Moving Along…

So things seem to finally be on the right track–as far as my getting surgery. I had to take a couple steps back, but it should all be forward moving from here on. I finally got approval from the Department of Labor and will be covered for my back surgery or any related medical work that needs to be done on my back. I ran into the obstacle with the Doctor’s office though, and decided to shop for a new surgeon.  I know that I may have been an unwise decision to wait until two weeks before my surgery to find a new surgeon, but when it came down to it, I just did not trust Dr. Saatman and her staff to take care of me. I waited a month when I first got home to see Dr. Saatman hoping that when I finally got to see her she would be able to help with the pain…. I saw her for a total of 7 minutes and left without a prescription for anything. Just told that I needed to deal with the pain. When I called and complained about the pain a week or so later I was treated very rudely by the lady who answers the phones and very begrudgingly given a prescription for an anti-inflammatory (Which did nothing to help me walk and manage the pain). So I went to physical therapy for 4 weeks and met with her again, this time for a whole 5 minutes… where she said ok, if you are not better, lets do this surgery. Schedule a date and I will see you then. THATS IT! I got home and was going through all of my paperwork that I had gotten back from Dr. Saatman’s office. In the stack of papers was an envelope I had handed her from my Doctor in Indonesia which said ‘To Be Opened By Attending Physician.” It wasn’t even opened. So I decided to open it and see what it was… It was my complete medical background with everything pertaining to injury and prior treatment. Dr. Saatman never even looked at it…. So how can she be sure what she is facing with my injuries and overall back condition. I tried to call her office to talk to them about the paperwork and I was once again treated very rudely by the front office person. Upon telling her that her tone was offensive, I was told, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I am being very polite, and if you can’t tell the difference between polite and rude, that is your problem and not mine.” SO… after I got approval for payment for medical treatment I got permission to seek a new surgeon and canceled my surgery with Donna Saatman.  My new appointment with the new Surgeon is on August 2nd. I am very hopeful that this was the right decision.

On a more positive note… I just had the most wonderful visit with my sister and nieces. It was the first time I

Bad Kitty!

have gotten to see them since I left for Indonesia. I can’t believe how much my nieces have grown. It was a bit of a bummer that I was not able to be up and active with them. It would have been nice to be able to go to the movies with them or to go swimming, but perhaps next time. We did get to have movie night in my room though! We watched Disney’s The Secret World of Arrietty. It is based on the Borrowers. It was fantastic. The kids loved it and I am not sad to say that I will be watching it again on my own. My sister helped me to clean and organize my room so I don’t quite feel like going insane when I look around. We also were able to get me up and moving enough to take a trip to the Disney Store…because Disney makes everyone happy. I got a wonderful stuffed animal/plush toy. It is the evil kitty, Lucifer, from Cinderella. He is so soft and cuddly. I love him. When I am withering in pain on my bed, I give him a good squeeze and sometimes he even smothers my screams. I also got a couple of Vinylmation Blind Boxes for the

Snow White

Disney Villans. I am happy with the ones I got! And I got a raccoon Vinylmation Keychain from the Snow White line. Which I hung on my

Evil Party

backpack. My purchase was rounded off by an awesome Snow White T-Shirt which was on sale of $12. They headed back to Tennessee on Thursday and I cried to see them go.

Now the house feels empty without all of the giggles and laughter, But I am slowly adjusting to all of the down time again. I have started to keep a new journal. I am writing and drawing. I also got an Instax Mini 50s camera so that I can add polaroid pictures to my journal. It will keep me busy. Plus a few knitting project… I should be able to pass the time quite nicely! 🙂  So a few more days and we should have another update on the surgery front!

Movie Time!

If I Had A Stun Gun

Sooooo…. recent frustrations with the Peace Corps…. have led me to my current blog post. So as many of you know, I am waiting for surgery on my back. I have been home and basically unable to get around and function like a normal human (being able to shower on your own) since May 5^th. So waiting and going through all of the proper channels…. 1)Physical Therapy for 4 weeks, 2) medical separation from the Peace Corps, 3) submitting an application with the Peace Corps Post Service Medical Unit and trusting them to submit my application to the Department and Labor and FECA with supporting documentation so that I can be granted coverage and authorization for surgery. I have done all of this. 4) I have made follow up phone calls where Peace Corps PSU has said “Yes, everything has been submitted and is currently waiting approval.” I got a letter from the Department of Labor saying that they have received my claim. So thinking that this was all now taken care of, I followed up with the Department of Labor to see if they could give approval for my surgery, and the very nice lady on the phone says, “Well, we received your application, and we assigned you a case number, but we have nowhere near enough information to approve anything much less surgery.” To that I was like… “Peace Corps said that they were going to forward over my application and supporting medical records. Did you not get those?” Silence greeted me and then the dreaded, “Ummmm, we honestly only received 5 pages faxed over.” Now, my brain starts working and I know that I faxed over exactly 5 pages to the Peace Corps. 4 were my application to DOL and 1 was a personal statement from me about my accident. Peace Corps was then supposed to attached the statement from the surgeon I have been seeing stating my need for surgery, and all the records from my treatment with Peace Corps. All of that should have been a hell of a lot more than 5 pages! So I asked, “What exactly do you have?” “Well, we have the DOL application and your statement, and a statement from the Peace Corps Post Service Unit Nurse.” After I saw red, I nicely thanked the lady and assured her that I would contact Peace Corps and get the needed paperwork over to them as soon as possible. The lady on the phone was very nice and assured me that once they had all of the paperwork they would process everything as quickly as possible.

