Another Sad Day

It started out a sad day for Joanne and me. We had to put down one of our older cats. Boyd was about 16 years old and was having troubles. We did not want him to suffer so off to the Vet Joanne took him. They become part of the family so it is difficult to put them down even when you know it is best for the cat. We had a burial in the back yard for Boyd. Now we are down to three cats and all three are a lot younger. They will be around for quite awhile. I think the oldest, Bear, is about five year old. All our cats are former Ferial cats but live indoors fulltime now. Boyd is the tan cat in the picture. Ace is our youngest and is the black and white cat.

I have a Doctors appt this week so we will see how the hip is doing from a medical standpoint. Putting a sock on and tying a shoe is still out of the question. It hurts too much to bend the leg way up to reach my toes. My movement is getting better with only a few sharp stabs of pain if I move wrong. Every night we try to walk a little further but I am still using the cane for support.

The RV-Dreams Rally starts this week and that was going to be out first trip of the season. The Rally is in ABC Campground in Branson, MO. It would have been a fun time with that group that follows the travels of Howard and Linda on their blog. Maybe next year they will have another Rally and if I stay healthy, we will join them.

Walking With A Cane

I’m finally using the cane but it is a lot more difficult then I had imagined. The hip is painful while walking on it but not unbearable. I can get around fairly well but not very fast. I have driven myself to two group sessions and that worked out fairly well and it will probably be easier with the cane. At least it is easier getting in and out of the car with the cane. With the walker, I had to fold it up and put it in the backseat of the car then scoot along using the cargo railing on the roof of the car to get to the drivers seat. People probably figured they wanted to stay clear of my on the road. They were probably thinking, “What is that handicapped old coot doing on the road?” The foot is still swelling up during the day but the more I use the muscles the more that should go away. Just moving around will be good physical therapy for the leg.

Hopefully, we can start to plan some RV trips. We had to cancel the Branson RV-Dreams rally but I’m sure I should be able to deal with traveling by the middle of June. It sure will be costly for diesel fuel this year though. I usually fill up when I get to the point that I need about 100 gallons so that will be more than double the cost of a fill up from last year. It is still cheaper than staying in hotels and eating out. Plus I’m sleeping in my own bed and have everything I need close at hand.

I still have not tackled stairs in the house but in a week or so I may try getting to the basement. I’m tired of using this laptop and would love to get back to my regular computer. I hate typing on this flat surface keyboard. Plus, I would love to get back to my comfortable recliner chair and the big TV. I want my normal life back. My wife, Joanne, also wants her normal life back too. Probably more so then I do.

Ahhhhhhhh!

Well, life continues on and I’m still struggling with this stupid walker. Joanne did go out and buy me an anti-embolism stocking for the right leg. I do think it helps with the swelling and does feel better when I walk. It was a bugger to get the stocking on though. If the swelling goes down then it should be easier to get the stocking on in a couple of days.

Our weather has been so nice for the last few days that it makes this process even more of a pain in the hip. I would love to be outdoors working in the yard and getting the truck and RV ready for traveling. Guess that will not happen until about June. Maybe in a week or so I will give driving a try and see if it hurts the hip or not. I hope that I will be able to drive with little or no pain. I am a goofy footer so I only use the right leg for the accelerator and brake with my left. That is what my dad did and that is how I learned. With the Freightliner, I have to do everything with the right foot because the accelerator and brake are both on the right of the steering column. There isn’t any room to get the left foot over to the brake.

Maybe if my driving test works out okay then I will be able to go to Group. I asked the doctor when I would be able to drive and he said it was up to the “Boss”. He was referring to Joanne. It would be a lot easier if all I needed was a cane but dealing with the walker sure throws a wrench in the works. Things will get better…right?

Four More Weeks

Well, after visiting the doctor on Friday, he gave me the bad news of four more weeks with the walker and no weight bearing on the hip. I sure was hoping for better news. It has been a tough two weeks and having to do four more like this will be so boring. I feel like I can’t do anything. Pain wise, the leg is doing fairly well but I do have some swelling of the foot and calf. I try exercising the leg but the muscles are very tight.

Guess we will have to cancel our first trip of the year to Branson, MO for the RV-Dreams Rally. The brake pedal on the Freightliner takes a lot of pressure and I will not know how that will affect the hip. Rather than push it too much, guess it is best that we delay the first trip of the season. You should check out the RV-Dreams website for some young folks that decided to travel the country and leave the corporate world. The site is at http://www.rv-dreams.typepad.com/.

