Last post for a while...or is it?

Well, this awesome blogger upload process is backwards for some reason, and I don't really have the patience right now to relocate the images in the proper order so, I'll leave it up to you to figure out what order they go in. Hint: I went in to have my stitches removed. Got it? Sweet. Now that we're on the same page I figure I should tell the latest story having to do with my bum ankle. Michelle took me in to the doctor to have my stitches and splint removed. The nurse removed the ace bandages and the splint and then cut off all the gauze wrapped around my foot. What was revealed is in the photos. That didn't bother me too much. Stitches aren't so bad. Of course this is like the fifth time I've had stitches and the last time I did, I took them out on my own. Not happening this time. When the nurse started snipping and plucking I started to get a little flushed and light headed. The same thing happens when I have eye exams and they dilate my pupils. Anyway, the nurse got all of them out and put those bandages over the cut to
keep things together till the skin can secure itself a little more. They took some x-rays to make sure that everything was still lined up. It still is thank goodness. After the x-rays Dr. Webb came in to talk to us about some therapy and how to treat my ankle. She said that because the bottom of my tibia was impacted it will be three months before I can start to walk on it. She did say that she wanted me to start doing some stretching and mobility therapy. They gave me a removable boot that is adjustable pretty much every direction. It even has a little pump on the tongue kind of like the Reebok pumps from back in the early nineties. It's actually pretty nice. I can take some of the pressure off or pump it up to make it more supportive. Sorry about that tangent, I just think the pump is cool. Anyway, because the boot is removable I am able to take it off to stretch the muscles out mostly on the back of my leg and also start moving my ankle around. In a few days I should be able to sleep without the boot. If you'll notice in one of the pictures, the bottom of the inside of my foot is pretty curved and the skin is all wrinkly. That's because the splint held my foot in that position. The muscles are pretty tight now.
As it turns out, the nurse that took out my stitches went to school with one of my sister-in-laws sisters. That's you Alison. I don't remember her first name but she went to school with Carolyn and her maiden name is Irish. She was really nice.





Now that hopefully most of the tough pain has subsided, I've weaned myself off the heavy meds. I was taking a drug called Norco. Unfortunately one of the side affects is constipation. Not the funnest thing I've had to deal with. For now I'm taking Tylenol and it seems to be doing the trick. Hopefully it keeps doing the trick. Michelle is doing a lot better now that I'm more myself. I just hope that I can stay myself. It's quite the drag going from being totally active and able to struggling to get up and go to the bathroom. Yesterday I got myself some cold cereal and by the time I finally sat down and was able to eat I was winded. I'm planning on going back to work soon to do office stuff. Hopefully that works out, because the inside of my house is pretty darn boring, and t.v. during the day sucks worse than watching nothing. Wow that was kinda depressing. Sorry. Hope all of you are doing well. We're getting there. Until I have something else to write...

An update in the interim

Not that I think tons of people read this blog, but it seems some sort of mini update is in order. Besides that, I have nothing else to do. Since the last installment,much to Michelle's delightment, I have weaned myself off of the oxycodone. I don't know if it will make what I write any more or less dis-jointed, but whether that was the case in the first place is debatable. I made the mistake of trying to stop cold turkey and ended up having some nasty withdrawals. Talk about a long night. I've fortunately been able to manage the mostly weakened pain that accompanies my injury. I had to re-wrap the splint five or six times before it finally didn't cause more pain. I even slept in my own bed last night.
Michelle picked up a new wheelchair and knee walker off craigslist earlier last week. I've been using the knee walker quite a bit lately and it's way better than the crutches. I just kneel my right leg on it and push with my other foot. It's kind of like a tall skateboard. I haven't had a chance to use the wheelchair yet, but I'd imagine sometime next week it will get a little use at least. Tonight A friend of mine is picking me up to go watch the BSU vs Oregon football game at his house. It should be nice getting out of the house for a night. I haven't been outside in over a week. I hear it's been pretty hot outside, so I'm not too awful torn up about not being out in it.
See, that whole last bit seemed pretty disjointed. Sorry, I'm not much of a storyteller.
I want to take this chance to thank all of you that have kept Michelle and me in your prayers and thoughts. Also a special thank you to those that have been able to come visit us. It's made this time much more bearable. Until the stitches come out in a week, I think I'll hold off making anymore posts. I don't want you all to think that I have to break an ankle before I update this thing. Till then, adios!

