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  • From: sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] SJ in ME
  • Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:29:48 -0400

Thanks for the wb :)
I'm a little over halfway there; the surgery last fall was to stabilize the upper back. This last one was to rebuild the bowed right leg and replace the knee (stainless steel, titanium, silicone), and rearrange some muscles and ligaments that had long ago gone bad. Then began the PT, 6 hrs a day, punctuated by an hour of OT after lunch each day. I had no clue how much work it was going to be, and although I'm really not much of a wuss, was completely taken aback by the amount of pain this time; I'm told most of that is the muscles trying to reform themselves according to Hoyle. Amazing that they can do it at all, given that this surgery is 60 years "too late".

It is indeed a weird thing to be able to walk upright now, also weird to have so much less pain when I put weight on the right foot/knee/leg. I still have a couple of months of PT 2X/wk, but feel like I'm flying high now! I can put my right foot where I want it to go, and have 100% extension in the new knee, 120% flexion....all better than when I was 20! So far, all has gone as expected/predicted by the orthopedic guy; he says that when all is said and done, will be painfree in legs/knees/ankles/feet. The upper back is as good as it's gonna get, but even so it is much better than it has been for 50 years or more.....I'll go for that!
Still stuck with the walker until sometime this summer, after the muscles/ligaments/etc in the right leg are all working correctly, the left lower leg bones will be done and that knee also replaced. That leg doesn't have as much bow, and the knee is not nearly so far out of line as the right one was so hopefully this one will be faster and easier to get past.

You people who still have small kids about: for crying out loud, make sure they don't have scoliosis, and if they do, that it gets treated in timely fashion. All this (and everything that led up to it over my entire upright lifetime) could have been averted with one surgery 'way back when if my mother hadn't decided it not necessary. My brother also deals with a congenital issue which should have been easily corrected when he was an infant..... Some people shouldn't be allowed to have children; our mother was one of those.

SJ, where we have about a foot of snow still on the pasture but have had warm days and the syrup run has been fantastic. My job since I'm not too mobile is to keep the fire going under the evaporators. Grade A syrup $60 this year (maple, not sure about birch).

SJ


EarthNSky wrote:
Glad to see you back my friend. You and Donna should compare notes as you both are on the mend!





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