The Knew Knees

When I went in for my 6 week checkup I also went over to the imaging center for X-rays of my knees. While I was waiting for the surgeon I took a picture of the X-ray that his nurse brought up on the computer. I’ve definitely got knew knees! He told me I was doing very well and then said I had to do three things:

1. Walk and walk some more. The best thing I can do for the whole healing process is to walk. And, while I’m walking, I’m also to pay attention to my gait and balance.
2. Loose weight … at least 20 pounds by the time I come back to see him in April.
3. Exercise the knee, but don’t worry about the stiffness. In the next couple of weeks, he said, the knee will begin to loosen up by itself as the incision heals.

My next appointment is on April Fools Day. Hopefully by then everything will be pretty much in the past. I’m seeing progress on a daily basis. I’m thinking in the next two weeks most all of the pain should be gone.

Holiday Visitors

Nina and I picked my mother up and drove down to North Salt Lake on the day before Thanksgiving. We had a delightful stay with Heather and her family for Thanksgiving.

We drove back home late Thanksgiving day so that Nina could go to Idaho Falls early Friday morning for her normal shift at the Idaho Falls Temple.

Meanwhile, on Saturday my very favorite brother and his wife Chris drove over from Green River, Wyoming. They picked up our mother in Soda Springs and spent Saturday afternoon through mid-day on Sunday with us. We had a wonderful visit. We really appreciate them taking the time to come over to visit with us. We really need to do this more often!

And Finally

Nina and I were invited in to meet with a member of the Stake Presidency this afternoon. The purpose was to release me as a member of the Pocatello Stake High Council. I’ve had this excellent Church calling for the past four years, which is a year longer than usual. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the people in the Cedar Hills Ward and the Arbon Branch. It was a great run. Whatever comes next will be in my home ward. I’m thinking that teaching a youth Sunday School class would be great….

Ta ta for now!

I’ve probably “turned a corner” over the past couple of days! Today is five weeks from the knee replacement surgery and I’m starting to feel pretty good most of the time. Monday’s therapy session was a good session, two hours long, and I felt pretty good after it was finished. Tomorrow’s session will (hopefully) confirm the progress.

Standing up from a sitting position is still a challenge. I can, however, now get stood up by myself from a chair with no arms and that is definitely goodness. After sitting for a period of time, though, the knees get very stiff and getting stood up becomes more of a (painful) issue. Meanwhile, I’m doing a lot of work on my gait … trying not to waddle like a penguin, but walk straight ahead. It’s harder than it sounds.

The surgeon said that after 2 weeks I’d be pretty unhappy with him, but after 6 weeks I’d want to bring him cookies. I’m looking forward to that 6 week thing. I’m not quite ready to order up cookies for him (although the incisions look very nice and are beginning to fade!).

I’ve decided to put up a new domain (name yet to be determined) with my thoughts and recommendations for people considering knee replacement surgery … and specifically those considering doing both knees at the same time. I’ve started mapping out the content for the website. If any readers have specific questions that I should address, feel free to comment.

I’m on the Pocatello Airport Commission and am now chairman of the commission. Today was our first meeting where I presided over the meeting. It was a good meeting with several items to be handled, including a new tenant at the airport. After about an hour of sitting, though, my knees start reminding me that it’s time to stand up and walk around. For some reason, the meeting today was over an hour after it started….

Ta ta for now!

I woke up Friday not feeling all that great. By the time I got to Physical Therapy, my system was beginning to rebel. We started, but after a couple of emergency trips to the restroom, I called rehab off, went home, and went back to bed. Finally this afternoon things began to improve. I’m starting to feel reasonably good once again.

We did go to the Idaho Civic Symphony last night. It was a delightful program that included a prodigy 18-year-old cellist. My knees complained all evening long, but the concert made it worth it. I should have taken some pain killers before going to the concert.

Tomorrow I’m going to start getting back into my Church calling with a 7 am High Council meeting and then going out to my assigned Branch for their meetings. The only possible issue is that it’s been snowing since Friday morning. The roads could be interesting.

Ta ta for now!

As promised and planned, I went to the office today for three hours. The surgeon has given me a “Return to Work” authorization for up to three hours a day for this week and next. At the end of next week we’ll revaluate and, most likely, get cleared for a full return to work.

It’s an hour’s drive from my house to the office. That’s a bit far … seeing as how I haven’t driven a car since before the surgery. So, Nina was the designated driver. I managed to get completely dressed by myself this morning, including putting on my own sock! That’s even getting easier to do. We left the house about 10:45 am and drove to our polling place. While there was no line, the place was quite busy. We both voted and then headed for Idaho Falls.

As we were getting close to Idaho Falls, I suggested that we’d be arriving with about an hour to spare before I could to to the office. I had a 1 pm appointment with the medical people at the office to get their clearance and that office closes between noon and 1 pm. We decided to spend the hour at the Olive Garden for lunch. A very delicious decision. We had a nice lunch and Nina dropped me off at the office at 1 pm.

The clearance process was straight forward. She took my vital signs (all nicely normal), had me walk and do a couple of sit-down, stand-ups. With that I was cleared to return to work not more than 3 hours a day for the next two weeks.

