Saving memories has another name, "Hoarding"

First I'll mention that this coming August will be two years already since my total knee replacement. There is no pain in my knee, although it's a bit stiff and I can't bend it back as far as it should go.  Walking down stairs and up is still hard, not because of my knee though, It's  osteoarthritis growing rampantly through out my body. I never took note on when this all started but it's been a very long time since I started feeling pain in my pointer fingers and lumps started to develop around my knuckles. If I had to guess than maybe 20 years ago.
Indeed this is a very slow progression, sorta creeps up on you. I don't know what more I could say about it except that I am not alone.  40 million persons in the United States are affected by arthritis, including over a quarter million children! (according to my google search hehe)
All that said has created another serious problem,,, House cleaning, organizing and gardening.
I am the cause of the stink from my obsessive smoking, this probably won't change.
Wyandotte has a huge coal soot problem, we wash window sills every few days, the soot is back it gets into the house on the walls floors rugs. Not much I can do about that, but keep wiping it up. My vacuum cleaner is too heavy for me to push so it doesn't get much use by me. Even pushing a broom takes all my energy and strength.
My favorite pass time is crochet, i'm now finding carpet beetles in the yarn so I've decided to toss it all out, and not buy anymore , just keeping my threads, this will free up several plastic bins that are full up, never again will I purchase garage sale yarn. (This is how I feel about it now anyway) This is heart breaking but needs to be done, besides my hands can't hardly crochet more than a hour at a time then two days rest. Maybe one day soon I'll go yarn bombing and get rid of all the things that I made just to make stuff not really for any reason or for anyone.

Anyway getting to our bedroom, is something I've avoided for ooooo lets say 16 years?
It's only been painted once, when we first put new drywall up some 30 years ago, so that's 30 years of built up smoke and soot.
First thing I needed to do was go through all the stooopid papers in boxes, looking at each one then shredding, this took me probably a week, maybe two.
Next I emptied my 90 year old hand-me-down crappy dresser and got rid of clothes, I made the ole boy do his also but he only got to 3 of his 5 drawers done :-( His dresser is 90 years old at least. Both dressers look like something from a garbage dump, not even solid wood . I've pretty much never bought any furniture, except my dining table and couch.
Not that these things don't interest me, it's just a huge pain to shop. I admit, the furniture stores around here sell nothing but crap. but I suppose its better than the crap I have so I don't know what I'm thinking.

The room is now emptied and we've hired our neighbor who happens to be a painter, and over the entire summer he will paint then paint some more until he doesn't want to do it anymore, starting with my gross and embarrassing bedroom. 

Bird Lovers

Went for a bike ride on June 16 around midnight, We heard a pretty cool bird calling from a tall bush in a field, I had my iphone and did my best to record the song, so far we have not been able to identify. Perhaps you can??? Sorry no picture it was dark. hope this link works


Name That Bird

ugh

so yeah I'm way fat, this happened to me today

more knee updates

October 13th 2014 or near there I went to the Orthopedic for a check up, all he did was take a x-ray and tell me I'm right on track, and continue therapy and exercise at home.
The next day the therapist released me saying I'm doing good and can just do what I've learned at home. I think mainly just because they would need to send reports to my insurance and ask for more time. It's not up to the DR or the Therapist it's all up to the insurance company


 I was feeling pretty good and getting cabin fever and nice day came up so Pat and I went to the park for a walk, well I went a bit farther than I could handle and had the most horrifying time trying to get back to the car, I twisted my foot or sprained it or something. this was a huge set back, I couldn't step down on my foot without pain. Elevate/ice/wrap. So now I can't do anything and using crutches and hopping around the house. took 3 weeks for that to get better and I didn't do anything during that time but eat pain pills and sleep.

