Venus Ablution

This blog is neither really about travel or excitement. It's about a procedure I had done. I suffer from Venous Reflux Disease. The veins in my legs are really messed up. Working in retail for the past 13 years has also taken it's toll. Now a lot of people say or think, "oh that's just varicose veins, I have those" or think that they are no big deal. Well usually older people have them, people a lot older than me, and they do develop over time, but not to the extent that surgery is required.  The surgery isn't really "required" it's still considered elective. However, if I do not wear compression hose every single day (and even then) I am in a lot of pain. Both legs have it equally bad, but the left leg causes an extreme amount of pain daily.

So I went to the doctor. When I first started developing this problem I was 25. The back of my legs were throbbing and getting hot. One little spot appeared and it was swollen and blue. I worried about blot clots because we have significant clotting disorders in my family. The doctor I went to was worried about that too, so I went in for leg ultra-sounds, got my blood checked for clotting disorders, factor five, c and s proteins, and as a precautionary measure she even had me checked for Lupus because of the strange bruising. Thankfully I had none of these issues and it was just bad valves in my veins.

So, seven years later I have decided I cannot deal with it any more. The back of my right leg looked ridiculous. Like cottage cheese. I always wear panty hose, without it I just feel really insecure and it's not even about that, it hurts. It's hot wearing the compression hose, and I have reached a where the compression hose just wasn't helping any more anyway. So I went see a specialist. She took one look at my legs and said I needed to do it. She showed me pictures of people that had the procedure done and pictures of people that hadn't. Their legs were covered in blotches. When the valves in the veins get blocked up the blood congeals and it turns the skin brown. It looks like bruises, it also is very very painful.

So I had the surgery. I had to have an ultrasound the day before and they drew black marks up and down my legs to make lines for the incisions. The Doctor only had to make 3 incisions.  One for each of the veins. She actually drew me a picture before the surgery so that I would know what she was doing. I arrived at the hospital two hours before the surgery, checked in and they gave me a room. I was really scared because I had never had surgery before and I didn't want to be knocked out. I guess I was fearful of going asleep and not waking up. They told me that the sleeping stuff wasn't that bad and I'd only be out for like half an hour.  I couldn't do it. I stayed awake the whole time.

The operating room table went up and down making my head go backwards and my legs go up. The blood pressure cuff went off every five minutes, which is how I kept track of how long I was in for, I think it went off 8 times. I heard them talking. They could only get the one vein because the one on the back of my calf was too short and the one near my ankle was too close to an artery. The Doctor said everyone is different and if they go in to do the other leg the vein might not be that close.

When they finished the surgery they wrapped my leg up in an ace wrap and told me not to take it off until I had the ultrasound on Monday.

Monday was an amazing day. When I took the ace wrap off the cottage cheese lumps were gone. Completely gone. It was amazing. I didn't expect that to happen so fast. It has been one month and as I saw the doctor she said I should and can still wear the compression house. Things will continue to get better for a couple of months. I already don't feel the awful tired pain in my legs that I felt before the surgery and I am going to have the other leg done after the holidays. I can't wait. The results have been fantastic and the surgery was quick.  I feel very fortunate to have had this done.

Boulder Ridge Animal Park

My sister loves animals. She has cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and various other creatures. Sometimes I think she uses "The kids would love one of those" as an excuse to get more animals. It wasn't a shock to me when she said, "you have the day off, lets go to the zoo". So we went to Boulder Ridge Animal Park in Alto, Michigan. I was thinking, "hmm, a zoo in the middle of nowhere in Michigan, what could they possibly have? A couple stray dogs and maybe some ducks."

That was not the case. 

Boulder Ridge Animal Park is full of exotic animals that would normally have no business being in Michigan. The place is amazing. It is located on 80 acres of land, so the animals have a lot of space to roam. Typically I would think it is cruel to take animals out of their natural habitat. This place really takes care of the animals well. They've bred a couple of rare species animals - Donkeys (an Asian breed with a population of less than 300), and rare breeds of wildebeest. These animals have been sold to zoos and other animal preserves. 

When we started our tour of the animal park we walked through a few cages with various birds. I wasn't immediately impressed. We got to see some exotic patagonian foxes, then we got to see kangaroos and crocodiles. Not in the same pen obviously.  The Crocodiles and Alligators were interesting. They always lay so still it's hard to tell if they are alive or not.  The fence on them isn't very high, so my sister wanted to climb over it, which is probably not a good idea. 

They have a reptile house with a variety of turtles, snakes, and lizards. There was also a giant Tortoise in there. The people at the animal park weren't sure how old it was, but they guessed it to be about 80. 

Moving on from the reptile house they had a petting zoo set up with lots of goats and cows. The goats were adorable. In the very first pen they had a baby zebra that they had named Zeus. He was so sweet and we fed him a little and watched them feed him out of a bucket.

After we saw Zeus and the goats we went on a tour with a really souped up golf cart. We saw Peahens, Antelope, Bison, some Emus, wildebeest, Ostriches, Donkeys, Rare horse breeds, some Asian deer with stripes on the bottom of their feet, and at the end we saw a Cassowary. The Cassowary is what we really wanted to see. It's a very dangerous bird. It can kill people. It has razor sharp talons. It was very aggressive as well, it came right up to the cage. Jenn wanted to get out, she kept saying, "this was the only animal Steve Irwin was afraid of... " They don't let you out of the cart and there is a fence separating you from the animal. It is a bit scary looking at it. This bird is extremely dangerous looking. It's hard to put into words, but it was like an evil Disney character.

Anyway, we finished our day feeding hundreds of parakeets in the parakeet room. It's a giant screened in area with a ton of parakeets. When you walk in you put the seed stick out and they land of you. It's pretty cool.

I will post the website of this place and my youtube video at the bottom! Hope you enjoy it in the spring when it re-opens.  They are raising money for giraffes, which would be really cool because giraffes are amazing when you feed them.



http://www.boulderridgewap.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkFwBD11dM0