This is a momentous day. My very first "This ain't no donkey ride" post! I figured between Haiti, and the Skyfest boogie last weekend, I had something to write about. I've already told each of you a little about the Haiti trip, but pictures are worth a thousand words, (or at least a hundred). In a nutshell, the trip was pretty amazing. There were no hitches getting there. All the flights were on time. We had to 'hide' our instruments and supplies in everyone's luggage, because the customs people in Haiti are fairly corrupt, and if they sense anything valuable coming through, they take it, or extort money from you. Nothing like that happened, and everyone's bags made it. We had a 3 hr ride to Grand Guave in a minivan, (luggage packed on top, thirteen people in the van!). Port Au Prince is pretty much a hell hole. Very crowded, extreme poverty (lots of 'tent cities'), and very dirty. Grand Guave was a bit better, but every bit as poor. No infrastructure to speak of. No running water, no electricity, no plumbing. The house we stayed in was basically a cinder block structure with cement floors. (the nicest place around- we had tent cities on either side of us). We had bunk beds with air mattresses, and fans. Thank goodness for the fans. It was HOT. Mid to upper 90's, with no cool down at night. The house (which Jim Early called the 'Osama Bin Laden' compound), had water coming in from a well, which we purified. We worked in different sites every day, with two days up in the mountains, (about 2200 ft). The ride up was definitely no donkey ride. It was a small flat bed truck, in which we packed all our supplies, and 23 people! The ride was 1 to 1.5 hrs, standing. The dental set up was basically two beach chairs, and plastic chairs for us. With no electricity, or water, or suction, we used 'miner' headlamps, and gauze. A lot of the extractions were surgical, requiring flaps, cutting away the bone with hand instruments, and gut sutures. The work was very challenging at times. Sterilization was done with Birex, Chlorox, and rinses. We worked everyday, except the last, which we worked till lunch, and then were rewarded with a couple of hours at a local beach, (clean, beautiful). We ate barbecued lobster tail there. It was so interesting being in, and interacting with another culture. The people were incredible. It's amazing to me, given the depth of poverty, and the challenges they face, how they manage to eek out a tenable existence. Their daily lives seem to center on getting clean water, (a few wells throughout the city), and sustenance. The women and children get the water, in 5 gal paint buckets, (40+ pounds), which they carry on their heads! Because of this, they walk with amazing grace. They take their faith seriously, (50% Catholic, 25% Protestant, with Voo Doo mixed in), and seem to have an unshakable hope for their future. The children are the same everywhere,, funny, playful. As you all my know, because you've done similar trips with Eddie, it also impressed me how much our team bonded. To do such hard work in such difficult conditions made us depend immensely on each other. It also struck me that during the hardest times, I noticed I was incredibly content, happy, and felt very alive. The only illnesses/injuries, were Gloria Cobb, who got sick, (vomiting), and me, when I stabbed my thumb when a tooth broke. The Dr's gave Gloria some Phenergan, which helped, and me a round of antibiotics, just to be safe. The entire group unanimously said they would go again in a heartbeat. We laughed, we cried, and came back blessed. Sorry if I rambled on. Thanks for listening.

The next week, I got go play. Went skydiving at the Skyfest Boogie in Chester. I've enclosed two links. One is a 4-way my friend mike taped with a camera on his helmet. It has me coming out of the plane after him, flying down and docking on his left. The other is my helicopter jump, when I borrowed his helmet/camera. (including the low level 'this ain't no donkey ride' up). Love you all....Can't wait till HH..Daddy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6gFIS110g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ucfdzPwIU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvrr75Fh9zg

Chocolate WOW

This recipe on Serious Eats sounded reminiscent (in elements) to the awesome ones you made over Easter!

Photograph and original illustration by Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy).

I would make this, but I'd probably have to eat the entire pan. Could you pass along that icing recipe? Those were so good, and seem like a relatively easy dessert to make for a potluck or company.

