Day 11 after Surgery and Light at the End of the Tunnel

A lot of friends and fellow travelers have asked me to give periodic updates on my recovery. I wrote a much longer one on Day 6 but today it will be brief.

When I wrote the earlier update, I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. I would never want to be back there. A lot has changed since then and now hope shines a bit brighter.

The pain is much better now and I even go through periods with no pain when I’m laying still. The doctors said sleeping would be a problem for a while and they were certainly right. My good wife Janet gets me up four times a day with the walker to use the restroom and to walk (shuffle around the house). She is the best and I tell her I would happily do all of this for her if she ever needed it.

We were thinking back over our romance and love over the last 46 years. At first we were just friends back in 1972. Four years later that turned into romance and infatuation. I still remember the giddy emotions — she was all I could think about. We got married and a year later our first daughter Cindy came along. Things changed.

We wanted to maintain the romance so we made sure we went on a date every week even if it was difficult. Sometimes it was just holding hands walking around the block or going on a simple picnic in the field behind the house. But over the years that love his deepened beyond anything young giddy kids could know or expect. (Unless of course they had good parents for an example of devoted marital love.) She’s practicing that love for me now, and said she likes taking care of me. I’m a lucky man!

But it is certainly reciprocal. Long before this ever happened with my knees, I used to tell Janet that, even if she was ever in an accident and paralyzed, it would be my honor to push her around in a wheelchair and take care of her. The Catholic Church is right on love and marriage. Those couples that practice the Church’s principles bear the fruit throughout life.

Yesterday she helped me to my desk chair where I sat for awhile and ate dinner and even did a bit paperwork.

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Sitting there I had to do all the exercise of stretching my legs out as far as I can get them to reach 180° and pulling them back trying to get to a 90° angle. They say I have two weeks to get to that 90° angle to be successfully rehabilitating. Seems like a simple feat but when I’m done, I feel like I ran a marathon (OK, exaggerating a little bit). Each of these excursions are followed by raising my legs and putting ice on my knees.

We took the bandages off two days ago and the scars were scary looking. But we had the best doctor anywhere in the area and he did a great job. My daughter Emily is a nurse and she said it all looked good. They gave me Tylenol and oxycodone to handle the pain but we never used the oxycodone after the first day and a half. It didn’t do anything and those narcotics scare me anyway. So we’ve been surviving with the Tylenol which has done a pretty good job.

So there’s a bit of an update. My wonderful daughter Emily and her husband Sean have been bringing us the Eucharist on Sundays. What a lovely thing to see your daughter walk in with Eucharist and say the prayers with her old dad.

Every day is getting a little better and they say by the end of the third week I should be up and about, and looking towards a bit of normality. We’ll see! God bless you all and thanks for your prayers and support.