Yesterday was extremely hard, and not because of ric. my best friends for here, alette, left yesterday. long story short, the doctors at ric were completely unfair and setting her up for failure. they took her off her pain medicine, and put her throught this rough program, and said if she took one pill, she was out. they also told her she had no reason to take it. I totally support what she did, and I think she did the right thing.....but I lost my best friend here. Alette and I became friends on the first day here-she was the only other person here with RSD/CRPS, and the only person who truly understood the pain. She was kind of like a big sister to me. We walked to ric together every day,walked home, ate lunch, went shopping, ect....now i dont have someone to do that with...I do have jessica, but she goes home after ric everyday, so its not like i can walk across the hall and do homework with her. She's totally awesome, and I still have someone close to my age....but we dont have the same friendship alette and i did. Thankfully, jess is extremely funny and outgoing, so shes constantly making me laugh :) but i miss alette like crazy :'(
Dad and I went up the Hancock tower today! the view was amazing! I took like 50 pics i think! dad got me a cool little slide out booklet thingy that shows you all the different views from the observatory really well. We went up just before sunset, so we got to see it during the daytime, at twilight, and at night. he got us some dessert up there, too: he got a cookie, and i got a scoop of chocolate chip gelato. I also got three little charms for a neclace at there giftshop, theyre called "dream rings". im not sure why theyre called that, but theyre basically a simple ring of metal with a word printed on it three times on both sides. i got 3: "luke," Katie," (they actually had one with my name spelled right!) and "best friends." I put the luke and katie ones on my neckalce that has the silver hart that also says luke on it, and the affect is kinda cool, it kind of frames the heart charm.
Today, my OT Kathy upped the DS AGAIN! now it massaging the bad foot for 15 minutes 4 times a day! uggg.....but atlest I know its working! i have good days, where it doesnt hurt too much, and my bad days, where, for some weird reason, it hurts reallyyyy bad to touch the foot. but i've been wearing a sneaker or tennis show ever since i got here! i wear my slippers/clogs thingies around the hotel, like to breakfast in dinner downstairs, but other than that its shoes!
My jeans are super loose on me! (mom-jeans shhopping when I get back plz!! these are too big in the legs lol) and my brand new bathing suit keeps falling off my shoulder! i just got it like 2 or 3 days before i left! im not noticing any changes in my tops, but oh well that will come later.
ONE MORE WEEK!!!!! you have NO IDEA how badly i want to come home! not because i want out of ric-because im homesick and i miss everyone so much. (you guys better give me one heck of a surprise party when i get back! lol jk :P)
I'm hoping to take dad out for his birthday tomorrow, but im not going to say where in case for some weird chance he happens to read this before tomorrow.
I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!
Hi Katie!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're making some good hard-earned progress. I am SO PROUD of you!
Enjoy your last weekend in Chicago. Don't forget to find that snowglobe for Anna. ;)
Thanks for the pix, honey. Looks like so much fun up there! Loved the "window washer" photo ;)
ReplyDeleteHmmm...a party and shopping...would ya believe shopping and a dinner out??
xoxoxo,
Mom
Hey Katie,
ReplyDeleteThought I'd mention that Mindy said it's better to write down all the things you've learned than to rely on your brain to remember them. She is certainly smart! Since it's written down, you can refer back to them. Perhaps you and your friends and make up a list together and share it with each other. Of course you're going to add to it as your learn more coping skills.
Tell your dad "Happy Birthday", number ?? . All I can remember is that I was in college when he was born and I sent a telegram to Mary and Jake with congratulations. Hmm, I wonder if they still have it. Mary probably threw it out long ago.
Since your dad has enjoyed the gym there, tell him that the snow still awaits so he won't miss his daily exercise. Teehee.
Really cool pics from the tower. I have a wish to visit Michigan Avenue in the summer to see all the flowers. It's supposed to be beautiful.
Good luck on your last week, but look at it as your first week. That means keep an open mind, learn as much as you can, and keep doing what's you've been doing. Pat yourself on the back. I'm proud of you!
