One down, one to go

One session of PT down this week and one more to go. I have a myriad of exercises to do at home, all of which seem to exacerbate the pain rather than relieve it. I don't mind elec. stim. when it is with heat as it was last week, but I do not like it with the ice, or that they keep turning up the levels.
After the session, however, my DH took me Tassone's for crab legs. Did I mention I love crab legs? Yeah, I know, only a million times. The best part was that we only used one of the two gift certificates we had. You know what that means, another trip for crab legs. Oh, I do enjoy crabby Mondays. The poor waitresses, not so much. There were people there we got there that were still there when we left.....almost everyone was having the crab special. OK, not Wm. but I bet 8 out of 10 people were there for the all you can eat crab legs.
Matt has been surprising me with how much he really knows this morning. He can count to 10, knows a lot of the alphabet and the sounds the letters make, he knows his colors, 2 that he showed me were magenta and teal.....(how did he know that?) Besides the signs he knows, he knows when to say please and thank you and really shocked me this morning when he said "hurry, potty". We have been working on it for what seems like forever but he never really manages to go......maybe things are beginning to look up.
He has been telling me about his birthday party coming up on Sat. He tells me who is coming and then that it is a blues clues party and his is having a blues clues cake. He is excited but no more than gramma......I get to see the girls.
If you are not Matthewed out by now, here is a funny story from yesterday. Early in the morning the neighbor's cat was back for a drink from the pool. When we went out to the pool in the afternoon, Matt got on his hands and knees outside the pool and put his face in and licked the water. I said "oh, no, Matt, that was is not for drinking, just swimming". He replied with "meow, meow".

matthew.com

Now I know that I am with Matthew from 7:30-5:30 every day so nothing he does should amaze me, but still he does. He loves to "cook". Now this consists of taking all my pans out of the cupboard and mixing, stirring, anything he can find in them. When we were in Canton for Lael's birthday, he spent all the time he was inside, playing with Alyssa's kitchen. I bought him a toy fry pan and some plastic food thinking he would leave my pans in the cupboard. No, he just has one more pan to "cook" with. Yesterday, he took my expandable cooling rack out of the cupboard, all the pans including his and put the rack on the window seat. He expanded it all the way out and put his pans on it and proceeded to tell me it was his "stove". This morning his stove was the first thing he got out. He asked me for some toast and some snacks which he then used to cook in the pans. I think that is really using your imagination when you still have not even turned 2. (one more week)

musings

The neighbor's cat came over to get a drink from Matt's pool. It must have drank for more than 10 minutes!

I wonder why it always seem to hurt worse after you start PT than before you went. The reason for going is to stop the pain and get more use and better ROM from your appendage, right?
I know I complain more than I want to. I remember my mother always complaining about her head aching and how the family always thought she was just whining or a hypochondriac. Well, when she died of a brain aneurysm, it was a different story. She actually had a reason for her complaining. No, I don't think that a torn meniscus, even on both sides of my knee or a torn ligament will be my demise. I don't want to whine but it is a nagging pain that gets worse with even walking. Now when your "job" is to look after a 2 year old, sitting down all day is not an option. The more I walk, the more it hurts. I have exercises which seem to exacerbate the pain more than relieve it. I heard twice yesterday from 2 different people that surgery for a torn meniscus does not "work" for 50% of the people who have it. Sue and Terry seem to be the only ones I can think of that are actually better off since the surgery. I also do not remember the orthopedic surgeons every telling me that before the surgery. Now what? Will the Euflexxa gel they are planning to inject in my knee relieve the pain? Well, I do not have the answer. I think that it may alleviate some of the rubbing of bone against bone caused by the loss of cartilage due to the arthritis. This is not a sure fix either, but I feel better about trying it first, before the knee replacement. Who knows, it may be just what I need.

update

The weather was gorgeous over the weekend. Saturday Wm. chose not to work at the church, and no I sure that standing in the trench for the foundation while running the sump pump had nothing to do with it. Really, he did some things around here that needed his expertise.
We painted our shutters on the house burgundy (something I wanted done since we moved in nearly 2 yr. ago) They look fantastic. I was not a big fan of the faded blue ones that were on the house.
Wm.'s sister Karen is moving out of the apartment that my in laws had for many years. Needless to say, there was a lot of stuff still there that was Wm's mother's. All the siblings met at the apartment on Sunday afternoon to go through it and decide what they wanted. We took back the armoire we had given them for Christmas one year but I am so pleased that we were able to get some of the pictures of when William was growing up. I have our family pictures since both my parents and my sister have all passed away. Anyway, there are some of grandparents, great grandparents, as well as Wm.'s baby pictures.
What blessed me most was a carriage robe that Wm.'s grandfather had made for him out of string. I know what you are thinking but it is really nice. He made a loom and then made the carriage robe on it. You would be very surprised it is made out of string. Now, considering Wm. will be 61 in Nov. it is really a surprise that it is in very good condition.....no tears or holes, just some yellowing as it once was white (duh, like string)
Wednesday I start PT again. The cortisone shot I had is beginning to wear off and the pain is creeping back into my knee and the limp is once again noticeable. I am looking forward to 8/14 when I get the first shot in the series of Euflexxa. I am hoping it will bring the relief I so desperately desire.
Matthew turns 2 on August 3rd and his party (Blues Clues party) will be on Sat. Aug. 4th. I am excited that 4 of 6 of my grandbabies will be together. Granted, Lael and Alyssa are not babies anymore (even Matt tells me he is not a baby anymore; "Matt, big boy" but they will always be my grandbabies.
I had promised Debbie Regan that I would come up for John Eastmond's birthday (can not believe he is 16) and this is the weekend that Andrew, Kathy and John will be at CFC. I did however, sign up for the 4hr. class at church on Sunday at Faith Chapel.