After all is said and done...?

Well, hello to all you blog followers out there. I want to preemptively say that while typing this blog today I am under the influence of some pretty powerful pain medication so, if nothing makes sense, there you go. I feel obligated to fill you all in on the latest on my ankle. I had surgery wednesday afternoon. It was scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m. We showed up around 12:45 so they could get me all checked in and the pre-op stuff taken care of as well. They took care of all of that despite it taking three different shots to get into a vein. I guess I might have been dehydrated because they told me not to eat or drink anything after 6:00 a.m. hmmm. No big deal. At 3:00 they took me from the surgery waiting area to another room to finish by hooking me up to a heart monitor and putting a nerve block from my knee down. The nurse then put in the first doses of anesthesia. The next thing I remember is halfway waking up in a room with Michelle and a slightly loony nurse. It was around 8:30 p.m. The surgery was supposed to take around an hour... No, you're not the only one that sees the difference. The next part of the story is what Michelle told me, and come to find out, what the doctor had told me before I went into the Operating Room. After receiving the results from my CT scan, it was determined that things were much worse than they had anticipated. Fortunately they were able to know this because of the CT scan. Thank goodness!
It turns out that I had not only broken the two bones, but that I had done a lot of damage to the cartilage in my joints. This complicates things immensely because cartilage doesn't heal like bone does. The surgery ended up taking a couple hours rather than one, and it also got started later than was scheduled. I think they had to run to Home Depot to grab some more screws. j/k I ended up with nine screws and a plate. They also had to take a small piece of bone from further up my shin to use for some patch work on my ankle.

Since the surgery had to be done differently, this also affected the amount and type of recovery I would need. I go in to have the stitches removed and a permanent cast put on two weeks from the day of the surgery. Three months after that is when I will be able to put any load bearing weight on my ankle and have a walking cast. Three more months will pass before I will lose the walking cast. So, for those of you who missed the discrepancy with the surgery time, that is six and a half months. The Dr also told us that because of the damage to the cartilage, I will have arthritis.

Hopefully I didn't forget anything important. If I did, it might be that Michelle hasn't told me yet, or it's because of the oxycodone and hydrocodone they have me taking. WooHoo!!

I'm pretty sure I'll look back on this post and say to myself "what the heck was wrong with me." If you feel that way about what I write, just know you're not alone in thinking it.

Michelle has handled things pretty well. She seems to be acting a little strange lately, but I don't know if it's me or not. If anyone has some insight let me know. She's basically waited on me hand and foot since last saturday. I can't even bring a glass of water to the living room. I have to drink it from the counter I poured it at. I am so grateful for her and what she is doing for me.

Epic update.

Well, for those few of you out there that are curious if we've found anything else out about my accident, we do have some more news. We went to the Boise Orthopedic Clinic this morning to see about scheduling surgery on my ankle. We met with Dr. Lawler and he told me that I had three broken bones. He turned us over to Dr. Webb as she is the trauma surgeon. She said I broke my fibula (thinner of the two lower leg bones) clean through. I broke my tibia where it comes down and kind of covers the ankle bones. There was also a small piece of bone that broke off from the bone that comes in contact with the tibia. I had to have a CT scan in order to determine what they will do with the small piece of bone that broke off. So far they say that I'll need two screws in my tibia, a plate on my fibula and possibly a screw on the small piece of bone. It will take two incisions. My appointment is for wednesday (tomorrow) afternoon. I'm nervous of course but I think Michelle is more nervous than I am. When were talking to Dr. Webb she was close to crying. She didn't tell me she was but I can tell sometimes when she gets upset. I'm not sure I'll have much to write tomorrow since I'll probably be out for the rest of the day after they cut me up. Until thursday I guess.... wish me luck.

