I'm back, I think

The past few weeks have been a time of rehab, exercise, and pain.  The pain has been coming from my sciatic nerve, not from the new knees.

All the following information is true if I can push through the pain of the sciatic nerve.

I am loving my new knees.  There is no pain whatsoever in them, not even during rehab.  My biggest problem currently is balance and re-learning how to walk.  When you can't walk properly or hardly at all for more than 10 years, your body doesn't react properly to what you did when you were in pain and over-compensating for that pain.

But now...well, if I could run, which won't happen, I would.  I walked quite a bit this past weekend, more than I have since I got the two knees fixed.  I felt it, too!  I couldn't believe that my calves actually hurt from walking.  How long has it been since that has happened?  A very, very long time, and I have loved ever minute of that GOOD pain.

My knees will have ugly scars for the remainder of my life, but I don't care.  I can walk, and I can with care go up steps, very slowly, and rarely.  Curbs don't bother me, but stairs?  I try to avoid them.  I'm still not sure my legs will hold me up -- that old fear factor.  The physical therapist is working on my fears.  At least walking is no longer one of them. 

So, now I am able to cook again, do some cleaning (I still need my friend to do the deep, down dirty stuff).  I can't bend very well because of the nerve problem, which means I can't retrieve things from the refrigerator unless they are at chest level or above.  I'm still not up for doing grocery shopping, and frankly, I may never want to do that ever again.  Four years of having a personal shopper is going to be hard to get rid of.

I had received a packet from the doctor before I had surgery and was warned that this (bending) might be a problem and to put anything I needed to get in the kitchen or bathroom at chest high level.  Reaching up high is not a problem, just bending.  The therapist is working on this also.

I hope and pray I'll be very mobile by the time we go out to Colorado for Alan's high school get together.  Yes, he and other grown-up MKs from RVA are getting together for a reunion at the end of summer.

One more thing in this blurb -- as a result of all this medical stuff, I've lost 30 pounds, can you believe that? 

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It's been a while

I haven't been on-line for ages.  I look at my computer in the morning and say to myself, "Later."  Later comes along and I look at my computer and I say, "First thing tomorrow."  Well, tomorrow was a few weeks ago.

I have been healing amazingly well.  My right leg wants to walk faster than my "ill" left leg, so I tend to trip myself up if I walk unaided, which I do all the time around the house.  I still have bad sciatica, but I guess I'll have that the rest of my life.  I do exercises which seem to help, so does icing (that's where you put an ice pack on your back, not where you slather your body with sugar and cream).

My next surgery is coming up really fast.  Thursday, I go into the hospital for pre-surgery testing.   I have already been to my primary care physician and got my pre-op physical, and she will have a finaasl say when she gets the results of my blood and urine tests.

I'm really excited to get it over with.  I hope the left leg heals as well as, if not better than, the right leg did.  I've been exercising the left leg to get those muscles strong and hopefully that will help with the leg lifts I must complete before I'm permitted to leave rehab.

I've decided to go to the same place as I went to last time for rehab.  The draw of going to a place closer to home was strong, but I know what to expect in the place I used last time, and I really don't care if I don't get visitors every day.  Frankly, while I love seeing my daughter(s), grandchildren, husband, and friends, it can get tiresome.  I don't intend that statement to put off friends and relatives from visiting me, I did enjoy the visits I received last time, I'm just sayin' it was tiring.  And, until I could walk without the brace, I was bed bound pretty much, and the room didn't really have comfortable chairs for guests. 

I also found out today that the time of my surgery was changed to 11 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.  Bummer.  I'd rather have the early time.  I can't eat or drink anything from midnight the night before surgery until after surgery.  And I remember being so very thirsty last time, not to mention hungry.

So, I wait.

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Another update on my knee

I'm sure anyone reading this will be bored, so please, don't feel obligated.

I am updating my home stay after rehab.

I have physical therapy twice a week at the rehab center down the street (it's about 1-1/2 miles away).  It's really not a bother at all.  I actually look forward to it.

On April 11th I'll be having my left knee replaced and while I'm strengthening the right knee after surgery, the therapists are also working with me to get  my left leg muscles toned up and strong.  Not walking for 10 years has really atrophied my legs.

I found out today that our local senior center has a Nu-Step machine -- the machine that was my first instrument of torture after surgery.  It became my best friend toward the end of my stay in the Care Center because I could read my Kindle while I pedalled before the stretching and bending and pulling began.  At first, however, whoo-boy, did that hurt.  In fact, one of the therapists said he wished his phone had a camera because he would have loved to have a record of my face as I struggled to get through those first 15 minutes.

Now, I can walk with no pain on the right side.  I love it. 

I have dreamed for years that I could walk, and I knew I was dreaming because there was no pain in those dreams.  I could go up and down steps without pain -- haven't mastered that yet, in fact, the fear factor hits me every time I try to go up or down stairs.  I push through and find that the stairs are not as bad as I thought, as long as I can hold on.  I know that's something they will really push me on at the after-surgery rehabilitation in April/May.

So, exactly three months from the day of the right knee TKR, I will have TKR on the left knee.  I'm really looking forward to it -- not the operation specifically, but the end-result. 

Vacation this summer should really be great.  I'll be walking.

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Surgery

Well, I finally got approval from all physicians from whom I have had service in the past year for the total knee replacement (right knee) which I will have on Wednesday, January 11. 

I'm so glad I'm finally going to do this.  It took me years to get up the courage, but the inability to walk has really gotten to me and so I'm getting one new knee now and then if this works well, I'll get the other replaced in the late summer.   After that heals, I'm off to Italy.