Not what it seems

I had thought, well Susan thought so too, that it was the sunblock that was causing the rash on Matthew. Guess it is not what it seems to be causing the rash at all. All the sunblock did was irritate the rash causing it to be worse than it was. Anyway, I said all that to say this.....his rash is much improved. In fact it is 100%+ improved. Jackie had suggested we use Eucerin cream on him (once she said it, I remembered that was what she put on Alyssa and also what the doctors told me to use on Josh, decades before). You can not know how grateful I am for her advice. Now that he is doing so well I have reintroduced the cran-raspberry juice (diluted of course) and he not had any more outbreaks.

On a more somber note, I have been inundated with emails regarding my decision I made about my knee. Seems I am the only one in favor of a passive treatment. You are all probably right but since I am the one having the surgery, I will try this passive treatment first. If this does not help, then I will consider the surgery, yes, the knee replacement! That all seems unnatural to me. I know that it has been done many times with a lot of success (there are people in church as well as Donna's mother that I know of personally who have made a miraculous recovery) I still see the trouble that my neighbor Rose has with her knee. Now, Wm. said Rose had problems with her surgery after the meniscus repair (need I remind you that I also did) I am scheduled for a series of 3 injections on 8/14, 8/21, 8/28. In case you were curious, the shot of cortisone I had last week has eased the pain in my knee considerably.

Update

First, today was my appt. with the orthopedic surgeon as a follow up to the MRI I had 7/3/07. Well it showed the was a lot of arthritis there.....no surprise. It also showed that the meniscus was torn on both the right and left side of my knee......and yes, they did repair one side in November. Apparently, I have torn it again. They also have found that I have torn the ligament that goes from the knee to the thigh. Because of the extent of the damage, I am a candidate for knee replacement. Whoa! Hold on there! Not so fast! I need to get my head around that. Yes, I knew it was a possibility going into it but in the back of my head I thought they would not have to go that far. He gave me three options.

1) passive treatment: a shot of cortisone today, more physical therapy and another shot once they get clearance from BC/BS that will lubricate the joint. (the shot costs $2500).

2) was another arthroscopic surgery on my knee to repair the meniscus on both sides and the ligament. (excuse me, didn't we just try this option in Nov. with little success)

3) a total knee replacement.

OK, guess which was my choice. (that was difficult, eh?)

Today was our anniversary. Wm. went in early and worked 6 hr. and came home to take me to the doctor. Afterwards, we went to the Christmas Tree Store (and no I still have not used my gift card) From there we decided on Kirby's for dinner (actually, neither of us had eaten lunch so we went at 4pm for lunch/dinner) I opted for Kirby's as we both like it and while Wm. is a good sport and will go to Red Lobster, it is not his favorite.

I thought you might like to see the flowers Wm. sent me today. Daisies are my very favorite. BTW, our cards for each other were different on the outside but had the same sentiment on the inside. 33yr. will do that for you I guess, you even think alike (I thought they used to say you began to look like each other after a while)

edit: Susan and Matthew were just here to bring us an anniversary card and 2 gift certificates to Tassones........all you can eat crableg Monday night, here we come!

weekend update

The weekend found Wm. at church building. I took the opportunity to drag the boxes of old pictures up from the cellar, where they had been since moving in. If you remember in our house in Madrid, we had a wall in the office with our family tree in pictures. I had taken our pictures and copied them in black and white and then put them all in black frames and one wall in office was covered from floor to ceiling. Now, I hadn't even tried to put them up here as Wm. said I had entirely too many. Saturday, I sorted out all the pictures, paring down and what I ended up with was 1/2 of what I originally had. I do not have any pictures of the 2 youngest grandchildren other than digital and I am not happy with the grainy look I get on my printer. Now all I have to do is to hang them up.....Wm. is already counting the nail holes it will leave in the wall.
I mentioned before how we were trying to find out what was causing the rash on Matt. He looked pretty good on Fri. when he left here. It was still visible but not red like before. On Saturday afternoon Susan called to tell me she thought it was the sunblock. She had gotten a sunblock spray when the summer began. I used it for a while and then when he came back after vacation, I asked for lotion instead, I did not like the lack of control from the spray and having to spray it in my hands before rubbing it on his face. Anyway, she used the spray sunblock on him on Sat. and almost immediately, his rash got all red again.
When Wm. came home from working at the church on Saturday, he got cleaned up and we went to Kirby's. On Saturday and Sunday we usually only eat one meal in the late afternoon rather than lunch and dinner. So Kirby's was having their BBQ specials. I had the BBQ clambake. It was BBQ ribs, fried clams (the best I've ever had) baked potato, corn on the cob and watermelon. Then they also are running a contest to give away a huge stainless steel gas grill. Not that I would ever win, I have never won anything in my life. OK, that is not true.....when I belonged to the Red Hats, I used to win a lot of the drawings.
Looking forward to Thursday because it marks another year with my DH but also because I will find out the results of the MRI on my knee and the doctor's prognosis.
Really missing my little princesses and Max (no not the dog, Morrigan's brother; I am including Morrigan as one of my little princesses cause she is)
It is so hard not to watch them grow. Lael and Morrigan both lost a tooth!
Matt's birthday is the beginning of August and I will get to have 4 of the 6 together then. I really envy Terry being able to see them on their vacation.