The thing that I miss right now is not being able to go to my Thursday group therapy sessions. I had a couple of flashbacks in the hospital because I was out of my safe zone. I’m doing fairly well now but still would like to get back with my sessions and the guys.

I've Fallen and Can't Get Up

The best laid plans of mice and men…. Well, our trip to the Hall China Convention in Pittsburgh was cancelled at the last minute on Wednesday, April 2nd at about 3 PM. I had gone out to the RV to get a new pair of flip-flops to take on the trip. While exiting the RV, I found myself flying through the air and landed on my right side. As I was falling, I said to myself “this is going to hurt”.

I could not get up from the ground because of extreme pain in my right leg. Joanne came out of the house and saw my feet under the RV and thought that maybe I was fixing something. She asked what I was doing and all I could say was that famous saying, “I’ve fallen and can’t get up”. I told her to call 911 because I better go to the local ER.

To make a long story short, it turns out that I did break my right hip in two places. I went to surgery on Thursday at about 7 PM and was discharged the next day by 2:30 PM. At 10:00 pm this evening it will be officially two weeks since the three pins were placed in my hip. No weight bearing for four to six weeks is going to be a real pain in the neck. Of course, my allergies to pain medication did not help the situation any. Hopefully, I will get the sixteen staples taken out tomorrow and maybe the doctor will let me start doing more things and start putting a little more weight on the leg. Hey, I can hope can’t I.

I Know, Late Again.

I know I have been bad in not posting lately. I have been quite busy trying to sell Hot Wheels for my sister that her husband collected. I also have many surgical instruments to sell too but I am having trouble taking good pictures of the instruments. They are so shiny that the light just reflects back at the camera and I cannot show good details of the item.

We got back from church this morning after being greeters and felt that I really needed to put an update on my blog. My sister seems to be doing much better now and is still keeping very active. She is slowly donating many of his clothes to charities and getting the house squared away. As a Flight Attendant, she was away a lot and Moon tended to let things slide. The basement and garage are nice and clean now with brand new garage doors. Anyone need a nice 2005 Dodge 3500 Dually with Cummins engine with less than 4000 miles on the truck? Yes, that is not a typo; the truck has less then 4000 miles on it. That Cummins is not even broken in yet.

How am I doing? I have my good days and my bad days both physically and mentally. I have been having dizzy spells for the last couple of days so I hope I am not coming down with a bug of some sort. Mentally, I am still down because of my sister and sure wish she would move up to this area. I think that would be great. My sister is going back to work part-time at a local Hallmark store so that will give her something to do.

We have a Hall China Convention in Pittsburgh coming up very soon so that should be exciting. This will be the eighth convention and we have been to all of them. This year I am sort of the unofficial photographer. Need to get all the batteries charged and get out the extra memory cards. Hate to miss a week of group therapy but everything will be fine. A few extra drugs will help me get through that period.

I will try hard to get back to posting more frequently.

Late Update

I’ve been remiss in keeping up the blog. I drove to Atlanta to help my sister out some more and spent a week down there. I drove down on a Monday and the wife flew down on Wednesday. We drove back together on the following Monday. Much was accomplished while with my sister but we have a lot more to do. I am thinking that maybe I should go down again so I am trying to decide if I should fly or drive. Driving is a good twelve hours and is very tiring. I will have to see how things go with my sister. She has many help down there but I think she does need her brother.

The other day I saw this quote and it reminded me of Moon (my sister’s late husband). "Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart." Moon was an individual like that. He would always leave footprints in your heart. He was an odd duck but everyone seemed to love him and he had an impact on their lives.

While we were down there, my sister had some people from the Jaguar Club come by and check out the XK-150S Jaguar. One of them decided to buy it and someone else took the other three cars in the basement. The other cars were a 66 Mustang, a 62 Volkswagen Convertible and a 58 Porsche 356A Cabriolet. They were all in various stages of restoration but those folks are used to restoring cars. Now she needs to find buyers for an 03 Nissan 350Z with 33000 miles and an 05 Dodge 3500 Dually with Cummins engine with..get this…are you ready…3400 miles. They only used it to pull their Airstream trailer and they only did two short trips with it.

I brought back a lot of surgical instruments (Moon sold them for many years) and a nice Hot Wheels collection that I will be putting on Ebay. If you are into Hot Wheels or need surgical instruments then check out “Crazygramma” on Ebay. Trust me, this will take a long time to sell all these.

I wish I could spend a lot more time with my sister but it is difficult for me to leave my “safe zone” and be comfortable. My wife knows how to deal with my quirks and me so she stays close and that is comforting to me. I will try to do better in posting more but Ebay has really been keeping me busy. Which is a good thing for someone with PTSD.