So upon getting off of the phone I called Peace Corps where I had to leave a message… I was so angry that I ended up stuttering (scary right?) through the whole thing. So I followed that up with an e-mail (because I can apparently sound scarier via e-mail than on the phone) to the office to which I got the lovely reply..

Greetings Ms. Williams, 

Thank you for contacting the Post Service Team. We are always here to provide all the support you need for your post service benefits. Your request has been forwarded to the PSU nurse for review.

Sincerely, 

Post Service Unit for Peace Corps- Office of Medical Services

Are you kidding me?! Is this your response?! I hope the nurse has something wonderful to say when she e-mails me back. I am hoping that this is just a case where all of the paperwork was sent it just isn’t all where it needs to be at the moment??? (Anyone have Rose Colored Glasses I can borrow?)

So anyhow… that leads me to my frustrations and the want / urge for a stun gun. How great would it be if stunning stupid or annoying people were perfectly acceptable and not frowned upon??? I don’t want to permanently injure anyone. But at the moment there is something satisfying about the idea of carrying a stun gun around with me and letting everyone feel my frustration… Example 1… going to the store and buying female necessities… and having a young male cashier…. and you hear him mutter under his breath or stupidly say “Oh..Heavy Flow Maxi Pads and Chocolate….” STUN GUN! Flop like a fish and feel my FRUSTRATION! Or Example 2… when you go to the airport and the person in front of you takes an hour to remove their laptop and shoes but forgets his belt, causing the alarm to go off and the rest of us to be stuck waiting longer than necessary! STUN GUN! Flop like a fish and feel my FRUSTRATION! Or when my grandmother comes to check on me and says, “Oh no, Angela, Pop Tarts and Cookies…??? I am not gonna say anything, but you aren’t getting any smaller…” STUN GUN!!!!! (Just kidding.. I would never actually Stun Gun my grandmother…. but I might think about it… sometimes…)

I think you get my point.

Sooo… if anyone has any pull with deities of a higher power, please put in a good word for me and my stun gun. Please and Thank You.

Back to Business

Ok… So I feel like I have wallowed in self-pitty for long enough. I have been home now for two weeks, and I have cried probably every day for those two weeks… Sometimes tears of depression about being away from Indonesia and my friends. Other times tears of frustration and pain because it hurts to move even a little. There were even tears for the unknown because I have no idea where I will end up after my surgery. I landed myself in the emergency room this past weekend because the pain became so unbearable and I had no pain meds to help me out. Ibuprofen just isn’t doing a damn thing and I couldn’t get an appointment to meet with the surgeon until June 1st. So its just time to manage the pain until I can get to that appointment.

Emergency Room

So even though I should be resting, I need to keep myself busy! Keep my mind occupied so that I don’t play the “What-If” game.

For mothers day, I decided to make this awesome Samoa Bundt Cake recipe I found through my Pintrest addiction (if you are not on pintrest, check it out and start pinning away. I seem to pin recipes like nobody’s business). So Samoa Girl Scout cookies are my absolute favorite! So I knew when I saw this cake that is was a must try! It looks just like a GIANT Samoa cookie!!!! I am not the best at decorating cakes, but even if it wasn’t the prettiest cake, the taste was out of this world! I am talking… so good, it makes you wanna slap somebody. It was a hit with everyone, and there were willing volunteers to take the remaining cake with them when they left the gathering.

Samoa Cake

I have also started knitting again. Since I am laying down 99% of the time, it is good to keep my hands busy. My grandparents have been kind enough to set up a pretty awesome TV in my room, and my mother has supplied me with a BlueRay DVD player, so I can’t complain at all. I have spent days watching TV and knitting. I am currently working on “Man Knits”.. I don’t have a man in my life… but I do have friends. So I will be gifting. I discovered Stephen West the other day, and instantly fell in love with all of his work. If you are a knitter or know someone who knits check him out. So I ordered his book (it came in today… It kind of felt like Christmas), “West Knits- Book Three” and started this slouchy hat (Dustland Hat Pattern). Its a pretty awesome pattern, and is knitting up quite quickly. I am making it for my devastatingly handsome friend, Travis. I hope he likes it… or at least to take a few pictures of himself wearing it. So Finished project pictures are soon to come.