ramblings

Yesterday we had planned to go to the Amish Market near Seneca Falls. With the rain we got yesterday we decided this was not wisdom. We ended up going to get Uncle Roy (who wanted to go the Amish Market) and went to the Fingerlakes Mall in Auburn. They (Amish Market) have a small store in the mall with some small furniture, signs and homemade fudge as well as bonnets, aprons, etc.

I mentioned before that our 33rd anniversary is 7/12 . Not sure I mentioned here that I wanted a new wedding band. Now I have had 2 diamonds and lost the setting out of both, as well as a pearl ring with diamonds on each side. Lost the setting out of that also. My wedding ring was a wide gold band but my arthritis is getting bad and is causing my hand to become somewhat deformed; ie, large knuckles, etc and I had visions my wedding ring having to be cut off. I finally took the time to work it off my finger (not an easy task) Anyway, I said all that to say my DH got me a new wedding band yesterday for my anniversay.

Matthew was back today. He was not happy that it rained off and on and we could not go outside. His rash is much improved which leads me think it must be something here and not at his own house that is causing it. I thought it was strawbwerries but then he does not have them everyday here. The only thing I could think of that he had everyday was the cranberry raspberry juice. I called Jackie to see if she thought that was enough to cause the rash.
She suggested I keep a journal of what he eats while he is here. She also thought that it may not be food allergy but an environmental one. He first got the rash just before Lael's birthday when pollen was high.

When he came in today I said "Hello my sweet Matty". He then pointed to himself and said "Matt". I said Matty, he said "no, Matt". I told Susan tonight that he wanted to water the plants in the garden (Wm. mom gave him a small watering can and he helps me water the plants every morning) I told him it was raining so we did not need to do it. He got the watering can and said "water" while he signed the word. Now he has never signed this word correctly, but it was close enough that we knew what he meant. I said what did you say? He said water again and then used the correct sign. Now did he know that all the time?

Matthew at the beach up at camp (near Old Forge)

mini vacation

Well, I had my MRI this morning. It took longer to get from one side of the city to the other than for the MRI. My follow up appointment is on our anniversary.
This mini vacation is working out very well. Yesterday I got caught up on a lot of things I had been wanting to do for a while but never took the time.
Susan, Tom and Matthew are up at camp in Old Forge until tomorrow and then on Thurs. it is back to work for all of us.
Last night on the way back from Wegman's, I saw an easel out in front of the Thrift store. I asked Wm. to stop so I could look at it. It was a child's easel.....red, yellow and blue plastic with a chalkboard on one side and white board on the other, made by Crayola.....for $4.99. I washed it up and it is in excellent condition. Matt loves to "write" and color so now he will have the option of painting and using chalk. I got one very similar to this for Morrigan one year and it was $40. (yes, she does still use it but then her father is an artist so they encourage creativity).

Great Day

The weather was more to my liking today, not quite so hot.....Wm. and Uncle Roy were both freezing though.
We had a cookout this afternoon. Wm. mother, Uncle Roy, Tom, Susan and Matt (which by the way is now Matthew's name.....he corrected me when I called him Matty) Susan and Tom were going to camp to this weekend. Now they have decided to leave in the morning. I am very glad they were here as Wm. mother wanted to know if any of the grand kids would be here. We had a great time with lemon pepper and also BBQ chicken on the grill. I made salt potatoes and salad. For dessert I made strawberry shortcake.
For the past few weeks I have been concerned with a rash that Matty (oops I mean Matt) had. Susan insisted it was from strawberries. I was sure it was not......it seemed to be only around his mouth and on one side of his torso. Guess what! After eating strawberries, the rash was bright red again and it had been fading over the weekend.
I am blessed that I will have a few more days of "vacation" as she is not going back to work until Thurs. morning. I have my MRI on Tues. and Wm. needs to work 4 hr. on Tues. and 4 on Thurs. in order to get paid for the holiday. So going somewhere is out of the question. I have a few more crafty projects I want to work on the next few days.




Here are a few pix of my garden this year. Not bad for a woman with a brown thumb. I especially love the flowers on the hostas. Last year one had a small flower on it but nothing like this!
Trust you all had an excellent weekend.