Christmas 2023

 

Knee update

 Progress!  Good progress.

PT started on Friday. He did really well! The therapist assigned him.only four exercises to do, three times a day. That evening, We had a fun "Goodbye" visit with Damian,Tandy and girls. They head to Texas on Saturday.

Mike can do stairs! Step, together, step, together. 

Mike has a small appetite! We've been enjoying nutritional meals AND yummy treats from neighbors. Hmmm, candy and cookies and nuts-- oh my!

Mike can do some of the Physical Therapy by himself. But I do help him to make it easier and obtain a greater range of motion. It worked well on his shoulder, so we are hoping for the best on the knee.

The bruising on the top of his thigh is evident now. I think it's from the tourniquet they use for surgery. I'm sure the rest of his knee will blossom soon.

He's totally off the opioids pain killers and just using Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Good progress. Not using walker.

Not sleeping much at night. Drinking plenty of fluids keeps him hopping up and down frequently. It's a bother.  (But GREAT exercise!) And his bowels have started functioning, so he is a happy camper. Pun intended.

We went for a drive this morning to get some fresh air. But it turned out he was NOT comfortable sitting in a vehicle, so we didn't stay out long at all. But at least it was a change of scenery for him.

Progress every day. We are so happy and SOOOoooo very grateful!!!

Knee replacement, Day 3 and 4

Day three. Not nearly as good as previous days. He can hardly move his leg and had to limp around with his walker, in much pain.

By end of day 3, he was having a skin allergic reaction to one ( or more) of his drugs. There are so many!

That's not even all of them.

He CAN still get up and around to use the toilet, but the opioids have taken hold of his bowels and stopped that...so he's uncomfortable.

The frequent icing seems to work, as we have removed all the outer wrappings down to the surgical dressing. No bruising yet, but I'm sure it will come. 

His leg looks nice and tan from the orange-ish disinfectant cleansing solution from surgery. It takes a few showers before that is all gone. His bandage is 8 1/2 inches long!

Morning of day 4, Friday the 22nd,  we are waiting for a call from home health and surgeon about continuing/ stopping one or more of the drugs.  On his own, Mike has decided to take ibuprofen for pain rather than opioids. It IS his drug of choice and works well. Only they told him to stop that, and put him on Eloquis for a blood thinner ( $400 co-pays on that puppy!!!) rather than baby aspirin. . . it's kind of complicated.

Last night's discomfort with the neck/upper chest rash/irritation was partially solved with a shower and Benadryl. But Thursday morning, after removing outer Ace bandages and gauze wraps meant we ADDED compression stockings. Do you know how HARD those are to get on? Can you imagine how hard that was for me to do with my weak and faulty thumbs? Ouch. Just, ouch. No more showers for him! Haha. Not really. But if it's just for soothing a rash on his upper body that he needs, I think I'll be helping with a sponge bath rather than remove and replace those ghastly things.

On a more positive note, he's discovered that Tramadol definitely does give him anxiety, so he's not taking those any more. We actually played a few hands of cards together Thursday evening to occupy his brain while that anxiety was working it's way through. And I played solitaire while waiting to rotate ice packs (which pretty much was my job all day long). I even won. Once. And I finished watching a Christmas movie with him, too, last night. He has to frequently change positions, and I'd been listening to most of it ( the movie) while I was relaxing and playing cards between ice packs, so we finished watching the movie together on the bed. That seemed an almost normal thing to do. 

Progress. Baby steps. Still hoping and praying for a good outcome overall. This afternoon the physical therapist will come to meet with Mike and we will see what THAT entails this time.

And early Friday Morning finds him walking ( for now) without walker, which means his pain is less at the moment. It changes hourly.

Pre Christmas Visits/ Surgery

 We also had Gail's family here overnight, but no photo.

Four generations.

All these years, and we never EVER noticed the Christmas 12 Days of Christmas glasses were INCORRECT! No wonder they were "Free with purchase" giveaways. The eleventh day is NOT "Ladies Dancing". 

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

More than one of those glasses are incorrect.

Monday Night, Tandy accompanied me to see and hear lovely Christmas music at my Church by Lex de Azevedo and his Christian Choir. Lovely.

And then-- Poof! Just like that Mike has a new knee and is back home in good condition. Whew!

That's a LOT of meds! 

December hiking

 Babies and doggies and red dirt, Oh, My!

Started my morning off early with steak and eggs with Mike. Gail, Seth and Johnny came to spend the night last night, so we had a brief visit with them last night, but They left before I returned from hiking.

I drove to New Harmony to carpool with Jessica Henshaw, our Ladies Hiking Group leader at 8 a.m.

On my way to her home, a huge flock of wild turkeys crossed the road right by me. I've never seen so many at once.

Pretty cool. There were MANY more than just these. 

We exited at Washington, headed down to the Grapevine and the Dino Cliffs trail. Pretty area. 5 other ladies, two more dogs and one baby joined us. We were 7 total.

It was very cool. I had on multiple clothing layers and didn't shed any of them.

Enjoy the views!

Toward Pine Valley mountains

Looking back down toward Washington and St George. It's been hazy all week.

Proof I was there.

The parking lot was so full!

Me and my hiking buddies for the morning, Coda and Milly ( Jessica's dogs).