Welcome to Anne's blog!

If you are new to the blog, you probably want to start at the beginning of the whole sad story. To get there, use the "Blog Archive" tool in the right column of the blog and click on "2009," and then "January 25." From there you can continue to click on each week to see the weekly entries.

I would love to hear from you! If you would like to leave a message, you can reach me at aheetderks@wcsmiami.org!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

OH MY GOODNESS!  I have never gone this long without writing!  I wish I could tell you that during the last two weeks my wound closed, my bone healed, and I am now running a 6-minute mile BUT actually, nothing has changed.  

Nevertheless, we have been busy enjoying our summer.  

Before we left for our cruise, my Mom and Dad threw a lovely dinner party to
 celebrate my 40th birthday.  It should go without saying that I never expected to be disabled on my 40th.  Last year Doug and I talked about having a big party at our house.  I pictured myself being thin, fabulous, and dancing.  Needless to say . . . that didn't happen.  

However, what we celebrated instead was being 40 and ALIVE!  I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me to reach 40 this year through prayers, words of encouragement, and tons of support!  Love to you all!

Right after school let out, we packed our bags and went on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.  We would have been fine if the ship never even left the port--we were just so happy to forget about doctors and just relax, eat, sleep, go to shows, and
 watch our girls run from the waterslides, to the miniature golf, and then off to the next crazy event. 

Elise and Annika LOVED the 24-hour ice cream parlor and pizzeria.  

Doug and I would be sitting by the pool and would suddenly realize that the girls were gone.  Just when we were about to be concerned, we would see them smiling from ear to ear, coming back with gigantic bowls of ice cream.  They also loved being able to eat as much bacon as they wanted for breakfast.






Some dear friends arranged for us to have birthday cakes served to us at our dinner table on our birthdays (mine was on Wednesday, and Doug's was on Thursday).  Although Doug usually cringes at surprises, he handled having the entire food service crew sing "Happy Birthday" to him with the grace of a 51 year old.  :)








There was a kid on our cruise who also had a scooter to help him in recovering from a football injury to his foot.  His
 mother told me that when he saw me on my scooter, he swore he would only use his crutches (you know you look bad on your scooter when a high school boy would rather die than look like YOU!).  However, on the day we disembarked the ship to visit Nassau, he used the scooter.  I was so jealous!  His is so sporty looking!  I decided that if I end up needing my scooter on a permanent basis, I want to write to American Chopper or something to get my scooter "souped up" a little.  Maybe some flames painted on the side or something.

Since I had just had surgery a week before the cruise, Dr. Carbonell put me on antibiotics--just to make sure that my wound wouldn't get infected while we were away.  Well, the morning we were leaving, my upper lip swelled up and my throat felt really thick and funny.  This had happened before when I was on the antibiotics so I knew it would probably go away. 
However, the next morning, I awoke to a huge bottom lip and welts all over my body!  I pretty much spent the entire cruise looking like my husband was beating me up every night.  I just figured that no one on the cruise knew what I looked like anyway so they would just think I was a woman from Miami with extreme collagen lip treatments!  Now that we are back in Miami, I am off the antibiotics and have slowly returned back to my "normal" self.

So, as I said before--nothing has really changed over the last two weeks.  I continue to be non-weight bearing to avoid causing the wound to open further.  When I do place a little weight on my foot, I can't help but notice that it is significantly more painful than before. I look forward to when I can start the physical therapy again.  

To add insult to injury, my scooter wheel hit a rock the other day and I went flying over the handle bars and landed hard.  I was fine (THANK goodness), but it was one of those moments where I just had to cry and admit that this is getting really old and discouraging.  I am usually feeling positive and can honestly say that I believe things will get better, but falling like that made me realize how easily I could hurt myself again.

Next week, it will be five months since I fell.  I am helping with Bible School at our church this week and am taking to heart one of the songs . . .

Faith to see beyond what I can see,
Faith to know that you will do great things.
I will trust you, Lord, I’ll always believe,
As I hold on to my faith, Jesus you are holding on to me.

Love to you all!  

Anne