Knees Update

I had an appointment with my knee doctor yesterday but he was gone, off to teach a seminar or something on knee replacement. So, I saw his associate, a nice young man who took time to answer my zillion questions. And then he pronounced me very well healed and doing great! I was so thankful. His best advice was to basically ignore my knees and just live, not to worry about falling.

That particular advice was very good because of what happened in Spain. I haven't gotten there yet in my writing, and at the rate at which I'm able to actually put words on the computer, it might take me awhile to get there! I'll just say this - I fell. Tripped over a cobblestone curb and went flat. Missed my knees completely and fell instead on my elbows, especially the left one. I still have bruising along the inside of my left arm and a scab on the right elbow where I "burned" it against the cobblestones. I'll write more about that later - the fall, the Spanish ER and so forth. :) For now, the doctor just encouraged me to ignore my knees and live, saying that when you are careful about them all the time, you tend to trip and possibly fall more often (I fell because I didn't SEE correctly and that should be taken care of in a couple of weeks). And if I do happen to fall on my knees he said I'd know if I'd broken the kneecaps. :) :) And if I won't do invasive surgery in Ukraine, get it/them braced, no weight on them at all and go some place where they can 'fix' them, preferably home to my doctor.

So. Good news all in all.

No jumping (no jumping jacks!), no running, no repetitive movements like that that put extra pressure on the knee. But walking and hiking and so forth are fine.

Mel is in the store right now as I write this in the car. He's buying some lunch stuff and then we are off to look at some pretty country. And maybe - just maybe! we'll stop somewhere and I'll get to go for a short hike. !!! It will be very short because we are still not adjusted to the altitude and start panting for oxygen after about 10 steps, but we're better than we were a week ago when just crossing the room took all of our energy. :)

Joy!!!!!

Almost Home

Well, we were supposed to stay in a hotel tonight, but all the rooms are full. Tomorrow is March 8 - Women's Day. Celebrated all over the place, I guess, except in the United States. For some reason I just can't get excited about it. Guess Mother's Day and Birthday do it for me. So we are still here at Jon and Tracy's place.

We were supposed to be on the train tonight. This paragraph should come before the one above. :):) But due to the afore mentioned holiday - a huge holiday here in Ukraine, but not as huge as New Year - there were no coupe's available on either of the two Kherson trains. So, we called Sergei K. who then called Sasha to see if he was available to come and get us.

Yes, but only if he could arrive tomorrow morning and not tonight as we had originally hoped. So, tomorrow morning around 8 we should get a phone call from Sasha so he can get directions on how to find this place as he's never been here before.

Hopefully, if all goes well, we should be home by 6 pm tomorrow night. Hopefully. I never count on things like that here, though, so we'll see.

We probably won't have internet right away as Irina told us the cable is not currently working. Can't do dial up either as this is a new computer and is without the dial up feature we need for our dial up internet provider. So - due to the holiday tomorrow, we may not have internet until Tuesday (the old 3 day weekend, you know!). Again - we'll see how it goes.

I am looking forward to being home. It will be nice to have more clothing to wear than what fits in this one suitcase. That is almost all I've had for over 4 months now (I did buy 3 or 4 items at Walmart). And it will be nice to see my cat, my plants, my fish (if any are still alive).

But most of all, it will be absolutely wonderful to have my own bed and pillow again! I have missed them! A lot! A very much a lot!

I'll Think About It Tomorrow...

Today is the first day I’ve been able to sit at the table and work at the computer for more than just 3 or 4 minutes at a time. In fact, I sat so long a couple hours ago that when I got up I was in a lot of pain and had to stretch the muscles in my legs and back to ‘get going’ again. Now I am trying to take frequent breaks and get up every few minutes and just walk around a bit. That helps a lot.

I am finishing my 4th day of half dose of the pain killer. Today is the first day that I’ve felt ‘normal’ from the time I got up until now. I’ve had a few of what I call ‘bubbles in time’ where everything seems slightly twisted but they haven’t lasted too long.

I am nervous – the doctor told Mel I should just take one pill today, one tomorrow and one the day after and that’s it. I can’t do that. I am terrified of what will happen.

I started out at 40mg every 12 hours of this stuff and am now on 20mg every 12 hours. I want to take the 20 twice daily until I can go see this doctor myself, at the hospital, on Monday. I am going to demand an Rx for 10mg for 3 days and then 5mg for 3 days. Then, and only then, will I stop taking it altogether.

When the doctor talked to Mel I think he thought I was having pain, not all of these weird withdrawal symptoms. He told Mel to tell me to take the Vicadon if I needed something more on the one 20mg per day schedule. Pain is the least of my concerns. I can handle pain – what I can’t handle is the horror I experienced before. Even thinking about it right now makes me feel sick to my stomach. Enough!

This afternoon Mel took me over to a nearby somewhat flat-ish dirt road so I could go for a walk. I set a goal – a big pine tree a ways down the road. I figured that when I got to the tree I could decide whether I could walk farther or not. It was not. We turned around at the tree and walked back to the car, a walk that was slightly up hill. By the time I got to the car I was done in. Total time of the walk?? Six minutes.

We went to the grocery store afterward and I ended up buying a couple of birthday cards. I quickly found out that standing still on a hard surface like that is not a good idea, especially after taking a walk. My right knee stiffened up something fierce. Actually it’s the tendons and ligaments that stiffened up – the knee can’t do that now. Which ever – it let me know that I’ve got to do something before I can go through passport control in London and then Kiev. I cannot stand that long in one place, shuffling forward inch by inch. Or maybe I’ll have to get some more Vicadon to take at that time!

So, I’m learning a lot. I’m progressing fast, yes, but I still have quite a way to go before I leave in just over two weeks. Oh my.

I’m going to pull a Scarlett O’Hara – I’ll think about it tomorrow.

Where Have You Been??

Ok, ok - I confess. I've been here at home. Watching old Star Trek TNG reruns in the early evening and the first season of 24 later in the evening. Mel and I have limited ourselves to TWO episodes of 24 only each evening. Wow - is that show addictive!

I have also been working on finishing another afghan to give away to someone in need this fall. A needlepoint rabbit is about 2/3's finished - all mine, all mine! And I have the pillow top finished to the point where the next stop is making a back for it. I even dug out an old bed pillow that I'm going to take apart and stuff this smaller pillow with the innards. This pillow top was started almost a year ago in the Saturday craft class. I decided I needed to try and finish it at home instead.

And I've been doing some other writing. News/prayer letter updates, thank you notes, birthday cards, my own thoughts (maybe they will appear here, maybe not at this point).

The knee is better. Mel and I walked to the store today to buy some much needed produce. I wore a pair of shoes I bought in France and did much better than with my old ones. I am happy! I will be very careful with that knee, believe me. Stepping down into a pile of sand some builders had left just off the sidewalk about did me in - but, it didn't! And that is progress. Huge progress for me.

Mel has been sick with either a stomach virus or food poisoning. Could be either since he's had some meals away from home. He's better today, but spent the day yesterday mostly in bed, sleeping, when he wasn't running for the other very important room. Such is life.

All for now. But I'm back!