Christmas was a mess for me and Alan.  We were both sick for the two weeks around Christmas and missed out on seeing two of our three children and their families.  Yes, I didn't see the new baby and all those kids.  I haven't seen them for almost a year now.  Something always comes up.  The irony is that Cyndi and her family only live two miles away as you drive, one mile as the crow flies.  I can almost see her property from my living room since she's just over on the next hilltop.  Becky's family had the stomach flu (as did Alan and I) and since I was still trying to get rid of the stomach thing I had to cancel our date with Becky and her children.  I had seen them a week before Christmas, but we didn't have our annual Christmas "party".    Really a BLAH week.

I will have my Fire with me in the hospital so I'll add Facebook updates from time to time.  No BLOGs and no e-mails, though.

So, pray for me.  I am not worried for anxious about the outcome.  I can't wait to wake up and start walking again.

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What's going on?

December is always a busy month, and this December, so far, hasn't been an exception.

Alan and I have had the usual and unusual rounds of doctor's appointments.  He's still cancer free after almost 13 years, Praise God!

I had a scare after we returned from vacation.  Right after we got back I had an appointment with our GP, and after a standard urine test, she decided I needed antibiotics because I seemed to have a bladder infection.  Too much information?  Just wait!  Well after two weeks, the antibiotics hadn't cleared up the infection so she wanted me to have an ultra sound.  That showed something she didn't like, so she wanted me to have a renal CT scan.  That showed a "mass in the right kidney" and she referred me to a kidney specialist, for which it took almost two months to get an appointment.   Finally after all that waiting he told me I had watery cysts which was a common affliction among the elderly -- yes, I'm officially an elderly -- and I was fine.  No cancer or any indication of cancer. 

All that time I had put on hold having total knee replacement.  I guess my trip back home to attend my 50th high-school reunion pushed me to make that decision.  I was pretty miserable, even though I had a scooter to get around with.  And our vacation to Lancaster County, PA, while it was enjoyable was still pretty painful. 

So last week I finally got back in to see my orthopedist (I had also seen him prior to going back to Runnemede) and I will have total knee replacement on January 11th.  I can't wait.  I wish I could have both knees worked on at the same time, but then where would that leave me?  Also, I wasn't given that option.

Mixed in with all those appointments has been the hope, but not the reality of shopping in stores.  So I've ordered most things on-line.  I haven't wrapped a thing, yet, though.  And I have at least 20 gifts that need either bagging or wrapping.  However, I can't find my wrapping paper keeper that is usually stored with my Christmas stuff.  So, I need to get at least to the Dollar store and get paper and/or bags:  a sore, uncomfortable trip, but I can't let my shopper do that for me.  I'm pretty fussy about what I like for wrapping presents in. 

And, the only Christmas cards I have addressed are the ones to my grandchildren.  And I know you all love to get cards from me at Christmas time, right?  Well, not this year -- and not last year, and not the year before.  In fact, in my married life-time, I think I only sent out Christmas cards  maybe 10 Christmases.  I have to admit that.  I think if cards still cost 10 cents to mail, I might be induced into sending them, but at 44 cents (it is 44 cents, right?) I'll just write to you all:  Merry Christmas and remember what you're celebrating and why you're celebrating.

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Tomorrow

Tomorrow I shall become a grandmother again.  I told Alan (on Sunday) that Cyndi, our youngest, will have her baby on Wednesday, November 9.

Today she called me and told me that she was having her baby tomorrow, if not sooner.  Since it's now 9 p.m. on November 8th, I have no doubt that we could still have a baby today since Cyndi is one of those fortunate women who has babies very easily and very quickly.  However, I still think it will be tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 9.

I find it so amazing that these days letting a woman go at least two weeks past her due date is not common practice.  When I had my children -- all of which were late, by the way -- it wasn't even considered no matter how much one begged their ob-gyn doctor to "please, get this lump out of me."  Yes, I was one of those beggars. 

My first was a week late, my second was a week late, and Cyndi was almost a month late, or the Army doctors were way off on her due date when I tested pregnant.

Cyndi, my youngest is having another baby!  Yippee.  I can't wait.  It's a girl, by the way, and her name is Savannah.

I'm praying for another easy birthing for her and that she goes into labor before she's induced.

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It's me, again

I cannot believe it has been almost two weeks since I posted anything on my BLOG.  I have to blame it, once again, on old age aches and pains. 

Have I read any good books lately?  I know you all want to know.  Well, yes, as a matter of fact I have.  Nothing heavy, though.

It is, after all, the beginning of the Christmas reading season.  So, I had downloaded 30 or so Christmas books that were either free on Kindle or 99 cents -- this was done throughout the last year, since last Christmas. 

A couple of weeks ago I read Nicholas Sparks' newest, The Best of Me.  Very enjoyable. 

I've decided to read a Christmas book one day and a free download from one of the Christian publishers another day.  Of course, the beginning of the month gives me a plethora of new material to choose from.  It's so much fun.

Alan is getting me the Kindle Fire for Christmas and it's supposed to arrive in a couple of weeks.  He won't let me have it before Christmas, and he's going to fiddle with it.  I sure hope he doesn't break it or mess it up for me.  He hasn't had much success with working with his own Kindle and has me show him over and over and over how to order books or do some of the other things that Kindle does.   Funny thing is, he knows how it works, but can get it to work.  Same with his computer.  Except for Excel, which I can't figure out at all, and really don't want to, he asks me 'how to' questions quite often.

Well, enough rambling for three o'clock in the morning.  So I'll say:

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