Merry Christmas

Christmas is over for this year. As we had our official gift exchange with the family last October, Laura and I had a quiet day.

Yesterday, we went to Normas house for a quiet get together of the Mohr siblings. Living in Florida. Jane, Wonald, Norma, and Janice. Also present were Don and Buford. We enjoyed Prime Rib, coffee cake and other stuff.

This past week was spent exercising the knee, riding the cpm machine, and generally strengthening the knee.

Today, we went to Dr Dew, who removed the remaining staples, and said I could shower or go in the pool starting tomorrow. More tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

Knee with half of staples removed

How the knee looks right now/with bandages

New knee prosthesis side view

Front view new knee prosthesis

Laura Halloween 1st place

Halloween picture Ron , 2nd Place

Moving forward

This morning, we were visited by our Pt, who put me through the mill. The most painful exercise is the straightening one for the knee. Most of the others are no problem. Carol(the Pt) has determined my knee angle to be 103 degrees which is pretty good. The goal is 120 degrees. So far, I have reached 108 degrees on the cpm.

Today, we also visited the surgeon, Dr Dew. They removed the bandage, which had been on for a week with very little leakage. They then removed about half of the staples(about 15) and put short bandages on the rest. They took x-rays of the knee and then their technician used our I-pod to take pictures of the unbandaged knee and the x-rays. Now I have to get with Heidi to get these pictures into the blog along some Halloween pictures. Just think, soon you will have your own pictures of my knee.

He told us we could put full wt on the knee and use crutches rather than the walker and. To come back in a week

So we are doing well so far in our search for a new functional knee.

Tomorrow is my birthday and since I lost the last year, I am considering making it my 70th

What do you think about that?

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Home Life

it looks like Fridays message was aborted somehow. This one is being done on a real computer which is easier and faster.

After we got home on Tuesday, a cpm machine was delivered followed by a pt and her assistant(to set it up and adjust it for me). We started out at 85 degrees flex of the knee. The visiting nurse basically took vitals, and background info. She will be back next week to draw blood samples for the Gp visit coming up. The PT took me through the exercises, and how to use the cpm.

Thursday, we were pretty much confined to exercises and cpm work.

Friday, we did some exercises, some cpm time and then went to the Sr Center for some music, followed by a trip to Ormond Beach to pick up Lauras' new hearing aid, followed by meeting Janice and Norma for fish at Alfies.

Guess who is not supposed to shower, or drive. Guess who took a shower and drove Luara to Ormond. We learned a ong time ago how to protect a knee(or Picc) against getting wet in the shower, so no problem. We used to have to protect both areas, so just one knee is easy.

Driving is no problem as everything is done with the right foot. Sleeping is not really a problem, although only a few sleeping positions are comfortable. This wll get better in time.

Today, being Saturday, we are not going anywhere, just staying home, exercising, cpm ing and catching up on some of our paperwork, etc.

I have pain pills which are being used sparingly. We are amazed at how smoothly and easily this situation is going. I use the walker to get up and down from the cpm, and the crutches for walking.

We go to see the surgeon on Monday afternon. To date we have no real guidance as to how much wt should be put on the new knee. We have about 30 staples still in the knee, but not causing any trouble.

On the cpm we have told by the pt that they want me to reach 120 degrees of bend.ing. I have already been as high as 104.

although done on my computer, some mistakes pop up, no excuses.

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Home again

We checked out of the hospital about 10:00 am and after a prescription stop, arrived home in Hermits Cove about 12:00 noon. We will be having homecare to make sure I do my exercises, as well as providing a cpm machine. We are on our way.

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Going Home

It is 6 pm, Monday, Dec 13 and we have just been informed that we can go home tonight or tomorrow morning. Since it usually takes several hours to get all of the discharge papers together, and we have to stop and pick up some prescriptions, we would not arrive home until 10:00 or so, and it would be bedtime. It would be easier to do this in the morning, so that is what we have chosen to do.

Today, we had another pint of blood, walked some, rode the cpm.

At this point, I feel great, all of my vital signs are good, and I am looking forward to enjoying life again. The Dr says it usually takes 4weeks to work through the walker stage. Since I seem to be ahead of the normal pace, perhaps I will be walking sooner.

At any rate, World, here I come!

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Greetings from room 8017 of the luxury Flagler Hospital in St Augustine Florida

Yesterday was fairly eventful. The pain pump was removed, and a pint of blood was put in. I did two walks of 150 and 250 ft, using a walker. Now I have no extra cords or tubes to worry about. I also did two stints on the cpm machine , which means, I think, "continous progressive movement. Any way, your knee gets strapped into this device and it moves back and forth, forcing the knee to bend to two prescribed angles, mine being 0 and 85 degrees. The machine looks formidable , but it really is a pussycat. I use it for two hours at a time, and always have full control. I can adjust the angle up or down or push a button to instantly release the pressure.

Today we did the 250 ft walk and then a shorter walk, which also included going up and down steps. The significance of this activity was that It was done without the knee support brace. One more support item gone.

All of the Drs and their reps were in over the weekend, and all asked about my plans. When told I did Not know, it was up to my surgeon, Dr Dew, they all indicated that I seemed ready to go. So hopefully, tomorrow is the day.

We are still learning how to use this neat little device that Heidi gave us. The next project is learning how to quickly transfer photos, which we have some we want to share.

Time to wrap this up and look forward to enjoying life without crutches.

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another walk this afternoon, 250 ft. Also spent 2 hours on cpm machine which flexes the knee in both directions

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Latest update from Flagler Hospital in St Augustine Florida

Just a few minutes ago, all bandages and drain tubes were removed from my Newly repaired knee. It was rebandaged and looks good.

We did our therapy, which included 150-200 ft of walking with a walker, which is better than most people do at this point. We are waiting the arrival of PTs so can do the PM therapy.

The painblock is effective so pain so far is not too bad.

This our first effort to update the blog and if it works, great.

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Sorry for any typos.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

Dad's surgery went fine

I talked to mom about an hour ago and his surgery went well and he is resting comfortably(?) in his room.

He is in room 8017 of Flagler hospital. He has his cell phone with him and mom is likely in his room with hers as well.

Will update as further news is available.

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The last chapter

As I am writing this, I am waiting for the hospital to call to verify some information. We went through the chemical stress test, the testing of the carotid arteries for blockages. none found. We do have this little problem of atrial fibrillation, which is being taken care of by drugs. I can never feel it but I guess I have it. The biggest danger with this is that there is always the possiblity of a blood clot forming and traveling to the brain and asing a stroke.

Anyway, we have cleared all of the hurdles, and surgery to install a new full knee replacement is presently scheduled for 9:45 AM Thursday morning, the 9th day of December. Wish me well.

The cold weather(29-32 degrees in the morning, high 40's) is slowing down our outside work, but we have still kept busy.

We were going to make another trip to Seaworld, and Busch Gardens, but since the Real seasony stuff does not occur until later in the month we may not manage, pending the mobility situation.

We went to the Jacksonville lighted boat parade, which was excellent with about 80 boats patricipating. We also did the Palatka boat parade which only had 14 boats, but they were also well done.

Jane was at Thanksgiving at Normas', but apparently not feeling well, as she put herself into the hospital on Saturday. We visited on Sunday and she was doing better and went home on Monday. We saw her yesterday, and she appeared to be fine.

Later this afternoon , we are going to Alfies to help celebrate Janices birthday. Two weeks from today is mine. lets hope we are not in a hospital this time. Until next time, everybody have a good holiday season and we will be in touch. Since Heidi can access this blog, we will probably have her post a few words as to our progress over the next week.