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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Sorry for any typos

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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Sorry for any typos.

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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Sorry for any typos.

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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Sorry for any typos.