Why Am I So Dang Tired?

Knew Knees
Tired
Why Am I So Tired?

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!

Cleared for Work … Part Time, that is

Knew Knees

Two days in a row a physical therapy was not a good decision! The clinic is closed on Friday afternoons and Nina is up at the Idaho Falls Temple on Friday morning, so we made appointments for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. Yesterday’s was a major workout and twenty hours later I was back for more. However, at the end the measurements said 108 degrees of bend in the left leg and 106 degrees in the right. 120 is the magic number and anything over that is a bonus. I can get there!

After discussions with my doctor’s nurse, with the nurse at CIGNA (who administer the short-term disability program), and with the nurse at work (who has to agree that I’m fit to come back to work), they all decided that I could return to work part time (no more than three hours a day) starting next Tuesday. That would be re-evaluated on the 16th as to whether or not I can go back full time.

This weekend we’ll try driving to see whether or not that will work. If not, I’ll need to be driven up to work and back and that’s a burden I don’t want to put on Nina if at all possible to do otherwise.

Each day is showing measurable improvement. In a year I should be pretty much back to 100%.

Ta ta for now!

What Happens at Rehab … Besides Torture, that is

General, Knew Knees
Ice ... Feels So Good
Ice … Feels So Good

Today was my second visit to outpatient rehabilitation. Monday’s appointment was primarily an evaluation visit. Today was the Real Deal.

The visit started with hot pads on each knee for about 10 minutes to help losen up the knees. The heat felt so nice, it was almost sinful! Then the real workout began.

The whole workout is centered around stretching the muscles in my legs. There’s a small window of opportunity to regain the flexibility in the legs that I had before the surgery. Scar tissue begins to build up and can never be broken through once that sets in. So, the object is to get all of the bend (130 degrees would be good) and all of the flex (up to -5 degrees would be good) as possible. Strength isn’t an objective. It’ll take about a year to regain the strength in my legs that I had before the surgery.

Today’s workout included:

  • Ten minutes on the stationary bicycle. When I first sat down I couldn’t get the pedal to go all the way around (it just hurt too much). So, it was back and forth on the pedals to increase the stretch. After about 5 minutes I could go all the way around and finished up that exercise in good style.
  • Walking in a straight line. The therapist put down a series of small cones (about 4 inches high). I walked down the line stepping over each of the cones all the while keeping my toes pointed straight ahead and not swinging my leg around the cone. The height of the cones will increase over time. I made several circuits, stepping over with the left leg going out and then stepping over with the right leg coming back.
  • Walking sideways. Using the same cones. I side-stepped over a cone and then brought the other foot over the cone next to the first foot. Repeated down the line of cones and then came back, repeated several times.
  • From there it was up on the workout bench. Quad stretches, calf stretches, thigh stretches, leg lift and holds, over and over again until I was sure I couldn’t raise my leg another time.
  • The therapist then massaged the incisions on each knee and moved the knee cap around. That felt really weird! The purpose is to break up any scar tissue, particularly any that might bind the knee cap.
  • Finally, foot slide on the wall. Laying on my back, I put one foot on the wall and slid it down to where the wall met the bench, then back up and repeat. Two minutes worth on each leg. This was an absolute killer exercise. At first I could only slide down a short ways. Each repetition was to go lower and hold for 5 seconds, then slide back up and do it again. After two minutes, they measured my bend in my knee. Today I had 89 degrees in my right knee and 91 degrees in the left knee. I need to get to 130 degrees. Lots of work still needed!

After that, the therapist attached little pads on each side of my knee, kind of like the pads used for an EKG. Two pads on each side of each knee were then connected to electrical wires and a machine that put some voltage into the knee. This electrical stimulation helps the muscle relax. That may be true, but the rest of me didn’t do much relaxing. While the shock therapy was going on, they put an ice pack on each knee and I sat there for 15 minutes doing the “cool down”. The ice felt as wonderful at the end of the workout as the heat did at the beginning. 

