The knee surgery is done. All went as planned. The doctor found some meniscus wear on the inside of the knee he could smooth out, and a little tearing on the outside he could trim. Her knee should feel better when it stops feeling worse. They gave her some of that anesthetic that makes you talk a lot when you wake up. I don’t think it’s worn off yet. They put some kind of pain blocker in the knee, so it didn’t hurt at all for a while. That has clearly worn off now though. We’ve moved on to drugs. Hydrocodone. The bottle said to take one or two pills for pain. We took two. Apparently one would have been enough. Now we’re pain-free and totally loaded. It’ll be a little crazy for a few days; getting things back in balance. The knee recovery should be fairly quick though. Then we’ll move on to the shoulder. Judy has had both the knee and the shoulder done before, so we know the shoulder is a bigger deal. That recovery is long and painful, but not having it done is long and painful too, so may as well get on with it. We have help from neighbors. Jeff and Carol watched Annie for us. We came home to a nice linguine and sausage dinner provided by next door neighbors Ron and Linda. Lots of offers of help. I promised to be nice to Judy for 24 hours after the knee surgery. Only 18 hours to go.
Gulf Waters
No more bird or swamp pictures. No more playing tag with the alligators. We drove home. Fish Crow on the way. Now we’re settled back in on our spot on the beach. Wilson’s Phalarope in town. Knee surgery for Judy tomorrow.
Brazos Bend State Park
A brief visit. We got here Sunday. Gone tomorrow morning. Back to Gulf Waters. Here are some parting shots.
Gator
We were watching this gator at the edge of the pond.
When suddenly he stood up.
Then he proceeded to walk across the trail, right between Judy and me. That’s Judy in the background with Jeff. She’s the legs with the walking stick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzwMl3PjF-g
I broke the video into two pieces, because I didn’t really mean to be that close to him. I decided it was time to take a couple steps back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuKWBdpMR_E
Change of scenery
We moved to Brazos Bend State Park for a few days. A hundred fifty miles. Now we’re looking at stuff like this.
Common Moorhen, White Ibis, and American Alligator. Tonight we saw fireflies and heard Coyotes, Eastern Screech-owls, and Barred Owls