For the sake of balance, here's a chocolate "dessert" I've been making a lot lately — essentially hot cocoa, but without so many calories! Sort of scratches the itch for a sweet something to end the day without getting a sugar/carb buzz right before bed:

- Roughly 1 TBSP cocoa powder

- Optional: almond milk, skim milk, light coconut milk, etc. (something to add a bit of creaminess)

- Sweetener: you could use regular sugar for this and just use it in moderation, OR I find xylitol works well, doesn't have a funky aftertaste, and is good for your teeth!. (Some people use stevia or flavor drops.) The idea is that you're not using nearly as much sweetener as pre-made cocoa mixes would include.

- Boiling water

Just put the first three ingredients in a mug, then pour in the boiling water and stir. Voila!

Another idea if it's nearing bedtime and you've got the munchies: just make a cup of hot tea. It'll keep your hands and your mouth busy, and (be sure it's caffeine-free) should help you feel ready to go to sleep.

Hope you all are having a good Wednesday! Let me know if you need any other recipes that mostly just involve boiling water!!
— Em

Customer Service warning and request

All right Busey ladies. Do not, do NOT order makeup products from Karin Herzog. Dottie Mama ordered some in March and still has not received her products. Even though the website still accepts orders, with some investigating we have discovered that NO ONE is receiving their products.

I write this A) to warn you; B) to be seen by the random google search; and C) to ask you to spread the word! They are swindlers! BEWAAAAAARE!

The Bends

24 days down! You’ve all been very nice to check in every so often and ask for updates, so you will probably find several parts of this post redundant. Hopefully there will be a little new info for everyone, though.

The biggest change since 2 weeks ago (can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since the last post…it feels much more recent) has been starting physical therapy, which I’m actually really enjoying. My orthopedist recommended 2 places—a small therapy studio in Carrboro or a new UNC therapy center in Chapel Hill…I looked at the websites for both, and was ready to call the UNC site (they had lots of pictures of fancy new therapy equipment) until I saw the google reviews for Carrboro’s Balance Physical Therapy. Everyone raved and raved about Balance’s staff and therapy programs—reviews so laudatory that I started to suspect they were written by the therapists themselves to try and get more business. I put that cynicism aside and made an appointment (they are also a closer drive and have more PHDs on staff), which I think was a good choice. It’s a very small facility, but everyone is really friendly and knows their stuff. It also manages to incorporate just the right amount of Carrboro-hippy vibe—free hot tea is served in the waiting area, and one therapist brings in her two golden retrievers who go around and make sure everyone is doing ok.

I work mainly with Chad, a therapist who grew up in/near Boston (we complain together about how much it costs to fly there these days) and got into physical therapy after suffering a few sports injuries of his own. The main goals at this stage are to get my range-of-motion (knee bending) and quad strength back. Most of my trips at this point, then, go roughly as follows…

• 15 minutes of massaging the knee and leg, getting my patella comfortable and kneading my IT Bands (these run along the side of the thigh and help with stabilization—they often tighten up after ACL surgery, doing extra stabilization work since the ACL isn’t contributing yet). This part’s pretty great.
• 15 minutes of knee bending. I lay flat on a soft table, my leg up on the therapist’s shoulder. He’ll push the knee back and lower his shoulder, bending my leg a little farther each time. As we get to my flexibility limit, this starts to really hurt (I try to remember to take a pain pill before each appointment), so I’m not particularly fond of this part. This is when I want golden retriever time.
• 15 minutes of quad firing. I sit up some, legs still flat in front of me, and just flex my left quad as hard as I can, taking breaks as it gets tired. We’ll also do single-leg-raises, lifting my leg up while keeping it as straight as I can. If I can keep it completely straight (i.e., the knee doesn’t start coming up before the foot…aka no ”extension lag”), this is done without the brace on.
• 15 minutes of exercise bike—not as advanced as it sounds. I don’t actually peddle away, but rather start with my left leg extended, then peddle as far as I can forward, then back down, then as far as I can backward. Repeat for a while. It’s another way to push my bending limits, letting my right leg boss my left leg around to try and get its flexibility back.
• Wrap up with new walking instructions and brief practice. For example, my first trip I was told to start letting my left foot hit the ground as I walked, putting as much weight on it as I could safely bear. Next time we unlocked the brace for bending-while-walking, mimicking a normal gait but keeping the crutches for most of the weight-bearing. Now I’m up to unlocked brace and one crutch, though I have to move very slowly and deliberately.

