2021-02-20 Another Year, Another Birthday

First Apocalyptic weather and then another birthday......challenges for sure. The grandkids arrived in San Antonio on Friday evening. Saturday morning I got a big surprise when my son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter showed up and cleaned the house from top to bottom. That was indeed a wonderful birthday present. They disappeared for the afternoon. We had a family birthday celebration on Saturday night. I am wearing the family birthday hat which is very colorful and eye-catching when you can see the candles on the top. 

Somehow the picture of the birthday cake is on someone else's phone but I did get these two pictures. Both of my grandkids are artistic like their grandpa. The inside of Cameron's card is a little hard to see but it is a picture of a dachshund.

Morgan always goes all out with her creations. She loves construction paper and a glue gun. There were pop-outs and drop-downs all over.

There were other birthday presents as well but I was a little lax in the picture department since it was my birthday. My DH's present is brakes for the CRV toad I got in December. I just have to set up the time. The toad was pulled behind a diesel pusher in it's last life so it has an air brakes setup. I emailed the company that designed the system and told them I had a gasser motorhome. They said they could install a small compressor on my RV connected to the hydralic brakes so the system could work for me.

2021-02-18 Apocalyptic Weather in Texas

 There really isn't much other way to say it. Arctic weather descended on all of Texas last weekend. We had unprecedented cold everywhere. North Texas and the panhandle are used to cold and snow. The rest of us are not. We do not have snow equipment, salt, etc because it just isn't needed. 

Many places have been without electricity since Sunday and are just now getting it back even here in San Antonio and Houston. It is a checkerboard of what works and what doesn't. Here in Schertz, at least at my house, we had rolling power outages since Monday that ended yesterday. It was normally 2 hours on and 40 minutes or so off. Not too bad and very manageable. Most of the homes around here are all electric so when you lose power, you lose everything. Our house is well insulated and never dropped to cold temps that a jacket and blanket didn't take care of. Frozen pipes was another big issue. 

We got a call from a neighbor yesterday morning who is up in Wisconsin with relatives. They covered all their outdoor faucets but forgot a stand alone faucet in their yard away from the house because they never use it. Well it froze and broke. People feeding their dogs and cat were running faucets in the house but couldn't get the water turned off to the house. My DH went over and shut the water off at the main and was able to cut the pipe off and cap it (after the second try). Really unbelievably cold....down to single digits and night. 

We never had any water problems as our kitchen is not on an outside wall and DH covered our outside faucets as soon as we heard that cold was moving in. Snow of any kind even a dusting is a very rare occurence here.

Dave shoveled the patio and a 6 by 6 area of the backyard for Harley to go outside. As you can imagine, Harley was not in the least excited about going out. He held it as long as he possibly could. Dave had to resort to throwing the ball out to get him off the patio. Pupper just can't resist a ball!

Snow is finally melting today because the sun is shining. Don't know if it will all go though so freeze tonight means icy roads again in the morning. 

Today was the first day we got mail since last Saturday. Thank heavens Fedex and UPS still managed to make their deliveries as Dave had medicine enroute. I know that some areas might have been undeliverable but with fast food places lined up with customers, it is kind of sad that the post office delivered no where for a week.

HEB did not open at all the worst day after announcing they would only be open from 12-5. It was really bad then. Right now the grocery stores are out of so many things especially perishables of any kind. People started complaining about others hoarding but my friend's DIL works at Walmart and they had to throw out 3 semitruck loads of perishables because they were past the sell date. She asked if they couldn't have donated to Food Bank or others who needed. The DIL said they have done that in the past only to be sued by someone who said they got sick. 

This photo is from the first go round of snow. We had several snowfalls. DH still goes out and does his walks but our vehicles haven't moved since last week. 

Thank goodness I winterized my RV when I came home from the last trip in December. Hopefully it will be okay. Supposed to be 73 on Wednesday.....I can't wait. That is my kind of winter weather.

2021-02-14 Happy Valentine's Day

 My DH really surprised me on Valentine's Day with roses, candy, and a card. This wasn't easy to pull off since he hasn't been out much at all. Apparently, he picked up everything on Friday when he made a very quick run up to the base to pick up prescriptions.

I wasn't expecting anything considering how much he has had to do around here but it was really a nice surprise.

2021-02-10 Moving on Down the Road to Recovery

Recovery is progressing very well. I had the PT at home for two weeks, three times a week. Then I diligently did the exercises and icing on my own 3 to 4 times a day. The second week we added the following exercises.

 

Friday, 5 February, the PT supervisor Jeff came to evaluate my progress. He said I was doing great and we picked a cane out from my DH's collection. Yes, he has a collection not that he has ever really used any of them. They are not your standard aluminum pole. One was about the right length and was light so I was set. No more walker.  We talked about whether I should continue with PT. I said I thought I could probably benefit but only if at my house. I haven't stayed away from other people to start going to group therapy at this point. He said that would probably be approved but would be 2 times a week for 3 weeks instead of 3 times a week for 2 weeks.

