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.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

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

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

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.

Sent from my iPhone.
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.

Sent from my iPhone

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.

More Updating

I did not mean to imply that Life is all bad by yesterdays comment about the last year being a nightmare. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

I neglected to mention that during October, Laura celebrated her 70th Birthday on the 10th, and we celebrated 49 years together on the 27th of October.

Lester and Sue went back to Mayville yesterday and they will return in early January. There is a possibility that Ray and Luella will come down for a while and they will stay in our motorhome
which has been somewhat neglected during the past year.

During our free time prior to the surgery, we plan to go back to Seaworld, then Busch Gardens. We will also do some of the maintenance work around here, since I am the most mobile since last year.

We have a Thanksgiving Dinner at the Senior Citizens today and Thursday, we go to Normas.

Have a good Holiday everyone.