Today is (knock on wood) so far an up day. Yesterday definitely was not. Friday was not either, leading into the issues on Saturday. Let’s say it all just came down to improperly managing my body functions. Bowel movements are pretty important in the larger scheme of life. Thanks to the ride to the emergency room by the fire department at 3 am on Saturday morning followed by five hours of reasonably diligent work by the Portneuf Medical Center ER staff, but mostly to the work put in by Nina, functions have pretty much returned to “normal”.

I don’t take many ambulance rides. I think the last one I had was back in New Haven, Connecticut before Nina and I were married when I came down with mononucleosis. The memorable parts of Saturday morning’s ride were how cold the ambulance was, how narrow the gurney was, and how much everything lurched around as we went around the many corners and turns to get from the house to the hospital. The fellow riding with me in the back would hold onto me as we made right hand turns as it seemed the whole gurney would tip over! I’ll be quite OK if this is the last ambulance ride I have for many years to come.

But, this is a good day. I’m feeling pretty good, I’m ambulatory (meaning I can get up and move around), am getting stronger every day. Physical Therapy as well as the Home Health Nurse will be around tomorrow morning to check up on things. I have an appointment with Dr. Altenburg (the surgeon extraordinairre) on Wednesday morning. We may even talk about a potential return-to-work day.

I’ve been giving quite a lot of thought about what it means to have both knees done at the same time. Just about every medically-related person I run into says something about “how brave” or “how much a gluton for punishment” I am. Not necessarily so. There are all kinds of things that have to be in place in order for this to be a success. I’m not in hardly any pain. The biggest issue today will be restless leg syndrome. The one thing that has made this all possible is Nina … without her willingness to do everything necessary and go above and beyond … this would not be a pleasant experience at all. More about all of this on another post.

Ta ta for now!