Epic...?

Ah yes, another post about waterskiing. Just what you all want to see. Oh if you only knew. As per the picture below, I was skiing how I normally do, funky form, but pushing a little. Scroll down to the video and you'll get to see some sweet action...well, just watch it.

You'll hopefully notice at the end when I wreck, my back foot ripped part of my binding out of the base. I ended up falling forward, more forward than if the binding hadn't have ripped. To make a long story of pain and suffering short and to spare those who might get queezy, I broke my tibia and fibula just above my ankle. At the hospital they had to put me under to set the bone. On monday, I get to go see an Orthopedic surgeon to see what kind of fastener they will install to keep my bones aligned. The picture below was at the hospital. It's pretty nasty. Hope you enjoy it.

For those of you who want to know all the gory details, feel free to comment on this post. I'll have plenty of time to chat for the next couple days and possibly longer. Oh, no more skiing this season. Dang it!

Nice Picture

I was out kiting the other day with Michelle and she got this really nice picture of my kite and me. Just wanted to throw it up on here.

Race Day

So, I promised I'd update the blog with some results of the race. I figured I'd throw in some more pics to make it more real...

The Ginnetta Zytek Hybrid

The Race winning Acura of Gil DeFerran and Simon Pagenaud

Dan Panoz founder of Panoz Auto Development and son of ALMS founder Don Panoz.

Ford engine used in Panoz Esperante.

Well, as you hopefully picked up on, the XM Acura won the race overall. The Lowe's Acura took first in the Prototype class 2. The Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long took first in GT2. It was a clean competetive race with no yellows. Not an edge of a seater, but still great to watch. Michelle, the champ she is, had a good time reading during the race.

Here's the start of the race. The Ferrari that drives up at the end had been spun out by one of the BMW's on the opening straightway. At the very end the two BMW's both ended up spinning out. That's what all the dust is from.

Thanks Larry H. Miller...rest his soul.

So, for the last four years the American LeMans Series (ALMS) has made a visit to Miller Motorsports Park(MMP) in Tooele Utah. For the last three years James Starr and I (Joey) have gone and watched. Fortunately, my awesome wife, Michelle has tagged along to the race since we got married. This year being the third year and the first since the existence of this blog I feel obligated to post some pictures and brag about meeting people most of you could care less about. I'm gonna do it anyway.

Luis Diaz and Adrian Fernandez Gil DeFerran and Simon Pagenaud

Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler

That's Frankie Muniz...really.

I suppose I should put some car pics in there too.

The new this year M3.

The Panoz (paynose) Esperante

The Aer engine from a Dyson Mazda.

The XM Acura, Risi Ferrari and Fernandez Acura.

As of this posting the race has yet to be run. From qualifying today it's looks to be an awesome race. More updates after that.

New Hobby for J^3

Three of the Woodland brothers - Joey, Josh and Jarom (J^3) - all started a new hobby this weekend: KITE BOARDING. Well, actually, it's snow-kiting in the winter and kite-boarding in the summer, so they were snow-kiting. Joey bought some equipment this week...I said he'd better love snow/water kiting for at least two years!! :)

Joey is on his way to losing at least one - possible both of his big toenails - but they are having a great time flying and skiing and boarding and using a green source of energy to have a good time!

Our happenings

As you can see...we SUCK at this blogging thing. I don't know why - we just do.

Anyway - here is a catch up on what's been going down with me and Joey:

November 2008 saw 2 missionaries coming home. My sister Tiffany returned in glory from the OKC, Oklahoma mission. She hung around for the rest of the year but has since gone up to BYU-Idaho. Joey's brother, Justin, came home from his mission in Germany...or Austria...or maybe both. (If you saw the movie "The Errand of Angels" - that was his mission and many of his companions. So, he served whereever those people were...)

This is Josh and Joey holding up a sign; me and our nephew Hayden (isn't he CUTE!) and then the RM himself with his little neice Anna.


December brought a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year. We are lucky that we get to be with both of our families because everyone lives so close! This is my newest little neice, Kylee Leila Hudson - she is ADORABLE!