward to having a recovery partner next to me once I'm home again this weekend. She is continuing to recover so well and every time we have gone to the hospital for a check up they have been very positive reports! Thank you for all of you who have prayed, inquired, or given any support at all!!

Have a GREAT week!!!