Pre Op Appointment

As if I wasn't freaked out enough about having this sinus surgery the nurse certainly didn't sugar coat the fun I would have during the recovery after surgery.  And when I say fun I really mean pain and a constantly dripping nose that you can't blow and pressure from foreign items in my nose and sinus passages and did I mention pain?  It sounds quite a bit like a week of hell if you asked me, but after that things should improve greatly.  It will be two weeks with no physical activity and after that I should be good to go back to doing pretty much everything I used to (just being extra careful not to hit my nose).  It should take about two months before everything is fully healed and I look forward to that part of all of this for sure!

So here are the details on what I'm having done, you can skip over this section if you don't want to know the specifics.  I've found some people don't get squeamish when I talk about such things. 

The first thing I'm having done is the Septoplasty and Bilateral Inferior Turbinate Reduction.  Yeah that's a mouthful isn't it.  The Septoplasty is the straightening of my septum and then the turbinates are reduced in size via a radio-frequency energy probe (Richard loved the name of that, it is rather amusing isn't it).  I believe this is also the part where they take little bits of the sinus passages (turbinates) out to increase the drainage flow as well.

The second is another mouthful, functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS).  This is the one where they will take a small metal tube (endoscope) and put it into the nose and through the wall of the nose into the sinuses.  The diseased sinus tissue is removed and the sinuses are irrigated and cleaned out. 

As scary as all of that sounds, I really am looking forward to having this done.  I've talked to more people that have had the surgery and other then the initial week or so the outcome has been pretty positive for everyone I've talked too.

Fools on Ice: 2011

 

The end of the Raven's season is marked by the Fools on Ice tournament that we put on each year.  This was my first year as a Raven so it was my first time experiencing all the fun and excitement and WORK that goes into this tournament.  Jolene works nonstop to make this tournament a success for everyone involved!  

I volunteered to keep score and do locker room duties Friday night, after four hours of standing in the freezing cold keeping score and I was absolutely frozen!

On Saturday we had a game at 10:00am (we won 4-2), following that I went up to the Everett rink to do locker room duty there from about 1:30 until 4:30.  Then back to Olympic view for our second game at 5:30pm (another win 6-0).  I then stayed around the rink helping out with raffle ticket sales (aka visiting with some of the gals on the team) and doing some locker room clean up and such.  Mom won one of the raffle "baskets" and gave it to me.  I now have one really awesome hockey lamp!

Sunday brought another hockey game at 10:00am (another win 6-3) followed by the championship game at 2:45pm.  We won the championship 6-2.  For a championship prize we got tote bags with the tournament logo on them.  After that we all cleaned up the rest of the tournament stuff and headed out to The Moose for beer and food.  I had one of the best taco salads that I've had in a long time!  The team talked and had some fun and decided to plan a weekend getaway during the summer for just us gals!  I can't wait!

Here are some pictures from the championship game.  Enjoy!

That's me.

Yeah, that really is me falling out of the bench.

Passing to Greenie... and she scores!

~Raven's 2011~

Top Rope Technique Class: Week 4

For the last class we pretty much just went over what we had learned and climbed.  We had some things pointed out to us that we needed to practice as we went.  

We did learn about heel hooks and toe hooks.  They are using your heel or toe to hold onto something (hook onto it) to help with balance or to move from one place to the next.  We went over dynoing, which is where you let go of the wall completely to grab another hold (like jumping or leaping), I'm not so much into such things, it scares me to let go of the wall with all my limbs to move to another place.  And then there is dead pointing where you grab on while moving upwards but part of you stays touching the wall.

And then there was more practicing.  I am so glad we took the class we've learned so much and I am constantly seeing our climbing skills improve as we go to the gym each week.

A few other terms we went over earlier and I just never put in a blog, I'm sure this isn't a complete list but this is what I could think of now:

Beta: Information given to the climber while they are climbing by someone else 

Redpoint: to complete a climb without falling or resting after previously having unsuccessfully attempted the route.

On-sight: climbing the route the first time you attempt it without falling or resting and without receiving beta from someone else on how to climb it

Pumped: When your arms are so tight from climbing that you can no longer hold anything or use them for normal functions

The 1st Annual Crock Pot Cook Off: 2011

This past Christmas a few of us received crock pots so an idea was born, we would have a crock pot cook off where we all got together and brought something to eat.  The something had to be cooked in a crock pot of course.  After hearing it was going to be held at mom's house I volunteered to have everyone over at our house for the first annual crock off.  Everyone had a blast and the food was incredibly tasty!  It was rather amazing the way it worked out, even though no one really told people what they were making we ended up with various desserts, appetizers, main dishes and even a side dish or two.

Dani and JP made an awesome trophy for the winner, I believe the plan is to pass it along each year.  We all decided it was so much fun that it had to be an annual event!

Here are the dishes that were brought:

Sara's Corn dip, I hear this was very good (it has Jalapenos in it so I didn't have any)!  She won the first annual crock off!

Meatballs (by Amy)

Pam's little smokies

 

Pam's Mac and Cheese

JP and Dani's Beef Bourguignon

Mom and Dad's Lima Beans and Ham Hawks

Dad's Chicken dish, I dunno what to call it but it was very tasty!

Amy's Three Berry Cobbler

Dani and JP's Blueberry Cobbler

Chad brought along Nala and she and Rosco had a blast running around outside playing in the yard.  Rosco isn't as young as he once was though, Nala wears him out completely (and all the running around aggravated his limp he sometimes gets, but I think he had fun anyways).

Top Rope Technique Class: Week 3

Week three didn't bring about too much new that we learned, it did teach us some important skills but it didn't add to much to what we had been doing.

  

First we went over stemming.  A stem is used in a chimney or when you have two vertical walls next to each other. You put your feet and arms out and apply pressure to the holds such that you are almost pushing yourself up.  Your arms should not be higher then your shoulders when stemming.  At any time any two parts of you should be able to hold you up.  We learned about hand/foot matching as well while stemming, if my hip hadn't been so out of whack I think I might have even been able to do that.  (that is where you put your hand and foot on the same hold).

The other thing we went over is route reading.  Every time you climb you should try to read your route before you go.  Start at the beginning and work your way to the top.  Use your hands in the air to determine where you would be putting your hands as you climb.  After going over the hand holds look again to see where your feet holds are, you may not determine every foot hold you will use but it's important to determine where they are so you don't miss one that really would have helped.  Identify the crux (the hard spot) of the route and try to figure out how you would get past it, if you can't figure it out exactly try to find a couple different ways you might try it.

We also went over some climbing features and what they are called. We went over flakes (an thin outcrop of rock that sticks out of the wall and can be used as holds), cracks (they are what they sound like), chimneys and a few other things I just can't remember.

Then we practiced.  My hip wasn't feeling all that well so I climbed pretty horribly.  But the movements we learned stemming have been good for me to use in other climbing situations since.  I found the stemming to be particularly difficult as I could barely reach the two walls we were going between.