In between appointments I’ll do as much as I can on my own (“biking” at the apartment fitness center or RTI gym, leg lifts on the couch/floor, knee bends, etc). So far I feel I’ve kept with it fairly well—between my Monday and Wednesday appointments this week I gained 20 degrees of bending range, which impressed/surprised the therapist. And just a few hours ago I actually managed to peddle all the way around on the exercise bike!—which means in the coming days I’ll probably be able to use one like a normal person, building a little muscle back and getting some much-missed cardio activity.

So things are going pretty well. There are still a few lingering negatives. I’m still struggling to get comfortable in bed, resulting in many less-than-satisfactory nights of sleep, but it’s better than it used to be. I’m also a bit saddened by the amount of atrophy I’ve already suffered. This week’s lovely legs picture shows the contrast in calves:

You’ll notice the knee is still pretty swollen—apparently it will stay that way until I’m walking without crutches and without a limp (a few weeks away?). All in all, though, I’m making a lot of progress and am pretty close to ditching the crutches and brace. It won’t be long before I can walk on a treadmill and use an elliptical machine, and if I keep up this pace I should be able to bike in Hilton Head without any problems. Just in case I can’t, I’ve gone ahead and ordered one of these for Meredith to tow me around:

Getting ACL-limated

Day 12 of my ACL-rehab donkey ride. It’s been comforting that every day is consistently a little better than the day before—at any given point I can remind myself “It’s only going to get easier”.

The big milestones (ditching the crutches around 4 weeks, ditching the brace around 6 weeks, and running around 3 months) are still fairly far off, but I hit several minor, intermediate goals this week, including:

• Sunday night – tinkered with my golf-club-bungee-cord contraption and figured out how to sit down and stand up on my own. This was crucial—I might not have let Khristy or Daddy leave, otherwise.
• Tuesday – showered! I’m allowed to take off my brace and shower now (the only time it’s ok to take it off), which is very nice. Though it takes a long long time to get in there safely and I have to be careful around the stitches (lovely stitches picture below), it feels very refreshing.
• One of the days (they all blend together when you spend each of them in the exact same spot and posture) – figured out how to get in the car! Another liberating step. I’ve driven to the mail boxes a couple times, which will hopefully be good practice for Monday, when I have to drive myself to the doctor. I might see if I can go to Trader Joe’s tomorrow to practice a farther trip (…and get some bananas).
• Saturday – while laying down, I lifted my leg an inch off the pillows, using only my quad muscles! This is one of the big therapy exercises for the first month. I’m not exactly clear on the biological reasons for why this is so difficult/impossible right now, as they didn’t actually do anything to my quad, but it certainly takes a lot of straining to try and lift it.

Pretty good, right? Here’s the stitches picture I referenced earlier—be sure and look at it when you’re getting ready to eat a big meal!

There are still some issues, though. I think they would be best presented in another group of bullets…

