Hello to all, and thanks to all my forum friends for there well wishs and kind thoughts... I really like this amazing group of people... we all seem to have several common bonds aside from the collecting activity... The reason for this post is a little update for my friends and customers who are patiently waiting for me to recover... My recovery seems slow, but I am told it is on pace or ahead of scheadule on the grand scheme of things... after the surgury there are three main issues... pain being the first, and of course, easily controlled with modern heavy hitting meds.. second is flexibility of the joint, straight to fully bent is a long and ongoing process, with daily gains of a degree or two considered a success!! Third is strenght, the muscles take a real beating on a surgury like this and it's about like starting from scratch... so, we are looking at several months before we feel like we own our knee again... I did have one little setback, and it was my own fault.. I got impatient with my forward progress one day and was going forward about as fast as I could shuffle my feet. I inadvertantly tipped my walker forward and there was a slight pause as if the walker was trying to figure out what was going on... there was two things that could happen, one, the walker would tip back level, and all would be fine... or two, the wheels on the front could shoot out toward the back leaving me extented and bearing most of my weight on my newly modified leg... Guess which one happened to me??? Well to make a short story even shorter, there followed about two full minutes of screaming. followed by another two of frustrated cursing, followed by about fifteen minutes of humility when you realize you can't get you butt off the floor with out using every bit of energy you can sum up after an ordeal like that!!! Well, I first apoligized to God for the previous cursing, because I figured I was going to need him on my side in the next fifteen to twenty minutes, and I'm pretty sure he was, because it was all I could do to make it back up.. I checked everything out and seemed no worse for the experience, except it set me back a bit on the pain control issue.. But, that was a week ago, and I have fully recovered from that. And so it goes, good days, bad days, therapy, restless nights, but all the time gaining... If you plan on doing this type of surgury, count on at least four to six weeks before you can work part time... and plan on four to five hour days at the most for the next few weeks... I'll fill you in on the rest as i go through it... So to my friends that have parts on order, please be patient, as I can't quite stand at the lathe yet, and for me, it all starts there... another week or two and I should be good to go... Thanks again to all my pals here! Best to all, til....lat'r.....GT