Now my leg feels quite stiff, Neuropathy in my feet for the diabetes i suppose, this is what bothers me the most not my knee at all, but walking any distance is nearly impossible , the pain is in my back and hip after just a few feet of walking, weaken muscles i guess, its not the artheritus . Knee is still swollen though and I can't bend it 100%

Visited DR today 3 month visit he still claims I'm on target and still expecting improvement, see him again in March.
I still can't make it through the whole grocery store, I'm lucky they have shopping carts because thata is my walker. I can't go into any store that has no carts. I take norcos at night and if I plan on shopping but to be honest, they aren't working.
I'm still avoiding the stairs to the basement and I still take one stair at a time  UGH

Driving and walking and discontinued therapy

Because it was my right leg, I couldn't drive until 9 weeks post op. Pat came with me for my first trial run, sorry to say it wasn't easy after about 30 minutes was all I could take, but then just riding in the car is painful but mainly in my left hip, but riding in the car isn't any more comfortable I can last maybe one hour is all.
I was feeling pretty good and getting cabin fever so on a nice day we decided to take a ride to Lake Erie Park and try a short walk. I went too far, and had a really hard time getting back to the car such a hard time that I caused some sort of pain in my right foot. it hurt to touch and stand on it.
By the next day my foot was swollen and red on the top fire red I was pretty sure I had sprained it so I used ice packs and laid in bed. it got so bad that I couldn't step on my foot what-so-ever, so got the crutches out just so I could make it to the bathroom. This was a huge set back, just lifting my foot caused pain so I couldn't do any of my exsersizes, leg lifts, nothing....
I hated to see the Dr. about this because I've had sprains before and was pretty sure this is what my problem was, but the redness kept getting worse each day and I started having pain in my knee because of the way I was trying to walk and my ankle was turning in because I couldn't put any weight on the outside of my foot. I need to see a Dr. but who?  My Family Dr. would just write a script to get x-rays, so I decided to cut out the middle man and see the Orthopedic who has x-ray equiptment right there in his office and if I had a break he could cast it up right there too.
Alas his girls who answered the phone would have no part of it no matter how I begged and told her Doc said if I had any problems call and come see him, since this was doing bad things to my knee I figured that warranted my visit. She said I couldn't get in to see the Doc until December, and I'd have to go to the ER first. So thats where I went, knowing fair well i'd probably get an ace bandage and sent on my way.
I needed to be sure there wasn't a break, and sure nuff no break, They give me 3 days worth of norco 5 and tell me to see the Orthopedic if it doesn't get better in another week, WELL I had already waited a week, no home therapy and now another week, no therapy, I am going down hill. My leg is becoming stiff and painful once again. Now I'm back to walking with a cane, leg swollen and red.
Here I am 12 weeks in and none the better.....yet

btw, so sorry for the typos/misspelled/ ranting, it's really hard to think, I have't been able to crochet because it's just one mistake after another, Blame the pain meds, or blame the pain, I can't be sure

Knee Update

I'd best get writing how things are going before I forget. Seems that's what happened to all the people Who had this done, they just plain forgot what they went through.
I'm in my 12th week of recovery. My out patient therapy lasted 7 weeks, 3 days a week for 2 hours each visit. I loved it, It was very motivating me to keep moving I would take a Norco 10 about 30 minutes before my appointments as recommended.
The first thing was to lay on a table legs propped on a huge pillow and electric patches put two on each side of my knee then heat packs laid on top of that they called it heat stim pacs, it wakes up my nerves and helps me to get through the exercises so 15 minutes with that on and it feels great!
 then I have standing, sitting and laying exercises to do the standing ones are hardest for me like marching, up and down stair, leg raises and tilt board. all each just 3 minutes which may as well have been 3 hours, My legs would feel so heavy that I couldn't pick them up and the timer would go off at three minutes, I'd be saying ~whew~ there are lots of ways to strengthen leg muscles so I learned. after a total of none stop 45 minutes, then the therapist would manipulate my leg while I did my best to relax it and let her move it for me,( 15 minutes) generally just a bit more than I could move it on my own.
Then a cold stim pack for 15 minutes to help with swelling. Yes my leg is still discolored and swollen. they tell me it's extra blood running to the leg, and a normal expected thing to happen.