I’m now Really, Really Tired. I feel like I could crash and sleep for days. Only problem is, I know that I won’t sleep that long. There is a lot of pain in my legs and that’ll wake me up when the pain pills run their course, somewhere around 3 am in the morning. I’ll take some more pills then, but whether or not I get back to sleep will be questionable. Maybe today’s workout will leave me tired enough at 3 am to get back to sleep!

I go back tomorrow late morning for another round of this stuff. Right now I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s visit at all.

Ta ta for now!

Getting Out of the House!

General

My mind is telling me it’s time to be doing something other than sitting around the house. The trip to Rehab on Monday, while painful, was a breath of fresh air. I did go to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and enjoyed that time out of the house as well. (Warning: Lots of Mormon jargon follows)

Another opportunity came up yesterday evening. My Church calling is to serve on the High Council for the Pocatello Stake. The High Council is kind of like an advisory body to the Stake President as well as his eyes and ears in the Wards and Branches in the Stake. I haven’t been able to do anything in this calling for the past month. Then I got an email from the Stake Executive Secretary that there was a meeting on Tuesday evening at 8:30 to include the High Council, Young Mens Presidency, Young Womens Presidency, Stake Sunday School Presidency, Bishoprics, and Branch Presidencies. That was intriguing enough. Nina was willing to be my chauffeur, getting dressed in a suit would work (I’d done that on Sunday). So I decided to go.

The only issue in my mind was what would be available to sit on. Best would be a chair with arms so I could control the sitting down process and push up out of the chair. I was pretty sure that the Relief Society room at the Stake Center didn’t have that kind of a chair. There would be enough people there, though that I should be able to get a couple of men to help me stand up.

The other change I made was to get into the front seat of the car rather than the back seat. We have a six-foot kind of a belt strap. I thought I could use that to loop underneath each foot to help lift it into the car. It worked! Getting into and out of the car turned out to be relatively pain free and straight-forward.

The meeting went from 8:30 pm to 10 pm. There was exactly the right kind of a chair in the foyer and one of the brothers volunteered to push the chair into the Relief Society Room for me to sit on. It worked perfectly! I managed to sit for 90 minutes without too much fidgeting and participate in the meeting and discussion. The meeting was to introduce the new youth curriculum for next year. The Church is making a significant change and upgrade to the materials and lesson topics for the teen-aged Sunday School, Young Mens, and Young Womens organizations. All of the material is online with lots of supplementary information. The youth are directly involved in deciding what topics should be discussed. They also aren’t “lessons” anymore in the traditional sense of a lesson. The expectation is that the “teacher” will talk 40% of the time or less with the members of the class doing most of the talking (my past experience is that the youth have no trouble talking … we’ve spent most of our adult years shushing them up). This is going to be a good change.

I got back home about 10:30 pm. Tired … very tired … and ready to crash for the night. It was very good to get out of the house!

Today is another trip out of the house … this time to Rehab. I expect to also come home exhausted. It’s a beautiful day outside. The temperatures will be in the mid 50’s for the Trick or Treaters tonight. We should get quite a few of them. Nina will need to do the duties at the door, though. I don’t have enough strength and agility.

Ta ta for now!

Outpatient Rehab Started … Sore Knew Knees Result

Knew Knees

20121029-205735.jpgToday I made my way to the rehabilitation therapy clinic. That’s a bit of a process getting there. Nina backs the car a ways out of the garage. I make my way on my walker to the front door and she holds the screen while I make my way down the steps and over to the car. I can’t quite bend me knees enough to get into the front seat, so I kind of lay down in the back seat and pull myself into the car, swing the legs down, and sit up. It’s uncomfortable, but works. After arriving at the clinic it’s kind of the reverse process.

Because this was the first day, the first twenty minutes were spent evaluating my current circumstance. I can bend both knees to 94 degrees and straighten them out flat (both with quite a bit of pain). We went through several exercises to see what strength I have. Then it was up on the bench for a couple of hot packs on the knees. That was 15 minutes of heaven! The picture above is while the hot packs were on my knees.

