February 22 – “In update mode”

I was chided a bit for mentioning yesterday that I had an appointment with my surgeon, but then never reporting on the visit itself.  Well, my question for her this time was twofold.  First, how long could I expect the soreness in my quads to last?   And second, was I maybe doing too much and that was causing the soreness?  I mentioned the two-mile walk/stair climbs/lunges three times a week regimen.  I also let her know we had been on one semi-challenging hike.  She laughed at me.  Not rudely or anything.  She just said, “Let me say it this way.  I have patients – a lot of patients – who come in for their three month post-surgery check and they can’t even bend their leg.  Whatever you are doing … keep doing it.  And as for the soreness, that varies from person to person.  Remember how after the surgery you couldn’t lift your leg off the bed?”  I interrupted her.  “Well, I did lift it.  But that’s because I heard horror stories about the quads, so I worked on strengthening them beforehand.”  She shook her head, turned to the medical student with her and said, “See?  I told you.”  (Wait.  She told him what?).  Anyway, she said it often takes a full year from the time of surgery for the soreness to go away completely … “but it WILL go away.”  I’ll take that as a promise.  I don’t go back again until my six month anniversary, and then if all is well, again at the one year anniversary.  So there’s my report.  Next up on the rehab list … chair jumping?

Since I’m in the update mode, here’s the update on our AT&T saga.  A tech came out Monday because we had zero internet all weekend.  He fixed it.  Well, until Monday night.  That’s when the service became spotty at best, kicking in and out at random times, and when it was son, it was way slower than we had before Monday.  I called back and set up another appointment.  Tech number two came yesterday.  She was quite helpful, actually.  As her diagnostic equipment ran, she explained that the other tech had purposely lowered our internet speed from about 6 mg/sec to 1.5 mg/sec. according to their protocol.  Apparently our antique copper wires can’t handle any more than that unless they are brand new.  She joined the other tech in recommending fiber optics, but she was willing to try to track down the difficulty.  Her machine showed multiple points of failure along the line, either between us and the main box or somewhere beyond the box.  Guess what?  We have another tech coming this afternoon to install fiber optics and Uverse TV.  So long Comcast.

Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Father, thank you for the good report on my knee.  It’s frustrating to live with the soreness, but knowing it’s to be expected – and that it will go away in time - does help.  Amen.