Something I didn't know was there is a nerve that runs right across the knee cap that usually gets cut sometimes numbness remains for a life time on the outside of the knee, yes I am numb and can't feel the stimulation on that part of my knee but before surgery I already had neuropathy a bit in my feet because of my type 2 diabetes.
Now at 12 weeks post op I am numb from just above my knee to the tip of my toes. ( they tell me that is normal)
When I lay down I tend to want to lay on my side but it feels like my knee cap is pulling away and falling off. Ice packs all day long to try and keep the swelling down,it doesn't seem to help but it feels good.
About the pain I experience, well....it's horrifying, I am beside myself, I don't sleep at night and I cried daily for the first two months I was taking norco 10's 4 to 6 times a day, it really didn't help much, just made me sleepy and I would fall asleep for 2 hours then have to wait for time for the next pill, I had to start smoking weed which was the best help and relief I got so I'd recommend doing this highly, I'm not a pot smoker, well not since the 70's so this was a decision I needed to make and am very glad of my choice. I think i'd call anyone a fool for not at least trying it. I swear it has helped me immense. Besides, it's a million times safer than the norco's

Things youll need for knee replacment

1;a walker with wheels in the front, you don't need anything elaborate like the ones with brakes and a seat, I used my walker for three weeks and couldn't have gone on with out one

a cane, you probably already have one, its a good buddy and helps bring confidence when walking

a shower chair, i used mine for three weeks then found it easy to just stand as my leg got stronger for a short shower

stool softener/ prunes/ prune juice, your pain meds cause constipation trust me you will need something of this sort

toilet riser with handles, this is my best buddy, i still need it , my toilet is very low, bending to sit or trying to get up would be really hard and painful without it Hopefully your toilet is on the same floor as where you sleep

ICE PACKS, the more you have the happier you will be, i wish i had several to cover my entire leg, because the whole leg becomes swollen
so you need some in the freezer while you are using the others, i hate the gel packs that become hard, so get the good ones called col pack in polyurethane

lotion, your leg will become very dry for some odd reason

 

neosporin, for about 4 weeks in to recovery you will need this to soften up the incision area

A Heat Pack, this is good to have as you get into some serious therapy, use it before exercise to loosen up your muscles, then ice after your exercising

Loose fitting safe shoes, my surgery side is very swollen and none of my shoes fit yet

Part 3 The surgery

After a few cancellations I finally got the nerve to get this going and made my surgery date for August 19 th 2014. I arrived at 5 am

 that morning

jumped into a hospital gown, then the fun began, Iv"s inserted, then they tell me I was going to get a spinal block

 and some meds of some sort to relax me, after getting that , the next thing I remember is 

being in my room with Pat and Alicia sitting there. from what i understand it was 2 hours prep and 2 hours surgery

 then 2 hours in the recovery room.

The bandages around my leg felt very tight and hurt pretty bad. as in a sore kind of hurt. I wanted the bandage off so bad.

 There was a tube just above my knee draining excess blood and another one administering numbing meds.

compression leggings on each leg that filled with air then released the air. That felt good, kinda of like an automatic exercise machine.

 but it's purpose was to prevent blood clots in my legs.

at 2;55 pm i got a shot of dilaudin, i fell asleep 15 minutes later.

in between the dilaudin every four hours, they gave me two norco;s, i am thankful. not really feeling any serious pain yet.

 just very uncomfortable.

8;30 pm i sat up and dangled my legs for 15 minutes, it felt good.They brought me dinner. They didn't want me to get up until i had 

my first therapy to learn the proper way.

 So I had to use the bedpan once. The Bathroom was only a few steps from my bed and the night nurse showed me how to stand

and get moving, i was so nervous about what pain I might feel when putting weight on my leg, to my surprise it felt good to stand,

 i was mainly a bit wobbly

from the meds.After my first walk to the toilet they brought a potty chair n said don't get up without help, but then another

 nurse told me if I think I can 

walk to the bathroom then go for it but call for help, then another nurse brought a chair and said no don't walk to the bathroom yet

 i kept them busy, i needed to pee every two hours.

Day Two: It's all like a dream, not sure how things went, each time I felt pain I'd let them know so they weren't cheap

 with the pain meds and I was thankful for that.

I had breakfast then the PT came, I have to admit, I don't know what she taught me, just to flex my feet and try to straighten 

my leg and tighten mu butt muscles. Lunch time

then PT again, she showed me how to sit up and get into the chair and sit there as long as I could take it, maybe was one hour. Dinner,

PT Again, we walked down the hall, that wore me out but no pain like before with bone on bone kinda of pain,

 just my leg was so swollen that caused my pain.As if all my leg muscles had been manipulated

and pulled at and twisted around, that's exactly what the Dr said was done in order to get to my bones.