On Monday night, I still hadn't heard from Kris about what time she would be coming on Tuesday. She said that her lead hadn't added it because they were still waiting to hear from their HQ so it would probably be Wednesday.

Tuesday, 9 February, I had an appointment with my orthopedic doctor, Dr Ursone. He said I was doing great. He said that he didn't think I needed any more PT because I was walking so well and pain was low. Actually, I have more pain at this point from my other hip. It doesn't hurt all the time but "catches" and locks up when I get up from sitting. Yes, I am definitely going to need another hip replacement.....the only question is when. I have another appointment with Dr Ursone at the 6 week point.

In the meantime, I have increased all the exercises on my own.

2021-02-01 On the Road to Recovery

Okay, enough with no photos. Sunday, the home health PT supervisor and nurse both showed up. The nurse was a nice woman but the whole interview was just tiring going over my meds, etc. to set up her records. The worse part was that they weren't able to get carbonless forms because apparently all that paper comes from China so every single form had to be done twice and signed twice....lengthy process. I mentioned that she could scan them with her phone and then print them out back at her office. She said she looked into a portable scanner but it was $400-500. I told her I had a free scanner downloaded onto my phone which worked perfectly and made perfect copies.

The PT Supervisor went over my exercises and we practiced them all. He was very good. He said I looked like I was ahead of schedule which was nice to hear. He set up a PT person to come. I had a choice of T-Th for three weeks or M,W, F for two weeks. I chose three times a week. These are what I started with on Sunday.

Monday afternoon, Chris showed up. I had already done the exercises several times Sunday and again on Monday. She said I was ready to move on. So we started exercises on a chair.

Ankle Pumps, Kickouts, Marching, and Thigh Squeezes.

We went through all of these. She had me walk around the house with the walker and she watched me walk up and down the stairs. Up is the easiest. Down is harder mostly because you are suppose to step down with your surgery leg first so your weight is held on your good leg the longest. I have to reach past a column to the stair rail. There is only one rail on the left side for the upper staircase. The hardest part is remembering to start with the left leg. 

Wednesday was more of the same. I should add that Chris takes my temperature and blood pressure every visit. She also takes a photo of the surgery area. Of course, the only thing to see is the bandage which will not be touched until February 9th when I have my follow-up visit with Dr Ursone.

In between, I'm doing all of these on my own. Friday, we added the above exercises in addition to the earlier ones with the stick figures. I'm also walking around the kitchen using just my right hand on the counter. Everything is going well. I told Chris that everything was going very well. The only thing that bothered me was stepping off on my left foot going down the stairs when I have to lean so far forward. She asked if I thought my left leg was strong enough to use it first going down. I told her that I was positive it was because I had forgotten once or twice and had no problems. So back to the stairs we went and she watched me do it and said, no problem, do whatever feels best to you. So that problem is solved.

On to today when we added Hip Rotation, Hip Flexor Stretch, and Mini Squats. Everything seems to be going very well. I do the exercises 3 to 4 times a day. Plus I stretch out with my feet above my heart for 20 minutes after each set of exercises. So far, no bruising or too much swelling. I keep cutting down down on the pain meds and I'm still doing okay. Enough for now. Every day is one step closer to getting my wheels yet and on the road for a little RVing.

2021-01-22 On to Hip Joint Replacement

So, here I was back at the Orthopedic Surgeons office, hobbling in on a walker. Everything went along fine until he said "we usually so surgery about 6 weeks after this appointment" I told him that if I had to wait another 6 weeks, I would be in a wheelchair and bedridden from the pain. He prescribed pain meds because, of course, the ones I had gotten for the partial hysterectomy were long gone and the arthritis strength Tylenol were not doing much for me. He told his coordinator to see what she could do for an earlier time.

Kimberly came back in after about 15 minutes later and asked if there was any way I could go to the hospital in an hour for Pre-Op Appointment. She said that it absolutely had to be done today to allow time for test results to come back in. I said "I'm on my way when I leave here". So.....I was scheduled for surgery at 0700 AM Friday morning which meant that I had to be there at 0530 AM.

Thursday night I did the shower with the antiseptic soap and then again the next morning which meant getting up at 0400 AM. Dave dropped me off at the entrance because no one is allowed to wait in the waiting room except for patients (Covid, you knnow). They said he could come back and go directly to my room once I was out of recovery. Dr Ursone was great because he called Dave and had to leave a message because Dave couldn't hear the phone ring but he also called my son and gave him all the same info because I had explained my husband's hearing problem ahead of time. His hearing aid (the master one) that connects with the TV and the phone by blue tooth has been in for repair for 3 weeks.

I woke up from surgery and got moved to my own room. Just as the nurse was getting me set up, the Physical Therapy guy showed up. They want you up and walking ASAP. Well, that was not happening since my whole leg was numb from hip to toes. He took one look and said "Okay, I will see you tomorrow." They usually only keep you overnight but I figured that probably meant I would be there two night. At the end of the day shift, the head nurse got with the night nurse and told her to make sure she had two people but she thought I would be okay to move from the bed to the commode chair since I had feeling back in my foot. I should mention that Dr Ursone used uses a complete nerve block as part of the surgery. Success. No more bedpan for me.

