Saturday Afternoon

My PT says that my doctor will be pleased when he sees me on Monday, and should take me out of the brace, and I hope so! It's really become a nuisance, sliding down my leg as I try to even out my walking gait. We worked on my gait a little bit today, trying to get me used to using the right leg normally again. Part of it now is just that I'm conditioned to favor it and put more weight on my left side, and I need to learn to trust it.

I was happy to see how well I seemed to be doing on the exercise bike, my whole 8 minutes on there... I remember my first time on the bike at 4 minutes and I could barely make the pedals move, and even then my left foot was doing all the work. I had to sit far back and could barely reach the pedals, and I had to take my shoe off to give my ankle enough flex. Now I'm pedaling away with shoes on and pressure on both legs.

They've added a pound of weight to my leg when I do leg lifts. Boy, does that make it harder. At the same time, it's great to feel the results of the PT, and to be able to do more and more things, even simple things like rest my foot on the rung of our kitchen stool as I type this.

I went to the grocery store with Chris today! That was another simple thing that I haven't done in weeks. Of course, he might have been just as happy to do it alone, but he was gracious to bring me along, and it felt good to do even a small errand. I haven't done anything except work, sleep and PT for three weeks now.

And I have to say a word or two about how wonderful Chris has been during all of this, taking on job of chauffeur, cook, maid, home health aide and handyman. I couldn't have gotten this far in my recovery without his being so supportive, driving me so many places (esp the first two weeks), doing all the dinners and cleanup, cleaning the house, and doing so many other things. That allowed me to just focus on my PT and job.

Well, and also focus on a few TV shows. I have become addicted now to "Property Ladder." The renovation process itself isn't as interesting as the remarkable lack of thought and planning most people put into it, and the complete lack of self-awareness of how they affect the other people in the process. As a potential management / team training tool, it's priceless.

Speaking of lack of thought, planning, self-awareness, etc., I have too much stuff sitting around, and have bought a magazine on getting organized. "205 ways to make your life easier." "Clutter conquered in every room of the house." But I might have to take a nap first...

3 Weeks after Surgery, 1 week after football

Even though it's great to have a 3-day weekend, I've found myself in a bit of a funk. No more football... We enjoyed going to the ProBowl last week here in Hawaii! It was fun to get to see so many players from all the teams at once. All the team mascots were there, doing what mascots do to each other, and I had a good time making fun of the cheerleaders sent from each team. No word on their selection criteria...

"don't they realize they're a joke?" I said to Chris. "They're not a joke," he insisted. "Every man here is glad to watch them. Just wonder where they get those go-g0 boots."

Somehow I don't think his focus was on the go-go boots... A woman spilled some beer on my head passing it to her husband. That was annoying, but a minor blip. It was definitely one of those games where people were soaking up the atmosphere (and the beer) more than the plays themselves.

The ProBowl next year will be played the week before the SuperBowl in Miami, where the SB is being held. But that's brought a lot of backlash from the players, who see Hawaii as a reward. So the NFL is in negotiations with Hawaii to bring the ProBowl back here for 2011 or 2012.

I'm still in the knee brace, but called the doc on Friday to see if I could unlock it for walking, and he said "yes," so I'm feeling more mobile. No more "FrankenEva" when I move around. At slow speeds, I almost look normal... It still hurts more than I expected it would at this point, but it does get better every day. I see the doctor a week from today and am hoping I will be out of the brace then, or at least can sleep without it.

Other than that, just enjoying the end of the Hawaiian winter and rainy season. We haven't had a lot of rain in February. It's nice and cool in the mornings when we wake up. I'm looking forward to getting our warmer weather back so I can really start to enjoy the pool!

Two weeks after surgery...

It was a rough week trying to juggle work, physical therapy appointments, other doctor appointments, and fit in 6 hours at home on the knee machine each day.  The knee machine time kinda went by the wayside.  I haven't made 6 hrs since Sunday.  But I seemed to be doing well at PT today, and I was completely comfortable in the knee machine at the highest angle today.  

Boy, will I be glad to see that thing go.  I also read an article on the internet that said those machines are a source of debate as to how effective they are.  After 6 weeks, they tested two groups of people, one who had used the machine and one who hadn't, and they were at the same level.  Said their main value was psychological, that it made the patients feel like they were doing something positive and constructive towards their healing.  

But I told myself not to second guess my doctor.  That was one article; he's had experience with lots of patients and seemed sold on the value of this thing.

I got really tired this week.  Couldn't even make it into work on Friday - pretty much slept the whole morning.  But I'm looking forward to the Pro Bowl tomorrow!  When I'm not having anxiety attacks over how much things are piling up at work...

I drove myself to my PT appointment and back (abt 5 min each way) this morning and it felt fine.  So I plan to start driving to work on Monday, which is abt 15 min each way.  I'm still wearing the brace, but it has a hinge, so I can get pretty comfortable with driving.  I wouldn't want to be caught in heavy traffic yet.  

I still have to walk with the brace locked in the straight leg position, so I'm still "Franken-Eva" when I move around and I'm slow.  I don't have a lot of pain anymore - just a mildly uncomfortable pulling sensation in that knee, as the new ligament continues to stretch.  I'll take the crutch w/ me to the ProBowl tomorrow but more as a way to signal to others that I'm "special" so they can see why I'm moving slowly and don't knock me over...  And maybe other ladies will take pity on me in the restroom line...

Of course, you can never deal with just one thing at a time.  Our electric bills had been steadily climbing and really jumped last month, so we called the electric company, and they came out and told us we had a hot water leak, and our hot water heater was in overdrive trying to heat all this water.  It's taken us almost 2 weeks to get a plumber to deal with it.  One was supposed to show up Thursday afternoon, but called to reschedule for Monday.  So Chris gets to stay home and deal with that...

Our pool pump was also having problems, so we got that replaced (just waiting for the bill....).  That has been wonderful, though, because our new one, besides being energy efficient, is SO much quieter.  We can really enjoy the pool now while the pump is on.  It's soothing to look at the rippling water and we don't have to turn up the TV set over the pump!

We cleaned the house today.  Chris of course, did most of the cleaning, but I cleared out some of my junk that had been piling up on our ample kitchen counters.  It's nice to get back to (almost) normal.  I still hate how much some of the paperwork has piled up, but then I just try to think of some of those TV shows I've watched lately about people with cluttered houses and I try to compare myself to them and feel less stressed over my own mess...

Well, time for more hours in the knee machine!