Day Three: needed to have a group therapy , a shower then go home. it took until 5:30 before I could get that done.

Day Four:  a nurse came to visit that day. All looks good

7 Days after surgery home PT and nurse came , blood too thick so they put me on warfarin,

 that stuff worried me but i only took it for a week.

Nurse came twice a week to check my blood and PT came three times per week. I'm moving right along. 

Good advise is take pain meds one hour before PT and have Ice packs ready for when it's over you WILL Need it!!

So Just two weeks of home visits then off to outpatient PT. I had to research for my own place to go,

 one that was in network, I can't believe my DR office didn't set that up for me, they only had one place that they deal with

and it was out of my health care network. so I found a place very near to my home.

I went for evaluation and new exercises, each set progresses to something harder than before,

 I need a whole day of rest and ice and pains meds after each therapy, this is much more painful than I imagined.

Part two....

First speaking to my Family Dr who knows my every ailment and had treated me forever and has my prior records from his father before him, sad to say he recommends I NOT get surgery, he says I can survive the actual surgery but the therapy after would be difficult if not nearly impossible. He suggests me to just continue taking pain meds until they just don't work anymore.
Well, they aren't working and my quality of life isn't what it should be at my ripe age of 65. I can't grocery shop or even go into any store that doesn't have a cart for me to lean on, I can't take a simple walk, go to the basement and carry laundry up the stairs, or even sit on the floor to play with the Grand babies.
I can take a easy bike ride because pedaling doesn't put pressure on my knee as long as there are no hills, so nightly Pat and I take a midnight bike ride about 6 miles, I feel like this is strengthening my leg muscles.
I return to my Orthopedic Dr Callan and he says its time to replace my knee and did I have any vacations planned in the near future, We could do this right away or put it off until winter, he left it up to me, well I can't go on like I am so I agree to do this as soon as possible. He checks his calender and makes me an appointment for the next week!
The nurses give me a booklet and instructions on what I needed to do before surgery, they arrange appointments for phone interviews with all who I needed to speak with.
I read the booklet and find there are tons of things I needed to do in preparation. Pre admission blood work,, ekg,, x-rays a few pages of leg excersizes to help build muscle. There is no way that I can get this done in one week.
Especially because I had problems with the results on my ekg and they then wanted me to see my Cardiologist and get a Echogram to get a better look into my heart then they can blame him if anything goes wrong because he would be the one who signs the release form to go ahead with the surgery.
All tests went well and Cardiologist Dr Gowda tells me that I should definitely get the surgery because as I am now my quality of life is at a stand still and I will be very happy to have this done.
I know a few people who have had knee replacement, so naturally I ask as many questions that I can think of. I feel confident this is what I want to do. Even though I have heard horror stories and success stories, It seems to be a fifty fifty chance.
I'm going for it!    

Living with osteoarthritis

It's been a tough last two,years when my joints starting really bothering me. I didn't really understand what was happening but looks like this all srarted quite a few years ago, in my hands. Walking began to become difficult some five years ago, but it was a very slow process that built up as years went by.
I really believe weather brings on pain, like when it's cold or very humid, I read about studies on this matter and they say it's inconclusive. Well I know my body and I started to keep track on my pain levels and what the weather was doing. So I can tell you that for me, I can tell the difference when the weather changes.
I complained to my family Dr about pain and he suggested ibuprofen 600 mil twice per day, and it seemed to help a bit, for my hands. Then it almost seemed like a sudden pain I was getting in my knees, but only when I walked, sitting or riding my bike put no stress on my knees so it was still a livable sort of pain that I could deal with.
Time went on and it seemed the pain began to get worse, I could no longer grocery shop through the entire store so I'd have to skip a few isles and just get the essentials. I needed a rail to get up any stairs and found out I'd needed to walk one step at a time, thank goodness this is only pain in my right knee.
I look around at people who seem to be having trouble walking and now I understand why and what's happening with their bodies. How horrible it must be to have artheritus all over the body in every joint.
This doesn't happen over night, it gradually grows, at least that's how it happened to me.
Ibuprofen wasn't helping anymore so my Dr suggested I see a orthopedic Dr Callan, who showed me an x-Ray of my knee and the cartilage was wearing down, so a shot of some sort of steroidal cortisone maybe would help fill in the gaps and relieve my pain but It wouldn't last if I'm lucky about 3 months, then at that time is when I could come back for another shot. My first shot was wonderful! It worked fast and helped my pain but walking was still a problem, I continued taking the shots for two years, each time it would last less and less, until this option was no longer helping what so ever.
Another x-Ray showed that all cartilage was gone and I was entirely bone on bone, time for knee replacment.

