Recovery, Rehab, Relaxed, and Read a Good Book

I know you're all wondering, how is Karen doing, how did knee surgery go, what's for dinner, what time's the game. Don't worry, I know you care. Sorry I've been so long posting. It's not like I didn't have time while resting at home for six weeks. Well, it was a while before I felt like doing a lot. Seems like I slept as much as I stayed awake. And when I was awake, I exercised.

This was 3 weeks after surgery. My therapist took the walker while I worked on my extension while walking.

 

For all you wonderful people who have to suffer with Osteo-Arthritis and wonder if it's worth it to have knee surgery. I have to say yes, for me, it was worth every penny and pain. I am doing wonderful.

My daughter and grand-daughter and I went to the zoo and walked for an hour and a half without me complaining once about my knee. We were both impressed.

Well, there was the one time I climbed on a big step to get a pic of the gorilla and stepped down way too hard. Got it. He was very cooperative.

 I went up and down stairs and chose to do that instead of taking the ramps. I was so happy that I could walk. It was the best day ever. My daughter and I just followed our three year old wherever she wanted to go.

So you have my recommendation and so does my doctor, Dr. Kurt Rathjen, in Dallas. If I need to replace my left knee, no problem. I will do it in a heartbeat. The trick is to exercise. I'm still in outpatient therapy but my doctor is so happy with my progress I almost got to skip it. I'm just working on range of motion to make it even better. I asked for aquatic therapy and I get to have a couple more days of it unless I can talk my therapist into letting me go longer. My favorite part of therapy is the warm water. Then we do land therapy and not so great but I love it. It feels so good when it's over. I have so much more energy. I have about six weeks of land therapy and I'll be ready to climb mountains.

Now I don't know if Dr. Rathjen calls all of his patients, his Star Patient, but he was very pleased with me as was my home health therapist, Tara.

Here is an after picture of the surgery. The scar isn't pretty but it's not too bad either.

I also had a little time while I was off work to learn how to use my new embroidery machine. It is a lot of fun to make new things and I'm getting very motivated to do even more. So look out, I'll be sharing some of my fun things I'm making. Here is the very first thing I made on my machine and got a few orders just posting them on my personal Facebook page. I would call it a unicorn but my 9 year old grand-daughter would argue it's an alacorn since it has wings. She wants a real one when she grows up. The 12 year old wants a live miniature giraffe. Yeah, we're not living in fairytale land over here, are we?

 

I also played around doing fun doing things I don't normally have time to do. I have far too many hobbies but I love arts and crafts and wish I was as good at drawing as my naturally gifted 12 year old grand-daughter. But I ordered a couple of new books from Stephanie Corfee and here is my 9 year old grand-daughter I drew while sitting on my swing watching the girls play outside.

 

Also, while I was off, I was on a book launch team for Mary DeMuth's new book, The Wall Around Your Heart. It is a wonderful book and helped me make a few changes in my own life.

It addresses how we build walls to protect ourselves from hurt and pain but in doing so it closes us off to happiness. Also how to tear down those walls and heal from the pain. Some people don't even realize they have walls. It is very eye opening and a great inspiration. Awesome book and I highly recommend it as well.

 

You can order it  here. Read posts here.  Check out some of the pins with quotes from the book here.

 

So that's about it. I started back to work on Monday and the wonderful friends that do what I do at other stores came in weekly and then made a two day job of cleaning up my office, boxing paperwork, and doing a major overhaul. They also had me caught up and ready to work. What a wonderful feeling to go back and not have 6 weeks worth of back paperwork. Plus, another friend I work with had been keeping up with most of the daily paperwork as well as some filing. I have such good friends and I am feeling very blessed. I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to pay forward.