Do Things Really Happen in 3’s?

                                                            

Arlene, our good, good friend and blogster, wrote to me asking where I was. Yes, it’s been a long time again and I felt I really owed an explanation, so here is the letter I sent to her, and it also goes to you:

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You have got to be the dearest soul on the planet, Arlene.  I don't mean to disappear.  I think of all the years on WindowsLive Blog and never missed a post.  Then we get to Blogspot and I was ok for a good while but as you know, first Mom died, then my 8 closest friends all in the course of that year.  THEN, I got sick.  All I can say is I hope that I'm getting closer to the end of all the crappy luck.  This knee surgery has been the pits.  It is very, very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for anything.  I hate sitting in chairs for more than about 5 minutes and then have to stand or lie down.  This blasted PT therapist has really hurt me.  A few weeks ago, I was actually getting better and could take the steps up and down.  BUT....he decided on his own that something could be out of place and he literally gouged his finger under my knee cap and you could have heard me scream for miles.  He jumped back and all he said was Opps.  Because of that, I was back on a cane, couldn't do steps, couldn't sleep for the pain and had to cancel the next appointment.  The following week, which was last week, I told him what he did set me back weeks and weeks and now the pain was as bad as the day after the original surgery.  He apologized but then strapped weights to my ankle for the first exercises.  I told him no in no uncertain terms, that it hurt to the point of screaming and that it also was killing my back where I had plates and screws (from breaking my back in '92).  The girl helping him immediately took off the weights, but when she walked off, he put them right back on, telling me it would be fine, and then let go of my leg. I yelled bloody murder.  That was last Thursday.  I have upcoming appts every other day for the next 2 weeks beginning tomorrow but as soon as I finish writing to you, I am calling and cancelling all of them.  He is not going to do this to me ever again.  From the movement under the knee cap to the pain now running the entire length of my leg and to under my foot, I am positive he's made a new rip in the meniscus.  I have a followup appt with the surgeon on June 10th and even though he never listens at all and only keeps saying how great I look and how glad he is to see me, I will tell him what has happened and if he wants to do a new MRI, fine, but he will never, ever be allowed to operate on me again, either.  I'm just done with it all and want to rest my achin' bod and do my own leg/knee exercises and heal.....or at least heal to the point where I can bear it.  It's all been a nightmare and I had no idea I'd be out of commission for this long.  It's been 7 weeks so far, and I know the healing time is said to be 2 months at the earliest and goes all the way to 6 months, but I'll bet anything that didn't take all this into consideration.  I feel like the surgeon and the therapist walked right out of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. 

So that's the story up to this point and I think I'll post this to my page just for an update, but I swear, as this is the way it is right now, I'm honestly not sure of when I'll write much.  Just this typing/sitting has my leg really, really hurting.  It's like piano wires strung too tight and then pinged.  What a bunch of crap to happen, ugh.

But rather than write and just bitch and complain, I'd rather not blog at all until I can be smiling and laughing again.  I sure hope you and the rest of our wonderful group understands.

Always love to you and missing you, too,

Jenny

Yeowww! ~~~

                       

Yessirree, that is what it was like at my first physical therapy session today, but I’m the one on the table.  I’m definitely sore after the workout but I really, really liked the physical therapist --- he listened!  And he also said I should have been in PT beginning the 4th day after the surgery and shook his head at the time passed.  He brought me up to speed on the “real” story of this type of knee surgery.  He said the surgeon, albeit a good one, was dead wrong on telling patients they’d be good as new only a few days after the surgery.  The therapist said even the jocks were a good 2 months to healing, and my age group was certainly longer.  He heard the snap/crack in my shin and he understood when I told him about the tight wire-like feeling running down my leg that actually vibrates, and he was very familiar with my almost asleep feeling in my foot but when it touches the ground, my foot vibrates and moves right up my leg.  He said my range of motion in one particular direction was ahead of the game, but he could see that the swelling was still markedly noticeable and that showed inflammation and pain still going on.  He doesn’t think that the surgeon did anything wrong but does think that it was wrong not to send me to PT within days of the surgery and it takes longer now to get where I need to be.  That’s it in a nutshell although we talked and did measurements and exercises for another hour and made appointments for 2 days a week for a month and then see where it all stands and reschedule accordingly.  He told me to use the cane and to do the exercises he gave me 3 times a day (and a load of reps).  He believes he’s going to be able to rid me of this pain and get the healing going the way it should be.  I like him and I trust him and have a good feeling about him, so I can bear this beginning PT pain ---- sure, I might yell, but it’s for a good cause.  I’m up for it.  So here we go again,  taking care of this and icing and exercising, etc,, and being away from my pc for the most part, but I am determined to get better.  Lord knows when I’ll blog walk but will when it’s feasible and I get used to this new schedule.  Age, who needs it?  Ick.  Well, I guess it is better than the alternative, and besides, my furry ones, Sam and Lucy need me.

See you all when I can.  Enjoy this glorious weather get out and do things.  Pot some flowers.  Sit outside with a good book….add a glass of wine to that.  Wave to your neighbors, and light up the world with your beautiful smiles!

                                             Xoxoxo

PS/  Happy May 1st!   MAY POP!  (You have to really be old to know that one)

Here’s how it started:

                

By the time I was in elementary school, the tradition changed from pigs’ bladders to hitting your friends over the heads with school books and yelling, MAY POP!.  Wow.  Could that have been just a Southern thing?  And all this time they thought the problem was in-breeding, opps.