Sarah and I made it on todays show! WOOT

Happy April

Spring has arrived, at least I'm pretty sure about that. Battle Creek visit, I suppose the pictures can tell the story better than I ever could. So here ya go

It's Winter

Today marks our 40th Anniversary, nothing special happening. I generally forget when the day comes, When January comes then I know it will be soon, but never really  know what date i'am in so if someone doesn't remind me then I forget. Believe it or not Pat is the one who keeps telling me how long we been together, he likes these sort of days n Birthdays. (He at least likes to be acknowleged) I am not much for celebrating anything I guess it was my upbringing. Mom would always have a Birthday cake on our days and if a friend happened to be over we'd invite them to have some cake. My Grand Mother (Niemi) would always ALWAYS send a card to us kids, that's as far as it went and I was very happy with that. I guess this is why I am shocked when these days little kids get a party every year.

Far too cold for our bike rides, I miss doing that pretty bad. So now getting NO exercise what so ever, Shots in my knee haven't been helping very good lately, it's hard just walking through the house, I don't know what I'll do with our up coming vacation *sighs*

My Hands are getting a good work out what with all the crocheting I been doing, I keep trying to make the perfect hat, it's time for me to yarn bomb all these *Failed hats again* but it's so darn cold I can't even poke my head out the door to get the mail off the porch.

Alicia * EXIT STAGE RIGHT*

oops, this video has my entire play list sorry bout that, but then you can stop it any time it's 100 videos I think lol maybe i'll go back some day and fix that.
Alicia makes the perfect Fouetté: A whipping movement on one leg while changing the hip and upper body direction

Jump rope

Some things I did this summer

This is my brother Jan's garden, he tells me to go ahead and pick what I want and boy does he ever have some tomatoes, but still green when I visited last and only got 3 

 Here he is picking a bunch of celery, I have never really seen a back yard garden with celery, I felt pretty proud of his accomplishment

 Green beans grew out of control, so I picked tons of them.

 The lovely sunset on the day of our block party, weather turned out really great

 Remember Seth? Our little tv commercial star here holding Ashlynn at the big 0 party
Candy girl turned 10, Kathy P turned 40, Jim 50, Glenn 60

 This here photo has a story, see one day just at sun set Pat and I were out for our usual bike ride when I saw a man all set up with tripod pointing out toward Biddle ave, I looked to see what he was shooting and it was the amazing sun behind a lovely church steeple, it was glowing so beautiful. I thought I really needed that photo also. It took me nearly a whole month before I ran out on purpose with my camera just at sunset to get the same shot, but damn, the sun wasn't behind the steeple like before, I drove around town like a mad man, trying to get the right angle and it just wasn't going to happen, so I gave up and took a picture of the top of Lowes, no steeple, no fabulous glow, just a perfect FAIL

 Here's Auntie Kathy lighting candles for the big 0 birthday people

 A bike ride at the park path but that's not us you're looking at, It was some old couple who hollered * On yer left* as the shot past us :-)

I am still here

Got out early today to watch the sun rise.

Nothing really happening lately besides crocheting my fingers off, got Luigi done for Marley and a minion for me or to donate to Alicias golf deal and drawings they have or something like that, maybe it will be a

                                                     booby prize :-)
                     I think he's adorable. So much that I am working on another one.
Dad wants to go to the UP and I agreed reluctantly, I think we should take off today and get that over with *sighs* the drive is soooooooo long and painful :-(

Gene's final rest

Took us a whole year but we finally did it and put my baby brother to rest today. Several of his best friends (The boys from the ole neighborhood, who all grew up together) came to join us which I thought very nice and showed me who his true friends were.
Jan spent way too much money not certain how many people would come, My plan was to bring hot dog fixings and some charcoal, to picnic at the near by Willow park. It was sooo hot but we took the heat and sat around and talked for a couple of hours, ate, then a huge thunderstorm brewed up so we packed up and left.
The time together was just right for me

 Brent was indifferent, he shows no emotion, this is so sad to watch, I have no clue as to how and help him.

