Last Saturday, we picked up the new water pill prescription and almost immediately started to breathe a little better, after taking the first one. This was not always the case in the next few days, but overall, things appear to be getting better.

I have been able to put full wt on the knee,(standing only) for a while. I am very close to being able to put full wt on while bending it to walk. I haven't tried yet today but will soon. I am walking back and forth down the hallway(with crutches) 8-10 times/day.

Friday is the next Dr visit with our new GP. He had us do blood work, so maybe we will learning something from this. We are also scheduled to have the first therapy session on Friday.

Sleeping is still a problem, but is gettting better. Overall, there is hope, that this nightmare will soon be behind us. The stupid cold weather is soon behind us too. Laura lost some of her plant life, but otherwise we had no problem, other than a furnace running all the time.

Now that I have basically caught up, I would like to summarize the recent events.



Dec 15-First Pains started to develop.

Dec 16-Went to Dr Dew in St Augustine-cortisone shot, pain pills

Dec 18-Back to Dr Dew in St Augustine-braced knee, stronger pain pills.

Dec 21-Back to Dr Dew, lanced knee, blood clot test, ekg, to lab for tests, away to Hospital

Dec 23-Arthoscopic cleaning of knee

Dec 24- released from hospital

Dec 25-Started daily IV infusions at the hospital

Jan 4-Stopped IV(11 done), switched to pills

Jan 8-Acquired GP doctor for florida

Jan 8, 2010

today was a double dose of office visits. first to Dr Romero, where the cumiden level was checked and found to be perfect at 2.5. next check in about a month. Blood pressure reading was 154/91. They will relay this info to Dr Romero who will change the medication if he deems it to be necessary.

Then off to Dr Limeres office, where we filled out all the pertinent patient info for them. We now have a GP to go to for any future situations.We talked to his assistant for a while. He could not get a BP reading with his automatic machine, so did it the old fashioned way. Manually, he got 148/70, which is better than most, though still higher than we like. He explained that the arrithmia(?) causes the device to stop when beats stop, then starts again when the beats reappear, causing the device to read higher than it should. this makes sense. After talking with Dr Limeres for a while, he issued a prescription for water pills, and blood tests. Next visit, next Friday. The visits were not as productive as we had hoped, but at least we now have several people trying to help us.

For the moment I guess the heart is more important than the knee, but the knee continues to improve, and I am very close to putting weight on it.

Jan 6

sleeping pattern has changed to 3-4 hours, then laying awake until daybreak. hard to stay awake during days sometimes. continuing to heat and cool ,while flexing and bending, while in chair.

cold, 28-50 degrees.

JAN 5

Lester moved Jerrys trailer, to make room for Bea and Cliff and Ken and June and Judy, who arrived late in the afternoon. Lester got them set up. Laura had supper ready for everybody. It is nice and cool here (30-50 degrees)

Monday Jan 4

We went to have iv #11 done, then got in to see Dr Laubaugh. he checked on the germ that was found in my knee and determined there are many antibiotics that will kill it.So he stopped the iv drip and changed to a pill version. we went back to the hospital to have the iv apparatus removed.

Laura had called Dr Romero to see if he would change the blood pressure medication, which he did by doubling the quantity and doubling the frequency.

Lester and Sue arrived today and Bob and Laverne came for a welcome supper.

Welcome 2010

Jan 1,2,3

routine trips to hospital for daily IV drips, and heating and cooling treatment of the knee.

The end of the Year 2009

New Years Eve Day.

Went to hospital for iv treatment #7, then home and spent most of the day with feet elevated, working with ice cooler and heating pad, alternating on knee. Blood pressure values are significantly improved. What a way to end a year. Hopefully, 2010 will be better. Happy New Year everbody.

Finally, some changes

This day, Wed ,Dec 30, Like all the days before, we went to the IV session at the hospital. We had made an appointment with Dr Thomas Romero, who was running late, so had to wait awhile. Dr Romero is our newly acquired cardiologist, whom we like a lot.

His assistant did some preliminary tests, including heart beat, blood pressure, EKG. nothing was said about the EKG .When he arrived, they checked the cumiden level, which was ok. He changed the blood pressure medication to a stronger one. He doubled the Lavastatin from 20 to 40 for the chlosterol(sic). Despite previous events, he said the heart was not too far away from normal, but there will be a chemical stress test later in Jan,( after things settle down). This will bettter evaluate the true condition of the heart.