Dustland Hat

So I had a little bout with dehydration. I was only drinking one bottle of water a day, because I went from being in the heat 24/7 to being in the air conditioning and resting all the time.. So the need to drink didn’t really register. So a few problems came from that. Now I am drinking plenty of fluids. I had a few spill issues from drinking in a lying position (as you can well imagine) so my lovely mother took me to the Disney store so that I could pick up a much needed lidded cup. It is a known fact (well if its not, it should be) that Disney makes everyone feel better. Even if you are 28 years old. Anyhow… they are coming out with a new Disney movie, and a new Disney princess! She is from Scotland! How awesome is that. Her red hair and freckles instantly won me over. The movie is ‘Brave’ and I can’t wait to go to the movies and see it. SO anyhow, I found a ‘Brave’ lidded cup and left the Disney store with a huge smile on my face. And I am not ashamed to say that is has been well used since I have gotten it, and it does make me feel better every time that I look at it. (Don’t judge).

‘Brave’ Cup

I also got a new camera… by got I mean stole from my mother. haha. It is a Nikon D3000 DSLR. Its pretty nice. I am learning how to use it. I just purchased a cute book called “Beyond Snapshots” to give me a little bit of help on taking pictures that will rock your socks off. So I will be playing with that and posting my progress pictures (hopefully).

So though I have been a little down in the dumps about everything that is going on, I know that things are going to be ok. How do I know this. Because my mother took me out to P.F. Changs for some amazing Chinese food and my fortune cookie told me so! It might be grasping at straws, buy hey, it works for me.

My Fortune

So the Indonesian pictures and updates are on hold, but with luck I will be back there soon and filling you in on all of the wonders there. Until then, stick with me. I will try to keep my posts interesting!

Back in America

So the past few weeks have been one unexpected thing after another… and the icing on the cake was me being medically evacuated because the injury to my back took a turn for the worst and my ability to walk was becoming more and more impaired. I apparently have two herniated discs that are severely pressing on the never in my spinal column… which is affecting the use of my whole left side. So after 36 hours of traveling and layovers I am now back in Florida with my family.  The goal is to have surgery, physical therapy, and return to full recovery in 3-6 months. Then I will return to Indonesia to complete my service.  I am currently waiting to hear back from the surgeon about an appointment to go over my MRIs and get a game plan going.

Being home is completely strange. I am loving seeing my family, but I am completely out of touch with everything. Its funny how amazing things seem to me right now…. The most was the Krups coffee maker that is in the kitchen. Does it get any better than that?  I am still dealing with not knowing which side of the road I am supposed to be on (its a good thing no one will let me drive), and major jet lag, but I think I will get the hang of everything in time.

I forgot how much I missed toaster ovens, microwaves, pantries of ready to eat food, and hot showers! I feel like I am on vacation at a 5 star resort!

So I will keep everyone posted on the progress to all of this and will start photo journaling my recovery…. (maybe.. if i don’t look too terrible after my surgery).

Hit By A Dump Truck

So the world is FULL of dumb people. Dumb people who shouldn’t be driving. Dumb people who make me want to scream!

So yesterday I was walking down the street with a group of people (fellow teachers) and we were heading to a wedding party. We stopped at an intersection as this drump truck pulled up. We waited for him to go. As we were waiting I turned to check on one of my friends who is Pregnant (She has been woddling something fantastic lately). As I turned around I didn’t see that the truck driver had cut the corner and the rest of the teachers had taken a step back. They didn’t think it necessary to inform my that the truck was about to hit my big ass! So as I turned back around, it was just in time to see the yellow paint of the truck slam into my left arm and send me flying backward…landing in the dirt on my back. The end result was an entire day in the hospital… the entire next day getting blood taken and pissing in a cup (and it will be repeated tomorrow.. oh joy!), an afro full of dirt that had to be washed 5 times to get all of the sand out of my kinky tresses!, and me hobbling around like a jackass. I guess I should be very thankful that I do not have any broken bones. (the doctors said I am a very lucky woman…. I felt like telling him a lucky woman wouldn’t have been hit by a dump truck!)

So needless to say I have a bit of rage right now… but who to be angry at??? Do I get pissy at the truck driver that hit me, or do I get livid about the wonderful coworkers who stepped back and let me get hit by a truck on my own? What’s a girl to do with all of these choices?

In light of my mood I am going to hobble my way to ‘Sour Sally’ for some frozen yogurt (its AMAZING!!!). Then its back into bed to await and exciting day of plastic cups full of my pee and syringes full of my blood… Its pretty hard to have such an exciting life.