December 12 – “THE post-op appointment”

Well, the big day finally came.  Yesterday was my post-op appointment with the surgeon to get some “official” word about where I am in the whole knee process.  Drumroll here …

The doc said everything looks great.  I am released to shower again (Cheers here from Chris).  I still take Aspirin every day for another four weeks to make sure my circulation keeps behaving.  And I am to start actually walking more along with other exercises.  I can get rid of walker and move to a cane when physical therapy deems me ready balance-wise.  Then it will be on to no outside assistance.  All good news there.  Come back to see her in four weeks.

From that appointment we walked straight over to the next round of physical therapy.  And of course as soon as we entered the exercise room, she veered right over to the dreaded balance stuff.  It is still really hard, but I think I did some better knowing what to expect.  I took a longer look at the controls on that machine, and it can get much worse.  But everybody on that end seems to think I’m doing really well, even ahead of schedule.  It’s just kind of frustrating for me not knowing what “schedule” to anticipate.

When we got home we decided the good news warranted a celebration.  So Chris took me for a walk down the street.  Sounds like a dog on a chain, I know.  But she was right beside me, ready to grab me if I stumbled or anything.  I think we went four houses, but I still had to complete the return trip, so we stopped at that.  And when we turned around I could tell immediately that the road had a slight drop toward the outside.  Just that small incline changed everything as far as my knee was concerned.  It was much harder.  So I made my way to the very peak of the road and stayed there.  Oh, we found out later that our neighbors were outside cheering me on.  We couldn’t hear them, though, but thank you so much for the encouragement, Geran’s.

After all that flurry of activity, I didn’t get much sleep last night.  But it was not because of the knee.  This time my back was indirectly involved.  My neuropathy issue suddenly decided to flare up, and for three or four hours both of my big toes felt like a thousand tiny soldiers inside each toe were making every effort to escape to the outside world.  Unless you have experienced nerve pain, you can’t really understand just how accurate the tiny soldiers comment really is.  It finally settled down around three or four in the morning so I was able to get a little sleep. 

Psalms 119:50 – “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.”

Father, thank you for the good news from the surgeon.  That shower sure felt good.  Amen.