 Good friends came to support us. I felt happy that they came.

We each took turns to fill in the grave, I didn't plan on doing that but something pushed me to go ahead, it did bring a tear

Brother Glenn took special care to fill completely, this was sad to watch

We stood back and watched the grave digger enlarge the too small hole, silent, not knowing what to do with our selves. 

quick update on my knee

This last shot did me no good. Can't get the swelling down, simple walk through the grocery store and it swells. Aches, not serious pain, just very annoying.So this sucks. Tried riding my bike, hills are out of the question but level land is doable, for a very short distance.
Going to bury Gene on Saturday afternoon with my siblings and maybe a few of Genes friends.
Jan wants to start a tradition and fill in the hole ourselves, so I guess that's what we will do.
Then a simple picnic at Willow Park just around the corner from the Cemetery. I am not looking forward to this, I've had a whole year of healing and I believe this will just open wounds. oh well  

Knees and sewing machine

Got my second cortisone shot in my knee yesterday, first one was in January and the Dr said back then *see you in April. Well I was waiting for the horrible pain to return in April but it didn't happen. I did get back to the point where stairs were hard and grocery shopping too, the cart is my crutch, mowing the lawn seemed impossible, but the constant pain is not there, Just comes around when I get the slightest active. So I finally decided (with Dad pushing me) to go and get this done. I didn't keep any sort of log on how things went day by day and now I wish I had so I know what to expect this round, It's only been 24 hours, but right now I feel no difference. Seems like last time things improved immediately, Dr says if the shots work for me then maybe that's all I will need, 3 per year is safe so he says because it's a small dose ( I looked at that fat needle and stuff was in it up to the number 5 er would that be 5cc's don't know it's a fat syringe ) I had no problem with it hurting like the first time, Sure hope it kicks in soon.

On the other hand I was able to plant a few thing in the garden, tomato/peppers/radishes/n some kinda pea pods, Flowers in pots are drowning they are not draining like they should. Naturally the garden will be another bust this year, Oh well.

Next report is about this old treadle sewing machine, it's on display in my dining room but really not working, but my brother saw it and was really impressed, then suddenly he had a sewing machine job for me, boy was my face red when I had to tell him it don't work just yet.
This time last year I got a business card from a fellow who's name escapes me now but Paddy boy directed me to him saying he may have the top I needed. This poor fellow had tons of random stuff and he was tired, he didn't have what I needed but nearly begged me to take what I want and he was done with the business, not wanting to make any profits, just wanted to get rid of his hoard. I didn't take anything but he did direct me to the sewing machine man Boy is this fella passionate about sewing machines, his little shop was like going back in time, with old machines on display, his calling card says Sewing machines Bought. Sold. Traded. Repaired. Taught & talked about

He was all fired up about me restoring an old treadle, ( I think he was even holding back a huge hug about that )lol. I bought the belts I needed and he threw in the gasket for the bobbin winder, then taught me about why the other machine is falling from it's cabinet..
Right away I installed the belt he explained how to properly do that, and then I proceeded to peddle the treadle, took a few tries because see you need to get the rhythm going so's the wheel will spin counter clockwise, my first few attempts it was going back and forth, not good.
Finally when I got the rhythm it spun and spun like it should BUT the whole machine was jumping around sorta like those Easter toys you wind up and they Jump around, the whole house was shaking. Not to mention just a few minutes of that and I felt like I just ran a marathon.
Bottom line is just a few more tweaks and maybe this vintage toy will really sew stuff. Won't that rock? (the house)

quick update, 53 hours after cortisone shot, still no change, still a one stair at a time sorta girl. ugh
#2 quick update, I went up the stairs like a normal person without even thinking about it.. gonna try  bike ride later today  *whew*