From there to the stationary bike. I can’t quite go all the way around on the pedals (maybe on Wednesday). Fifteen minutes of that and my right knee was barking quite noticeably. Then back to the bench where the the therapist put some kind of electrical stimulation on each knee and then two ice packs, one on each knee, for fifteen minutes. A total of 90 minutes and the first day at rehab was done. Thankfully.

20121029-210635.jpgThis afternoon a care package arrived from our son Jared in Seattle, WA. There is a delightful store near where Jared lives in Seattle stocked with lots of great stuff from Japan. I love the butter cookies … two boxes. I also love the milk caramel … three boxes (for me … there was other stuff in the box for Nina, including 3 boxes of caramels for her). Thanks, Jared! They’ll be savored!!

I’ve actually been well supplied with caramels and cookies. Dawnmarie sent out a box of hand-made home-made caramels the day I went into the hospital. Heather sent out a box of salted-chocolate caramels after I got home from the hospital. Jaelene sent up a box of to-die-for brownies.

Heather reminded me that sweet stuff helps dull the pain. So far so good!

Ta ta for now!

Nothing Knew Here

Knew Knees

It’s been a football day … with a bit of World Series baseball thrown in. Doorbell ditchers rang the doorbell a couple of times at 1 am this morning. That certainly screwed up the night’s sleep. Hopefully that was a one time thing. I’d like to get a full night’s sleep tonight.

The plan is to get cleaned up and go to Sacrament Mtg tomorrow afternoon. Sitting that long will be very uncomfortable. But, it’s time to start coming out into the real world.

Ta ta for now!

Mother Was In the News … 50 Years Ago

Knew Knees

20121026-203703.jpgThe Caribou County Sun, the weekly newspaper in Soda Springs, Idaho fairly often runs a recap of the news from 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and 50 years ago. This week’s paper in the 50 years ago section had a small piece about several women who went to the Relief Society Conference in Salt Lake City and sang in the choir. My mother, Arlene Smith, was among those women. So, she gets her name in the newspaper 50 years ago and again this week.

No baseball tonight … today is a travel day. But there is Air Force football. They’re doing well this evening.

The home health nurse finished up her work for me this morning. Every day is seeing good progress. Nina left to go to the temple this morning at 4:30 am for her weekly shift. That meant I was on my own this morning. No problem. When I got up I unlocked the front door so, if I needed help, people could get in without having to break down the door. I carried my cell phone with me … and with all those preparations, everything went well. I was even able to get myself dressed. That was a first.

Otherwise, this was actually a fairly benign day. Sufficient pain kept me pretty much confined to the living room. I’m looking forward to getting into bed in about a half hour.

I did have a visitor this morning. One of my neighbors down the street stopped by to say hello and visit for a while. Thanks, Steve! I enjoyed the company.

Ta ta for now!

Bases Loaded … No One Out

Knew Knees

We’re watching game 2 of the World Series. Unlike last night, tonight is a pitcher’s night. In the top of the 7th San Francisco laid down a bunt to advance the runners … and Detroit watched the ball roll to a stop in fair territory while hoping it would go foul. That loaded the bases with no one out. Next batter for San Francisco drove in a run and SF now leads 1-0. That may be enough to win the game. I’ll be watching through the end. It’s been a fun game.

The home health physical therapist came by around noon today for his last visit. I was really glad I had taken a couple of pain pills an hour before he arrived. His visit was indeed memorable. Haven’t wanted to do much moving since then!

Nina serves up at the Temple in Idaho Falls on Friday mornings. She leaves around 4:30 in the morning and gets back home around 2 pm. So, I’m completely on my own in the morning. It’ll be interesting to see how I do getting dressed! The home health nurse will make her last visit sometime tomorrow morning and it’s probably be a good idea to be dressed when she arrives.

I have gone into the computer room / office a couple of times the past couple of days. Sitting there is still very uncomfortable. So, I haven’t yet checked into my work email. Maybe tomorrow?

Ta ta for now!