Fun posts to come!

I just wanted everyone to know that I will be taking a trip to San Antonio next weekend! I am very excited, I will drive down Friday night and drive back Sunday. So far, I plan to go to the Alamo, Sea World, walk on the Riverwalk with Toby (yes, he's coming along for the trip), and maybe some other things that pop up. If anyone knows of a "must see" while I'm in San Antonio, please let me know!

Toby in the Morning

Toby is never excited in the mornings when I'm getting ready for work. This morning, he hid in the comforter, so it was just too cute and I had to take pictures. He poked his head out for one picture, and in the other picture, I had been petting him, so he rolled over and it looked like I had tucked him in. He's such a cute puppy!

By the way, one month from today, and I fly back to Charlotte! I'm not sure yet where my next assignment is, but I'm looking to go somewhere in SC (probably Columbia, but I don't know yet). I'll be sure to let everyone know where I will be when I find out!

SouthFork Ranch

Here are a few pictures from SouthFork Ranch where the outside scenes from the tv show Dallas was filmed. Very cool tour and a beautiful day!

Who Shot J.R.?

I went to Southfork Ranch today and got to walk around and tour the building. Here is a picture of the Prop gun used to shoot J.R. Apparently, when the cliff-hanger season ending shot was filmed, they did not have a clue who was the actual person who shot J.R. It wasn't until later that they decided who was going to be the character that shot J.R.

Good News

The good news is that the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, so I am trying to decide what to do. I'm thinking the Southfork Ranch (where the show Dallas was filmed) or maybe going to Fort Worth to see the Longhorn steer drive through the streets of Fort Worth. Who knows, maybe I'll work in both?

As for an update on me, I'm feeling better for the most part. Obviously, given my job, I'm still sore at work, but it is getting easier. On Saturday, when I was out of work, I felt pretty good...very minimal pain. Needless to say, I'm glad that everything is improving and I'm back to near normal.

Back to work

My doctor cleared me, so I went back to work today to work half a day. While I am not 100%, I am as closed to no pain as I will be for a while. Unfortunately, my pain probably won't go away for a while, so I can either hurt at home or hurt at work. It was a nice welcome back to work, and thankfully, they eased me into patients today. I survived my first 4 hours back, and while I did have some increases in pain, it wasn't too bad. Hopefully, the rest of the week will go as well as today did. I'll just have to keep doing my exercises and know that one day I will be back to my normal self.

No Light Duty

Well, as many of you probably figured, I'm not going back to work today. The unfortunate thing about it is that if my job was outpatient PT or a desk job, I could be back at work today. Sadly, I'm an acute care PT (acute care meaning in the hospital), this means that I have to help all of the sick and weak people get out of bed and help them start walking again to get stronger. I can't return to work until I am at near full capacity, because if I were to go back too soon, I could either hurt myself worse or hurt a patient (by not being able to fully control the situation and losses of balance, and they may fall). I just hate knowing that they need my help at work, and the patients need a healthy PT. I'll just keep doing what I can on my end and doing my back exercises, using the heating pad, and taking my meds. Hopefully, I'll be able to return very soon, but sadly, there is no light duty in acute care PT. I'll just have to take it day by day and hope my doctor was not right that it would take a week for me to return.

New Rental

Yesterday, I had to go exchange my rental car. Thankfully, I didn't have to go all of the way out to DFW airport, and was able to exchange it at Love Airfield (which is close to my apartment). My new car is a silver Chrysler Seabring, but the good thing is, this one has satellite radio. Hopefully, I'll have this car until I fly back home. As for an update on me, I feel okay as long as I keep the medicine in me. I'm still very sore and continue to have muscle spasms, but they do appear to be getting slightly better. Hopefully, each day will get better, but unfortunately, it could take up to a week for me to be full capacity. In other words, I'm still not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I'm still hoping for Tuesday.

Update

I tried to go into work yesterday, but as I kept driving, I began hurting more and more. By the time I got there, I was in a lot of pain. I knew there was no way that I could do my job as a hospital PT (as working in a hospital means that I have to help patients get out of bed, and requires certain abilities). I went to the manager, and she told me that there was a doctor's office upstairs, and immediately sent me up to get seen and get some better medicine. She then told me to let her know how I was feeling and take the day off. So, I went up to the doctor's office, and they were able to work me in to see a very nice doctor. She agreed with me, that it was mainly muscular spasms and soreness, but told me if I did not start to feel better or got worse to come back in and they would get some x-rays. She also gave me 3 different prescriptions: a muscle relaxer, a milder pain killer for the day, and a stronger pain killer for nights to help me sleep (as I got no sleep Thursday night). She also wrote me a note to miss an entire week of work. While I really don't want to miss a whole week, and I hope that I'm feeling better and ready to do my job early next week, it is nice to know that if things got worse, there is the option. I also went to buy a heating pad when I was getting my prescriptions filled. Needless to say, all day yesterday was spent taking medicine and laying on the heating pad.

Last night, I took my stronger medicine and went to sleep around 8:30, while I woke up a few times throughout the night, it was a much better sleep. I woke up around 6 am, and felt a little sick on my stomach from taking medicine and not having a full stomach. After I got something in my stomach, I felt better and was able to take more medicine (as the spasms and pain were increasing again). I'm just glad that there aren't any broken bones and while my injuries are there, it isn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I guess the worst part (other than the pain and spasms) is that I can't go out and enjoy the nice weather this weekend and do something fun and see a new Dallas sight.

Ouch

The above car is my car, the below Acura is her car (she tried to swerve far left when she looked up and realized she was about to hit me)

Lucky me (note sarcasm), right as I was stopped with my turn signal on to turn into my apartment, I look in my rear view mirror and am not happy. There is a black car not slowing down right behind me, and the girl realizes last minute and looks up with a scared look on her face and *BAM* I was hit...it seemed like it happened in slow motion, but I know that it happened too quickly for any reactions other than my back tensing up. Turns out, she lives in my complex too, and was turning in and not paying attention, even admitted to being on the phone and hanging it up, not paying much attention. So, we pull into the complex and she hands me her information like I wasn't going to call the cops. I quickly told her that I needed to call the cops as I was driving a rental, and I needed it on record. She was very nice about it, we exchanged insurance information, and I took pictures (as I had been hearing that Dallas PD may or may not show up, and it may take hours) and I called it in to the rental car company, so we went to park our cars. Right as I'm putting my car into park, the cops were calling asking where we were, I told them and I met him at the Leasing Office. He looked at the car and said "yeah, we need to write this up" and asked how I was feeling, by this point, my back is starting to ache some. He gathered my information, and wanted to see the other car and speak to the other person, so I led the way. He agreed the other car was very damaged, and one of the cops told me that I was hit harder than I think I was and chances are, I'm really going to feel it tomorrow (woopie, just what I need). The cops filled out a report, gave us our claim numbers, and then went on their way. Thankfully, everyone was very polite, but this is going to be a headache (or should I say backache) for me. I'll keep everyone posted on what happens from here.

The warm weather is back...

When I started up my car today, I looked at the temperature gauge and the reading was 85 degrees! The good news is that the weather is supposed to stay warm through the weekend, that means that I can go do something fun!

NC Snow

Last night, a front moved through NC, and when she went to bed she had just over an inch. This morning, she had around 5 inches of snow. Here are some pictures that she sent to me on my cell phone. The pictures are of my car, the front yard, and of the back deck. So pretty! Poor Toby would have sunk in this snow, but it would have been funny to see.