Arlene's Surgery

We have had a very busy two and a half weeks.

Arlene had a total knee replacement on February 8th. The surgery was a success but she had a reaction to the morphine they were using in the pain pump. So they switched to Demerol and that made her just as nauseous, poor thing. They finally resorted to percoset and that was a little better.

She had the surgery at 7:00 am on Tuesday, February 8th and was sent home at 10:00 am on Thursday, February 10th. Wow!

Since then, it has been a busy time. We have had a home health nurse, an occupational therapist, and a physical therapist visit once or twice a week.

Arlene has been very brave and has religiously done her exercises two or three times a day and as a result is doing remarkably well. She is still in pain, of course, and will be for a while but her mobility is really great.

She still uses her walker but only when she goes out or when she does certain exercises. When she is at home, she can use her cane.

Yesterday, Jamie, her therapist, told her that since she is doing so well, she can go up and down the stairs to the second story as often as she wants. Arlene was really excited to hear that.

We had made the living room into a bedroom for her, and she has been in exile on the first floor since her surgery. Now she can go upstairs and use the shower and soon will be able to go back to sleeping in her own bed. Maybe next week or maybe even tomorrow.

We've learned to take it day by day.

We are both looking forward to being able to go to Camp Chicken soon. The EUP didn't get much snow this winter so we are hoping we will be able to go to camp early this spring.

I really miss Camp in the winter months. It seems like such a long time since we have been there and I'm getting anxious.

Maybe next weekend, we'll drive out and see how far we can go up the road to camp.