Sunday Dec 27, 2009

Typical cuff numbers-155/91/84. At this point, I am sleeping fairly well, with minor comfort issues. Am able to get out of bed quite well. Able to walk some( with crutches, putting some wt on left knee). Basically each day is now an improvement. More of the same Monday and Tuesday. It has now been two weeks, and the question is? how much more until this nightmare is over?

The day after Christmas-2009

Slept pretty good. Did have a bloody nose during night-made second trip to hospital for IV drip. This is a 36 mile round trip. The nurse took my bloood pressure (99) and said it should be below that. She called Dr Laubaugh, who came by and and indicated that I had only had one dose of blood pressure medication.

He changed my bandage and looked at the entry holes.We would see him on Monday.
Laura did some traveling, recovering our cell phone and other misc stuff from Normas'. Laura found our portable digital blood pressure monitor, which we started using. typical numbers were 154/75/75. During most of this episode, my appetite has gone away, but today, it started to come back.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2009

Bob and Sherie Kanouff , owners of Lakeside Campground in Stow, bought a home on Riverside Drive not far from here. Other years, they have have had family here at Christmas, but not this year. Bill Levy is from Chicago, and his wife Sherry is home for Christmas. When asked, Norma graciously invited them all to come. Bill and Sherie picked us up and took us to the Hospital for my first IV treatment.

Then we all went to Normas' for a very nice Christmas celebration. Good food, good time, Some gifts exchanged, good job by Norma. Various parts of the family were represented, Jan and Don and Annette, Leslie and Zach, Jane, Christina. There was also a nice ice cream cake to help celebrate Janice and my December birthdays. Bob and Sherie brought us home.

Hospital Day #3 ? #4?

Thursday Dec 24, Christmas Eve Day.

Since we had been told we might be discharged today, we were certainly hoping it would happen.
About 1:45PM, Dr Laubaugh came through and said we could go home if we wanted. At 2:00, he left to write up all the paper work, prescriptions, etc. At 5:00 we were ready to go, and could finally leave. Fortunately, CVS was open until 6:00 and we were able to get 3 new prescriptions filled. So we got home at 6:15, tired, but happy to be in our own little home.

Since I had basically been in bed all week, and the leg had new work done on it, this was the worst day of the experience for moving on crutches, and I am very tired!

Day 2 in Hospital

Today is Dec 23, and it was kind of quiet, Bob and Laverne came to visit and had lunch with Laura in the Cafeteria. It was otherwise quiet and routine until about 4:30PM, when the hospital bone specialist, Dr Richard Laubaugh, stopped in to visit.(Dr Dew does not have privileges in this hospital).

He said he had looked at the records and stuff, and had talked to Dr Dew, and could do an arthroscopic procedure to clean out the knee. It could possibly be done that night. OK.

We were told to be ready at 7:00, which we were were. Could it be that relief was on the way?

They made me help transfer from the bed to the wheelchair, to another small bed. They parked me in some dingy dark cold area, started an IV drip and left me alone to ponder and wonder.

About 8:15, they came and transferred me to the operating room, another transfer to an operating gurney, three applications of some kind of gas to the face and next thing I knew, I was
having hallucinations while recovering. I thought I was in another place, until finally Lauras' face shows up along with the attending nurse, and now I know where I am.

The surgery ended about 10:30PM and they tell me they flushed my knee with about 11 gallons of water. I awake about 3:00 in the morning, all is quiet, nobody around and actually have a faurly peaceful night.

During the pre op discussions, Dr Laubaugh indicated that, yes I had an infection, and that for 6 weeks after the surgery, I would have to come to the hospital every day to have an antibiotic IV drip administered.

Hospital Days #1

Somehow the last blog is dated Dec 31, rather than Dec 21, but it is too hard to change. Today, is Tuesday Dec 22,.It was sort of a tough night in the hospital, but they had pain pills which were somewhat effective. Phone calls from Jerry, Derek and others. Wesley Vaughn stopped in to visit and brought an e-mail sent from Heidi.
Had an echo gram done- like an ultra sound of the chest-showed heart not pumping fully, but rate is good at about 80.