The first day back in the office in a month was quite busy. I met with my staff and got brought up-to-date on what’s going on in each of their departments. I met with a couple of other directors (my peers) to get their input. And in what seemed like no time flat, it was time to leave.

We stopped by Best Buy to get a new printer. Nina’s Epson printer has an LCD display which has quit working, making it impossible to manage the printer. The printer is out of warranty, so fixing it is more expensive than replacing it. We ended up with a new HP all-in-one inkjet printer which has the nice additional benefit of working with our iPads. Yup. We can print from the iPad to the new printer. Sometime over the next couple of days we’ll get the new printer set up and working.

We got home about 6:15 pm, tired, hungry, and worn out for the day. The TV is on for the election results (with the sound turned off). The polls closed here in Idaho about a half-hour ago and we should start seeing some results in the next hour. It doesn’t matter, though, as no matter what, the bed will see my body by 9:30. It’s time to rejuvenate.

Ta ta for now!

Today’s workout was the hardest so far. I’m told they get harder … and I’m glad I’ve got some pain pills to help this process along. I am making good progress. It’s only been four weeks since the surgery.

Today’s workout started with 10 minutes of hot pads on the knees followed by 10 minutes riding the stationary bike. Then stepping over cones and side-stepping over cones to work on going straight up and over. That was followed by a vigorous massage of the knees and the incision to keep scar tissue from forming. Then a number of stretch exercises came next. Finally, the dreaded wall slide.

After that it’s 15 minutes of ice and electrical stimulation. By that time the ice feels like heaven!

The hardest part of the rehabilitation session is the wall slide at the end. Laying on a table with my foot against the wall, I’m to slide my foot up and down the wall. Once I can slide my foot all the way down the wall, then move closer to the wall. Keep doing that to increase the amount of bend in the knee when the foot is at the bottom. My goodness, does that hurt! I don’t have enough strength to lift my foot back up the wall, so my therapist helps that process. Here’s a short (less than a minute) video of this process, along with Nina’s cheerleading: http://youtu.be/oFnjnPJZhp0

It doesn’t look all that hard … but there’s a reason it’s the last part of the therapy session. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll go into the office for a couple of hours and start getting back into the work routine.

Ta ta for now!

Three small things today add up to nice progress. First, I was able for the first time since surgery to put on my own socks! It took some serious contortions, a few winces of pain, but I didn’t need Nina’s help getting my socks on. That was goodness. Nina has been a wonderful support through this entire process, but I’m sure she’s as interested as I am in getting back to “normal” life.

The reason for socks? Getting dressed to go to Church. I went last week for Sacrament Meeting and felt good enough to go today to Sacrament Meeting as well. I only took one pain pill, however. That was a mistake. By the end of the meeting my knees were so stiff that I could barely stand. I’ve been doing a lot of stand up, walk, sit down since getting home from Church which seems to be helping.

Secondly, I was able to lift both feet into the car without having to use the strap to assist the leg lift. That felt good to be able to get into the car more like a normal person. However, after Church, I had to use the strap on the right foot to get into the car. I was able to lift both out when we got home without the strap. Another step forward.

This morning I decided to try out the cane instead of the walker. That worked really well. I’m slow … but I’m getting there! It was good to be able to walk into Church on the cane rather than the walker. That’ll also be good on Tuesday afternoon when I go back to work for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow morning is the next physical therapy session. I’m expecting it to be rather rigorous session. More tomorrow!

Ta ta for now!

I had probably the best night’s sleep since leaving the hospital last night. I woke up once for a quick bathroom trip, went right back to sleep, and got up at 8:30 this morning. It’s now 8pm and I could easily head for bed. But I won’t. I’m shooting for 9:30….

Another highlight of the afternoon was that when the doorbell rang, I was able to get up, out of my chair, onto the walker, and to the door to answer it before they gave up and went away. It was a young girl selling popcorn shepherded by her mother. I’ve an order of huckleberry cheesecake popcorn coming on December 10th (no idea why it’s so long from the purchase to the delivery).

Most phone calls are getting a answer / immediate hangup here. The big issue has to do with the schools and some changes the state legislature made a year ago at the behest of the governor and the state superintendent of schools. Enough signatures were gathered to put these up to a vote next Tuesday. The TV airwaves are filled with pro and con advertisements, neither of which tell the whole truth. Lots of phone calls on the same subject. Some of the phone calls are pollsters, most are partisan. I’m thankful for caller id.

Meanwhile, Facebook has become almost unbearable with the partisan rhetoric. Name calling and outright falsehoods are the least of it. A person who I’ve considered a friend for several years posted this on Facebook the other day:

Seriously, if you are planning to vote for Obama, you are an anti-American, ignorant FOOL who can’t pull your head out’ur arse to acknowledge the truth. If the last four years haven’t proven it, then Benghazi-gate definitely should. If you’re too blinded to see Obama for himself, then Valerie Jarret should be all the evidence you need. If none of that convinces you of the EVIL of Obama, then you really need to get out of this country before you’re driven out.

President Obama is not evil. Mitt Romney is not crazy. Neither of them are Satan incarnate. And I’ve unfriended another friend. Please lighten up, folks.

Ta ta for now!