• Though I’m allowed to take off the brace and bandaging to shower, that also means I’m in charge of putting it (and the ice-pump-wrap) back on. I do not like this responsibility, because (a) it’s quite difficult to reach the straps and bandaging close to my ankle, and (b) I’m never sure if I put them on 100% correctly, which leaves me perpetually wondering if my amateur bandaging is at all responsible for any subsequent pain/swelling. Speaking of swelling…
• Swelling. I’m sure everything was pretty swollen last week, but I couldn’t see it under the layers and layers of wrapping. Now that some of the bandaging has been removed I’m constantly noticing how swollen my ankle is (very swollen). I almost e-mailed my doctor (would have been the 3^rd time since my last appointment), but some internet research tells me the ankle swelling is pretty standard. The swelling has also subsided ever so slightly the past couple days, helping to quell my paranoia for the time being.
• Some sleeping struggles the past couple days. I’ve had a hard time getting comfortable in bed, resulting in a few straight nights of 20-minutes-asleep, 40-minutes-awake cycles. I don’t really mind the pain/discomfort when I’m out on the couch distracting myself with games and movies, but it becomes frustrating at night when it hurts just enough to wake you up, but not so much that I can wake up and play QRank (which, you might have noticed, I have been housing this week). Being stuck in one position becomes aggravating, too—I’d eat three onions if it meant I could turn on my side and bend my knees in bed. Speaking of bending…
• No bending. I had thought that the point of my brace was to make sure I didn’t bend my leg, as this might interfere with the way the ACL and hamstring healed. It turns out that, even without the brace, my leg still knows the rules. I got doc approval to carefully experiment with bending…one remarkably short experiment session later, I realized leg-bending is pretty much impossible at this point. Like the quad lifting discussed in the Progress section, I’m not sure what recovery-biology makes this so difficult, but it’s another thing to look forward to improving upon in physical therapy.

Still reading? Good attention span! Skimmed everything and just happened upon this sentence? You are my least favorite family member (not really—you must be busy. And I haven’t updated my rankings in a while).

That’s how things stand with week 3 about to start, sure to bring its own milestones—stitches come out, physical therapy starts, I visit my office, and more!

I’d like to thank everyone once again for all your help last weekend, though. It was really, really touching how kind and eager-to-help everyone was. You all tie for first place in the leg-lift-and-hold standings. Thank you all so much.

Easter Reflections - It's not what you think!

It is always such a joy to spend time together as a family and for us at least, it is never enough time. You all are such amazing and delightful adults and we look at you and marvel that you came from us, but we are incredibly grateful! Thanks for making the effort to come home for such quick visits. I know that you pay for your time away for the rest of the week so your visits are even more of a sacrifice.

Yab, I hope that you did not do terrible and permanent damage by coming here this weekend. You know that we would all drop everything and come to help if you need us.

Em, I am so sorry that you have to drive so far to retrieve Piggie and to make amends to her for being gone. Tell her that she was missed all weekend - it is not a holiday without Pigaletta!

Goose, it feels like you have been out of town or entertaining guests every weekend since Christmas. I don't know how you keep up with all the normal, everyday demands when you don't have time to refresh on weekends. I forgot to ask when you fly to Washington.

Hooey is the luckiest. She gets to spend all of her free time with her Mama and Daddy. It does not make sense that she keeps announcing that she is running away to New York.

Mattie has slept the rest of the day - you all wore her out!!

PS: The other lucky part for us is that we have some amazing leftovers - thanks for all the food prep!

Hoppy Easter! We love you!

Granola Bar Challenge: Accepted!

I would also like to accept the chicken tortilla soup challenge, but I am currently unable to find my slow cooker. I suspect it may have succumbed to the same fate as my other appliances that mysteriously wound up not at all where I left them. The investigation is still underway.

In the meantime, I did take a not very creative pass on the Flour Bakery Granola Bars. Joanne Chang includes this recipe in her newish cookbook. While not quick, it's very easy and well worth the effort. The only thing I did differently was dial back the sugar in the jam, as I like my fruit bars (and come on...that's what these really are) on the tart side. My bottom layer browned very quickly (they were a little overdone after 25 minutes in the oven), but this actually gave the bars a caramelized/brown butter flavor that I really liked. I may have eaten 6 bars in a 24 hour period. I don't recommend it. Luckily, coworkers took the rest off my hands.

Finally, I now have a lot of millet. I'm looking forward to making these (maybe with raspberries?), but all other millet suggestions are welcomed!

Recipe (Note: You're supposed to process the toasted walnuts with the oat, flour, etc. mixture.)