Up at five

 Report to the clinic at six.  Surgery at seven-thirty.  Done by eight-thirty.  Judy awake by nine.  Checking out by nine-thirty.  We were in the car headed south by ten.  Deep fried burritos from Laredo Taco Company when we gassed up at Riviera.  Not a lot of conversation.  Picked up the dogs from Boy’s Camp in Edinburg by one.  Home by one-thirty.  This surgery stuff is easy.  The doctor found three problems in her knee.  There was some arthritis to smooth out, some worn cartilage to repair, and a little tear in the meniscus to clean up.  He thinks her knee will be fine, once it stops hurting. For those of you wondering what Judy was going to get for dinner, we had already used up the gas station food option for the day, so I fed her a nice hot dinner of meatloaf, green beans, and baked sweet potatoes.  Impressed? So were we when Barb and Henry brought it over. Hey, this being nice to Judy thing is easy too. 

Road trip!

 We’re all done with me, so it’s Judy’s turn; her turn for attention.  That long awaited knee surgery is here.  We drove to Corpus today and set up in a motel for the night.  She reports for surgery at 6am tomorrow. It will be arthroscopic surgery to repair some damaged cartilage; outpatient surgery, so with any luck we’ll drive home in the afternoon before the drugs even start wearing off. Then I get to wait on her. 

Free at last!

 Tomorrow, Tuesday, was to be the big the day.  Six weeks from the surgery date.  No more neck brace.  I can drive again. We didn’t wait until Tuesday.  Sunday is the day I declared my freedom.  I took off the rack. In the rack is uncomfortable.  Out of the rack is comfortable.  We went for a drive (I drove).  We birded for a couple hours, drove some more, then birded some more.  It felt awesome. We’re still careful; I won’t do any heavy lifting or strenuous exercising until after the 3 month mark, but we’re through with the neck brace.  I haven’t tested the limits of motion, I’m not going to do anything extreme, but left and right feels pretty good.  Up and down is a little more difficult, but I can look up and down all I need to see birds so I’m good. The scar is kind of lumpy, but no big deal.  (It’s a little hard to shave around.) Besides, I hear chicks dig scars. It doesn’t hurt.  Nothing hurts.  This is great.