Friday night was okay. I had a great one patient room with a wall of windows and a private bathroom. Nice. Of course, it was the usual "I'm sorry to wake you but I need to take vitals, filling the cryo machine" etc. but just doing their jobs as quietly as they could. I slept well with little pain.

Saturday morning the PT guy showed up and we had a nice chat. We walked down the hallway and around the corner to the PT room. I told him that I had a two story house but we made a makeshift bed downstairs. He said we would practice stairs. So we walked in and I saw a staircase with 3 steps up and 3 steps down the other side. I laughed and told him I had 19 steps. "No problem, you are just going to learn how to do it." So I did. I also had a visit from a couple of house doctors that worked with my orthopedic doctor. I can't remember if I mentioned that this wing of the hospital is only for orthopedic patients. The doctors, nurses, and other staff members only work in this wing so pretty safe from Covid. The consensus was that I was going home as scheduled but it would be late afternoon. The nurse said it would be very late afternoon probably just after 5:00 so she could give me my last pain medicine dose. She was a great nurse. I told Dave not to come until very late afternoon. He is not much for chitchat so no point in him just sitting there. Dinner was delivered at 4:15PM, yes you got it 4:15PM. I laughed about the Early Bird Senior Special everyone jokes about. 

I got my meds at 5:05PM along with the paperwork. Dave started to gather things up but the nurse told him to just go down and move the car to the entrance. She had an orderly with a big cart load everything up and another LVN took me down in a wheelchair. And we were off. We made a stop at Walgreen's to pick up pain pills. My daughter-in-law had dinner made and son had picked up three bags of ice in a cooler to run the cryo machine when we got home. Glad that I only ate a tiny bit of the hospital dinner because it was awful (unlike all the other meals) and Helen's was great. We watched a movie and then I walked up to stairs and slept in my own bed. It was actually easier than it was the week before I had the surgery.

2021-01-22 What's Up Now?

 Most of the time, I talk about my love of RVing, trips and rallies I have been fortunate to attend, and a bit of family and friends thrown in. If you look back over the last few months, that's what you will see. But there has been something else going on. I have been having more and more trouble with my left hip. I was able to get around but it wasn't getting any better. Primary care doctor put me on Meloxicam about two  years ago but that was about the extent of it. The last visit with him resulted in his comment of "that's all I can do" when I said the Meloxicam wasn't really doing much for me. 

Last September, I did some online research and found myself an Orthopedic doctor who was really well rated and set up a visit. He took an x-ray and saw something on it in addition to the left hip joint with severe damage and the right hip hip joint with moderate damage. He said "you probably didn't expect to hear you needed a hip replacement on your first visit but your left hip is really bad." But he also said that we needed to find out what the other spot he could see was. So he sent me off to have a CT saying once we found out what the spot was, I would need to see a gynecologist or a gastroenterologist because it wasn't connected to the hip bones.

So, CT came back and I was off to see the gynecologist. She said she was 98% certain after doing an Ultrasound, it was nothing. But then, just in case, she sent me off to have an MRI. I had the MRI a few days later and then headed off to an RV rally. Two weeks later, I still hadn't heard back from her about the MRI and almost didn't call since she was so certain it was nothing. But that's not me, I had an expensive test and I wanted to hear the results so I called and talked to her nurse who said she would have her call me back. I think she had to call me back because she hadn't looked at the MRI results yet. 

Then I got the call back telling me that it might be nothing but it really needed to be removed. She sent me off to see a gynecologist oncologist who set me up for surgery a few days later. This doctor does laparoscopic robotic surgery. I ended up having a partial hysterectomy removing both tubes and ovaries. A few other little "amusing" things happened like the hospital nurse going over consent forms saying the doctor would be removing tubes/ovaries on the right side and a mass on the left. What???  No, that's not right. She decided that she would just wait "on having me sign" until the doctor arrived. Right, like I would have signed even if she wanted me to. Oops, doctor says no problem I'm doing a partial and the record is just wrong. Off to surgery. Surgery went well, took much longer than expected because the colon was wrapped around what turned out to be a "chocolate cyst" meaning filled with blood and it took him most of the time to separate it. Then the hospital screwed up and reported on their portal that I had a complete hysterectomy. Of course, that was really upsetting since the doctor had said he would only do a complete hysterectomy if he found cancer. It took until late the following day to get that straightened out. Of course, that record will never be corrected and I doubt the doctor's portal will ever get corrected even though I specifically requested it. So all future doctors will get wrong info....this is why I hate portals.

I went home the same day I had the surgery. Six weeks later the doctor released me via a telephone appointment, not even a video, just a regular phone call. 

So I called to get back to the Orthopedic Surgeon. It took a month to get an appointment. The week before I finally got back in to see him, I had to use a walker to get around because I was in such pain with my hip.

Sorry this was so long and boring but I want to be able to go back some time down the road and look and laugh at it all.