Love, Aunt Joan
Dear Katie,
ReplyDeleteAunt Joan forwarded me the link to your blog. Pretty cool. I am always impressed with the facility you young folks have with technology.
Please say Happy Birthday to your Dad, who I believe was born in 1962. I made his Christening gown, and by the time your grandparents arranged the big event, he had almost grown out of it!
You truly deserve a lot of credit for this major undertaking! Your blog reflects your determination, your delight at your triumphs, and your understandable frustration at the pain that you still have to endure, but clearly there has been a ton of progress. Congratulations!
I read the comments from your Mom ( a very wise woman), and Aunt Joan channelling Mindy. They all have valuable advise. Try and keep an open mind, try and see things from the other person's perspective, Learn what you can about yourself, and change the things that need changing.
The old Serenity Prayer also has a lot of wisdom, you know the one that goes God grant me the strength to change what I can change, the serenity to accept what I cannot change (like the weather, or someone else's mind), and the wisdom to know the difference. Clearly you are in Chicago to change the way you can manage your pain, and it sounds like you have had a lot of success at that.
There is one other piece that is very important when people undergo change, and that is keeping their sense of humor, which I can tell from your blog, you've done well at, you also do well at putting in facial expressions using the keyboard...the :D took me a while to get, and then it made me smile as I imagined the tone of your voice as you related your story.
I was only in Chicago once, when I was under 10, but I remember riding on the elevated line, and I thought it was so cool...Guess that foreshadowed the elevated portion of the NYC subway that I still love.
If I ever do get to Chicago, I want to see the George Seurat painting, "Sunday on Grand Jette Island,: which I am sure that you can Google. In fact, you can probably "tour" the entire Chicago Institute of Art via the internet. Anyway, this is a huge painting in the pointellist style, which is little dots of color arranged next to each other so that your eye blends the yellow dot with the blue dot next to it and "sees" green.
I am sure that you are relaxing and getting ready for your new week, maybe you're watching the Olympics, which have been pretty amazing. Please keep your sense of humor, oh, and btw it's always a good plan to tell people (that is, the staff) the truth in as honest a way as possible. So, tell them when you are in pain, tell them when you are frustrated, tell them when you are losing it. If you say it when it happens, there's less of a chance that it will come out sarcastically, or back biting, or whatever they were accusing you of. And, if you can't hold back the sarcasm, apologize for it upfront, ex "I don't know how to say this without being sarcastic, so I apologize up front for what I am about to say, and please don't take it personally, I just am too frustrated to think up a better way to say it right now, and if I don't say it right now, I'll explode.
Big hug to you, NOT on your sensitive foot, tho, unless I have lots of lotion on hand (or is it foot) as well!
Loveya,
Aunt Chris
mom~would you believe...shopping, dinner out, AND a party? yep i didnt think so! lol jus kidding.
ReplyDeleteAunt joan~please thank mindy for the advise, and thank you as well! I am learning alot in pain management, and i already am making progress just by using the things they have taught me! (see next entry)
Aunt chris~its so great to hear from you! I hope you're doing well! yeas, I have deffinitely kept my sense of humor; in psche group last week, (thats where we learn about how pain affects the brain and pschology and stuff) the entire group was solemn and serious, and very tired. Then Jess and I started laughing at one of the people in the group, and it spread throughout the entire group! we were howling with laughter! it felt great for all of us to all be able to let go at once, and our instructor justin just stood there looking at us like "uhhh did i miss something??" he pointed out that laughter is one of the best medicines. (i already knew that though lol)
The prayer you mentioned-they talked about that the first week! I had never heard of it before (at least not that I can remember) and I thought it was really cool :)
I have not had a chance to see that painting you mentioned, but I did get to go to the museum of contemporary art; however, I did not get past the 2story gift shop ;) I got some awesome stuff there though!
In terms of sarcasm, you're dead on in how i should handle that type of situation-thanks! One of my therapists, my OT is very sarcastic, so we can kid eachother like that pretty easily :)
About to post a looooong new post evryone-check it out! :)