Removing Stitches and an Asthma Scare

The day after Annie died, my stitches were driving me nuts!  I called my nurse friend, after googling "how to remove your own stitches" and asked her if there was anything I needed to know before I went for it.  Pulling them out was actually pretty easy because I had been rocking them back and forth for days trying to keep them loose and to keep the skin from sticking to them.  I actually think this was making them more raw and tender and I didn't consider the fact that I might have been pulling germs down into the wound on the stitch.  Ew.  So, I cut them with cuticle scissors and pulled them out.  The thing is to cut the stitch close to the knot, grab the knot and slide it out.  I washed the area with peroxide, added antibiotic ointment, and a bandage and voila!  It was kinda cool.  I could totally pull yours out for you.  :)  Funny thing, since removing my stitches, if I rub across that area on my thumb, it's like a guitar string vibration all the way up to the tip of my finger.  Strange.  And still, if I bump it on something, even though it's been two months, sometimes it will feel like the area is still raw and unhealed.  Hmmm...  Oh, and even though the cut was on my thumb, my hand was bruised from my thumb all the way down my wrist. It was very impressive to look at.  Especially since it was my first stitches...I found that whole thing fascinating.  Well. mostly. I found it very UNfascinating when I had a hard time unscrewing lids and not being able to really get a hold of anything because gripping put pressure on the wound.  THAT was annoying.

The weekend following the weekend that Annie died, or maybe it was the weekend after that weekend.....are you confused yet??  Me, too.  Okay...ONE weekend in there, I was planning to go run..er, jog..er, interval train.  Yes, I WAS doing that....very frequently.  I am NOT a runner....took me forever to get up to running a mile without stopping.  Anyway, I had worked my way up to about 3-5 miles.  The first mile running nonstop, and the rest completed doing interval training....brisk walk a lap, jog a lap, brisk walk a lap, jog a lap...  And it was not only helping me physically, but allowing me to de-stress a little, as well.  When you're a homeschool mom, hiding in the bathroom really doesn't achieve the whole "time alone" quality that you crave sometimes.  ;)  So, on my way to the track, I stopped by the barn and just barely patted Snowflake on the head.  BAD MISTAKE.  I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the events that followed, but it could have. So, I get to the track and start running my mile.  I get about half way through it and think, dang...my chest is killing me...and then I immediately think, "eh, don't be a pansy...everyone's chest hurts when they run"  and I keep running.  And then I start coughing non stop and begin feeling a little faint.  So, I decide to go home...after only about 15 mins.  On the way home I realized that after I had touched Snowflake's head (Snowflake being a goat, and I am very allergic to my goats) I had a hair on my tongue and I got it off with that hand. Ugh.  I get home and decided to lie down on the floor because I felt so light headed. My chest was still really tight and I felt I couldn't get enough breath.  It was starting to freak me out a little.  I wasn't even sure if I could use my rescue inhaler since I had JUST used it on the way to the track.  And then when I tried to talk, my speech was a bit incoherent....I couldn't get my words to form correctly.  My limbs started feeling like jello and I felt really weak.  I eventually sucked on my inhaler for dear life....well, as much as I could while feeling like I couldn't get any air.  The whole thing was just freaky...actually scared me a bit.  So, I haven't been back to run since then.  I did, however, purchase Jillian Michael's video "Ripped in 30 Days" and I have to tell you...that is pretty awesome.  It's divided up into 4 weeks....each week is a different set of exercises that will  KILL challenge you :)  I am enjoying it.  I'm on week three...I decided to do each week 2 times so it will last longer than 4 weeks.  ok...and because the second week I only did 2 days and it just felt like I cheated so I did it again the next week ...and then I decided that was a pretty good idea so I continued it.  :)
"And that's all I have to say about that." - Forrest Gump