the weekend passed (so fast)

It seems the weekends come and go so quickly. It was a decent weekend. We had a great service Sunday at church. Rev. Allen preached for us. He is in his mid 80's and still full of fire. It was a good time.

TJ had a bad back/hip/leg weekend. She spent much of the weekend tethered to the bed. I think the only way she could spend more time in it is if I tied her to it. Then she would hurt herself trying to get loose. The bed is the most comfortable place for her to sit. The problem with that is that (by design) the bedroom is off the main traffic area of the house. when one goes to bed, one wants that cave like experience. One does not want to be bothered. Her being tied there by her pain is worse by the fact that it is out of the mainstream. No-ne sees her unless they are expressly looking for her. She looses the casual contact.

We have one chair downstairs that is semi-comfortable. We will work on making it more so, so she can get back into the traffic areas of the house.

We shall see.

TJ's DR visit

TJ had her follow-up visit today, following her surgery on December 26.

The hematoma is nothing to worry about, according to DR Harry. He assures her it will go down and be gone within six months. He says her back is in terrible shape for her age. He added that her back was in terrible shape for an 80 year old woman. He told her to apply for disability (which she has already done) and to have her worker call him personally. (gotta love a DR like that.)

He told her to take it easy walking. She is allowed to walk for 15 minutes of each hour (walk 15/rest 45.) That also applies to sitting upright. Trips should be done in 15 minute increments. It does not require the 45 minute down time though. That just requires her to get out and move around every 15 minutes.

I did not mean to wear her out when I got her. Honest!

The only good news in the visit was when the DR told her she was tough.

He told her that he knew men that couldn't tolerate the pain that she does. He also complimented her on her sense of humor in the whole situation. She told him that laughing was better than crying.

She hasn't felt like posting lately, so that is why I am updating y'all.

Fortunately, we dont have to bring our own dead body

We just returned from TJ doctor visit concerning her back and leg pain. The news is that a piece of one of her disks is in the wrong place and needs to be removed. That is the simple surgery option. It is a one hour procedure, which may or may not require an overnight stay in the hospital. It is like the surgery done 6 months ago.

The second option is fusion. The idea is to remove the disk and fuse the disks on both sides (over simplification.) DR Harry told us all about the procure including drawing pictures to show us what was to be done. It is a good thing he is a better surgeon than artist. One on the funniest moments was in response to a question by TJ. Doc kept telling us they would remove a disk and pack the area densely with bone. Then her body would heal over this and create the fusion of the spine. After he alluded to this bone packing several times, TJ asked him where all this bone was coming from. As deadpan as any good comedian, he replied, "Well, some of the bone we will get from you. The rest we will get from some dead guy. You do not have to bring your own dead guy."

I kid you not. It was hilarious, even though we both thought of a couple folks we might like to volunteer for the dead part.

We really like this doctor. He is very informative. He explains everything. He listens to you. He believes you when you say something hurts. He accepts that his best source of information is actually the patient. His Physicians Assistant has the personality of a old rock. He doesn't even have the personality of a new rock. He is a nice guy, but very dry. If he visited the Sahara Desert, it would say the same thing. "Nice guy, but kind of dry."

The less invasive, less risky, less nerve touching, less likely to cause a permanent burning sensation in your leg, surgery is scheduled for December 30.

Fortunately, we do not have to bring our own dead body.