The physical therapists took away my walker!

Well, not really, but they gave me a hard time today since I really don't need the walker anymore for the new knee. I keep walking off and leaving it various places around the house and even left it when I was out doing things Saturday. I might need it for the bad knee, though before we get around to replacing it. They recommend using a cane if I feel as though I need support for the new knee for now.

Progress is great - tomorrow is four weeks since they replaced the left knee. On days I have physical therapy I get a little swelling and heat but otherwise it does not hurt me at all. The only limitation I'm having is that the remaining bad knee is hurting more and more as I walk more with the new knee. Nothing new - both knees used to hurt like that.

The big improvement is that now I actually have one good leg to stand on!

I saw my surgeon Friday and he said I'm ahead of schedule for healing. I'm doing good enough that he and I discussed scheduling the replacement of the other knee. That may be as soon as the beginning of August but will more likely be the week of Labor Day.

A new Simon's Cat! 'Tongue Tied'

Anybody Got a Bottle Opener?

These guys need a few!

http://vimeo.com/42674279

Home from the rehab hospital!

I actually got home Tuesday afternoon, but was too exhausted to post. They were planning for me to leave Wednesday morning, but my insurance company refused to pay for one more night, so with five minutes notice, I was out the door.

The rehab facility was great and the physical therapy was awesome. Although the nursing staff was also awesome, there were various problems mostly because they are chronically understaffed. By the time I left, I was cruising the halls of the facility with my Rollator (fancy four wheeled walker that my BIL got cheap). I'm doing as much walking as I can and doing all the exercises the therapists recommended. The new knee actually feels better if I get up and walk every 15-30 minutes. The bad knee hates that.

The only major problem I have now is that my bad knee is hurting as much or more than the new knee. I see the surgeon next week and will try to get him to schedule replacing the bad knee the week after Labor Day.

My husband has requested that for his birthday at the end of January we go on a hike together. I think I will be able to for the first time in a decade!

Edited to add - I wasn't able to post or read all last weekend because the internet was down at the facility and the one guy who knew how to reboot the router was on vacation.

I've got my new knee!

Got to the hospital at 6AM, surgery at 8, woke about 10, in the room by 11.

Pain management has been great, once they figured that morphine drip leaked out onto the bed. All the medical personnel are terrific, ready to help and answer all my questions. I'm really surprisedat how alert I am. I know I wasn't after my previous surgeries!

Tomorrow I won't be so cheerful - physical therapy starts.

Tuesday is it

Tuesday I get my new knee! I won't know what time until sometime Monday evening - it's like jury duty. I have a number to call to find out the time.

I'd hoped they would do both at once, but with my weight, asthma, high blood pressure, family history of blood clots, and other health crap, they won't do it. So I get my left knee Tuesday and work my ass off doing the physical therapy do I can get my right one before the end of the year.

I think I'm ready- wrote a new will, living will, health care directive. Got people to take care of the horses and the farm. Have food frozen for my husband while I am in the hospital and in rehab, and enough for a while once I get home. I even have an easy needlework project to work on during my down times at the rehab place.

I hope I will be back on before Tuesday, but I've got a lot of things to take care of to get ready to go. If not, see you in a couple of weeks!

Democratic Caucus SATURDAY May 5 - in Leon County!

I only know about Leon County but there are probably caucuses all over the state.

WHAT: Leon County Democratic Caucus

WHEN: Saturday, May 5th, 2012, anytime between 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Every registered, Leon County Democratic voter is eligible to vote, and it takes just a few minutes.

WHERE: Tallahassee City Hall, 300 S. Adams St., Tallahassee, FL 32301


I'm going and dragging my husband along. Anybody else from Leon County going?

Organizations sending out emails need to identify themselves!

Recently with the lead up to the real campaign, I've been getting more and more emails from the various political organizations and campaign groups. An increasing number of those emails come from some individual with a subject header that does not give a clue about what group the email is from. MY policy is that if I don't recognize the person and if the subject header does not include an organization or something that tells me WHO sent the email, I delete it. There is no telling if some anonymous email will have some virus or malware in it, so this has been my habit for decades.

Today, I got an email from some woman at Emily's List with a subject heard "Photos". I was curious so I right clicked the email in the list, selected Properties, Details, Message Source so I could see what the email was about without actually opening it. It was an innocuous email asking me to donate to a campaign in some district not in my state. I have no idea how many emails from Emily's List have gone in the trash over the years because it was an unknown sender with an ambiguous subject line. Now Emily's List has been added to the many groups I've unsubscribed to in the last month.

It's simple enough for the people associated with these groups to add some basic information to their email subject headers - every message I get from a commercial organization has the name of the business as the sender and in the subject header. Even the little local native plants nursery I get a weekly email from includes their business name in every email subject header, and believe me, those people are NOT tech savvy!

Please if you are associated with any liberal group or any Democratic campaign, tell them to be sure to include the essential information in their messages!

Some Other People Who, by Geraldo's Standards, Are Asking to Be Shot

Some Other People Who, by Geraldo's Standards, Are Asking to Be Shot

John Hudson 22,887 Views Mar 23, 2012

Today, Fox News' resident fashion expert Geraldo Rivera finally cut through the noise and got to the heart of why unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot in the chest in February: He was wearing a hoodie. "I’ll bet you money, if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way," he said on Fox & Friends. "You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a 'gangsta'… You’re gonna be a gangsta wanna? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace." I mean, duhh!

Elliot from ET:

{IMDB}

More pictures: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/03/some-other-people-who-geraldos-standards-are-asking-be-shot/50261/

Mass Dolphin Rescue Off Rio Coast