Steve and Judy's Travels!

 

Judy told the physical therapist how well she was doing.  The PT said “No walking without the walker!” 

 

Turns out the walker isn’t required just for security and balance.  We have a couple healing bone ends that don’t want to bear full weight yet.  Walking with the walker distributes weight to the hands and takes some of the force off those healing bones.  Judy woke up sore today.  Maybe PT knows what she’s talking about.

 

We get it.  Judy is back to the walker, even in the house.  Our education continues…

 

 

 

Or two.

 

Suddenly Judy is up and about and feels like doing things again.  She has her balance back and is walking all around the house comfortably without the walker.  Tonight we were going to have burritos for dinner and she offered to make them!  OMG, she’s back!  Well, actually she’s not back all the time.  She still needs a lot of sleep; more than can be gotten just at night while her body repairs itself from the surgical intrusion; but when she’s awake, she’s back!

 

We ventured off the deck together for the first time in twelve days and had a golf cart ride around the park.  We talked with neighbors, but only from a near distance, which brings us to another subject.  We’re trying to remember to be conscious of “social distance”.  No hugging and stay back a few feet.  There aren’t any cases of coronavirus reported yet in the Rio Grande Valley, but we’ll start practicing being safe now.  Judy and I are in the danger zone; not for any underlying conditions; no compromised immune systems, but we’re undeniably at risk because of our age.  I go out for errands and take advantage of all the strategically placed hand sanitizers.  Don’t want to bring a virus home to Judy.  Don’t plan on getting into a flying or floating petri dish either.  No airplane or cruise ship rides for a while.

 

Went to the grocery store to get a few things today and that was not cool.  The aisles had more people than food.  There is an abundance of fresh food; fruits, vegetables, and meat, but durable staples; rice, beans, flour; nothing but bare shelves.  No cheese.  No butter.  No eggs.  Never seen that before.  We just had a hiccup in our land of plenty.  We hear stories of other less-developed countries where going to the grocery is a crap shoot.  You might have a wish-list of what you’d like to get, but settle for what is there that day, and figure out how to make it work.  I felt a twinge of that today.  Just a twinge though; a temporary thing.  Those other people we hear about, it’s their normal for weeks, months and years at a time. 

 

Home from the brush with reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten days post-surgery.  Knee recovery is slow.  Moving and stretching exercises every day.  The knee moves a little and hurts a lot.

 

For a while, the surgical leg was so swollen it didn’t even look like Judy’s leg.  The swelling is going down now though, and her leg doesn’t look so fully-inflated.

 

Less swelling should mean less resistance to range of motion.

 

Just today Judy is starting to feel like getting up and around, not because she has to for PT, but because she wants to.  We see the doctor for follow-up next week.  There aren’t any surface stitches to take out, but the knee will look a lot better when we’re able to get the tape and glue off and wash off all the magic marker lines.  Then we’ll know what it really looks like.

 

 

The Denver Broncos remain undefeated in 2020.

 

Go Broncos!!!