Day One and Two in Rome, Italy

In December, Adam and I traveled to Europe with the Marlexes. We spent most of the month touring Italy and ten days exploring other parts of Europe via cruise as well—which I highly recommend! 

Europe is AMAZING. Everything is SO old and big and charming. It stopped me in my tracks quite often. There is NOTHING like it in the states. I took over 5,000 photos so it'll take me a while to get through them all—what fun!

The Swiss Guard in St. Peter's Square, Rome, Italy

We flew Turkish Airlines (a cheaper option because of a layover in Turkey) and the service was excellent. Their meals are nothing to complain about and each passenger received a blanket and little pouch with slippers, eye cover, tooth brush and socks.

The flight to Turkey was about 18 hours, and after a short layover, it was only three more hours to Rome.

We rode the train from the airport into Rome. Italy stinks by-the-way. And it's surprising how many people smoke, you can't get away from the smell. We considered ourselves lucky if we could eat al fresco without someone lighting up. (But eating al fresco is the ONLY way to go in Italy, no matter what.)

There are pick-pockets in the city, many of them lurking around the train station. We had a couple, male and female, following us to our hotel and the woman had her hand in my backpack when Adam spotted her. Thankfully, I had packed to make it difficult for anyone with sticky fingers to find anything of value and nothing was taken.

We spent a few hours that first night exploring the city in the dark and over the next two days we went back to see the sights in the daylight plus more!

Rome Slideshow

Below is a slideshow with very short explanations of the locations. (This was an experiment that should have been done differently but I simply can't spend any more time to finesse. LOL.)

View in YouTube—the quality is much better.

(https://youtu.be/dXQ1wZg2PKM no descriptions.)

Bionic Man

Story continued from here. 

As the week went on, the grumpier Adam became about his splint, it was hurting his wrist. The night before his appointment to get it removed, he was ready to take it off himself. His wrist and whole arm hurt—He was worried that he'd fractured his ulna or radius and was considering asking for an X-ray further down his arm.

(Below) Adam is trying to smile just before his appointment. He wasn't feeling well on top of the new pain. He'd finished his prescription pain killer the day before and it wasn't treating him well as it was leaving his system. (Light headed, pale, nausea...but a day later he was fine.)

Just an hour later, the blasted thing came off. The splint was stiff and made out of cast material.
The PA also fessed up as to why Adam's arm and wrist hurt so badly. For this kind of surgery the arm has to lay flat with the palm up. Because Adam lifts weights (and doesn't stretch well enough) she had to CRANK his arm and put a lot of her weight into keeping it in place during the surgery.  She told us that the minute he rolled into the operating room she thought, "Oh no," because she saw his buffness and knew it would be a problem.

The exterior wound doesn't look anywhere NEAR as bad as I imagined—in fact, it looks great! (I was expecting blood stains and a bumpy mess of stitching.) 

During the appointment the ends of the thread (dissolving) were clipped and the wound taped up. Now Adam can get it wet...which means he can shower all by himself! Yesss! And dressing will be much easier.

Furthermore, the PA also told us the scar tissue they cleaned up inside his arm (mentioned in the previous post) wasn't from the injury healing. It was tendonitis. It's what weakened his tendon in the first place and though the tendon ripped—the scar tissue was still holding on to the end of it, keeping things connected so the doctor didn't have to fish way up in his bicep for it. Ewww.

Fitted with a brace that will keep him from over-extending his arm while it continues to heal for the next 8 weeks, Adam really can't use it much or put weight on it. Right now the brace is locked at 60 degrees and he can't rotate his palm up. Physical therapy starts next week. And yes, he finished shaving his one arm.

Friendsgiving + Thanksgiving

We liked Friendsgiving enough last year that we decided to have it again! We hosted it the weekend before Thanksgiving. All the good food and dessert were present. The rules are, we get to do it our way (bring ANY food we want), and we share leftovers. It's SO disappointing to go where the feast has been prepared by ONLY the host and so you don't get to contribute and you leave empty-handed—no leftovers and those are the best!

WE got the memo about striped sweaters.

To walk off the meal, we strolled down the street wrapped in Mom's quilts. It was TOO cold. We didn't get very far before everyone decided to turn around and stay full.

We played games into the night. (Marla, Lex, Pre-surgery Adam, Lysha, Reed, Nick, Stacy)

As it turned out, our Sister in-law decided NOT to host Thanksgiving this year (half the family goes to Kansas anyway.) So, Adam and I ended up hosting a second Thanksgiving just a week later with his parents and sister, Heather. 

THAT celebration was a lot of work. Because of Adam's surgery I ended up setting up, cooking and cleaning up by myself (on top of taking care of him.) I was EXHAUSTED. It was a good weekend but quite a challenge. And I completely forgot to get photos! But Adam did take a couple when his parents tried on a $400 cowboy hat that the CEO of the company purchased for him as a thank you. His dad looks great in it.

Don't worry. I made sure to send them home with PLENTY of leftovers. It made my heart happy.

Adam's Surgery to Repair a Tear

Lifting too much weight in a weird way can rip tendons. Adam learned this while shuffling a poorly loaded stack of windows (not of his doing) in the back of his truck (they are so heavy.) He heard a couple of snaps like a rubber band come from his left arm and that was it. His arm was useless and in pain.

At the ER we were referred to an orthopedic doctor who helped us take steps to recovery very quickly. After an MRI, we found out Adam tore his distal biceps tendon (where the tendon attaches at the elbow.) This kind of injury is rare, can only be fixed by surgery and must take place within three weeks of the incident before it heals wrong. Full recovery is expected in four months.

Below, Monday, November 21st at Baylor Scott White Trophy Club, Adam awaits surgery. He was nervous about being put under. They gave him something to relax and as they were rolling his bed down the hall he began to giggle, so he was just fine.

Above, the nurses shaved his arm and the doctor signed his bicep so as not to operate on the wrong arm. Can you see the bruising? Ouch. 

The doctor reported that everything went well. Scar tissue had already started forming so he cleaned that up too. After returning home, Adam has been staying in our guest bedroom (below) so I don't bump his arm at night. Plus, the room has a TV so it's a convenient setup for the situation.

We've been keeping him on strong pain meds (he feels so good when he's high) and his arm elevated and iced.

If you would like to see how the distal bisceps are repaired, click here or on the image below. (Start watching at minute 2:11)

I do have video of Adam coming out of it, it's not necessarily funny, but I wanted to have record of it anyway.