Home again

Back here for a couple days now. Got another CPM due to the great folks over at Dr. Thomas Burns office (Michelle, his assistance, is awesome) and have been sitting in it most of the last couple days. Range still seems ok on the flexion side, we're back to 90 pretty smoothly with the CPM. Extension still needs some work though.

Go Horns!

End of 2005...

We had a few technical difficulties the last few days of 2005, as the wireless access for our condo was once again down. On Friday I (Lissa) dropped Alex off at the hospital for his PT appointments and went to hang out with one of his other physical therapists, Kim, on her day off. She and I had planned to go skiing at Breckenridge, but decided that it was too crowded and instead went for a long hike with her dog, Elli. We had a great time and fortunately the weather held up for me to make it back to Vail to pick Alex up after his second PT appointment that day. Phew, was I tired after the long drive and hiking!!!!

Saturday we had a fairly routine day, with PT in the morning and afternoon. During his afternoon session I went over to a shop in Lionshead Village to rent a pair of skis for the next day. :) We went back to the condo and rested for a while, before I went out to pick up some take out Chinese food for our New Year's Eve feast. Around 8:00 Alex decided he wanted some "sugar" and we took a journey to the local convenience store where we got ice cream for our celebration. After watching the coverage of the Times Square New Years Eve celebration, we kissed and went to bed.

Happy New Year!

Rubbing Elbows

Another day, a little more excitement. Morning session was uneventful, still maintaining flexion on wall slides, a good thing. Typical exercises. Oh, and Martina Navatorlova, the winner of 11 tennis majors, was on the table next to me. She had knee surgery from Steadman as well, and we chatted about knees, Indiana, and other unimportant things. She only'll remember "the guy in that contraption that was straightening his knee" but still pretty cool.

Afternoon was painful, as we focused on extension, but the knee seemed as straight as it's been after some time in the JAS brace and some work. And then we drove home in a massive snowstorm. A good day.

Movin' along

Another day, another double session. As a bonus, the JAS brace appeared today, finally. Imagine a rack, but only for your leg. Fortunately, one can dial up or down the tension. Everything else standard fare for the two sessions. We did have a beautiful snowstorm starting last night and on into the morning. Really big snowflakes too, about 6 inches worth. Still maintaining the flexion in wall slides (lie on back, heel against the wall, slide heel down) and hopefully the JAS will help on the extension side.

Dinnertime!

Christmas, post

Another day, another double PT session. Top range is up to 112, but bottom is (well, also up) to about 10 degrees. Bike, wall slides, patella mobes, prone hangs, quad sets, and rolling with my foot on the top of the ball were the majority of the days' activities. Seems a little smoother between the ranges, and I can hop on the bike and pedal without too much trouble. After the first surgery, the big kickback came between days 4 and 7 or 8, so the next few days should be telling to see if there's a light at the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train.

But the speed of the oncoming train is all relative, according to Einstein, and the knee seems relativity better at the moment.

Happy New Year!

First person to wish you that, wasn't I? Day 2 of therapy down, with another week to go before we head back. Partial weightbearing is better than none, I can actually step with the leg and try to bend/extend as I walk. I remember last time, I would drag it around in a bent position wherever I went, which probably didn't help either direction.

Basic schedule the last couple days, with wall slides, patella mobs, quad sets, hamstring pulls, straight leg raises. Actually pushed the knee to 4 and 105 yesterday, we'll see if I can hang onto it all. Trying to create more fluidity in the knee as well within the range I have (as moving from 10 degrees to 40ish after hanging out in 10 after a while is pretty tough) Seems a little smoother at this point. It's going to be small steps and trying to maintain the gain from the pain before returning on the plane so I don't drive Lissa insane.

Plug along we shall! She's making Christmas cookies, so it's pretty cheery around here.

Click here to see what we've been doing from our balcony...
http://www.chunkideas.com/snowball/

Hope to see everyone soon...

Feliz Christmas!

Mrs. Bentley here again. Alex doesn't feel like posting, so I'm stepping in...

Alex was discharged from the hospital just before going downstairs to his first physical therapy appointment at 9. Around 10:45 Dr. Steadman appeared to greet the patients he had worked on the day before. He told us that he decided to be more cautious about pushing Alex's knee too far, after having seen what happened the last time around. He said the surgery was about 20 minutes with 15-20 minutes of moving his knee through the range of motion they could get, from 120 to somewhere between 5 and 10. He confirmed that Alex should do partial weight bearing on the crutches and use pain meds as needed to tolerate physical therapy exercises. We gave him a santa jack ball and parted ways until his next round of visits next week.

After a quick lunch, Alex had his second therapy appointment with Mary Ellen. We got Alex settled into the condo, with the CPM (move-his-knee machine) and ice water machine. He looked pretty tired and has developed a bit of a cough, but no fever, so no concerns about infection so far. We spent Christmas Eve watching tv and relaxing. This CPM is fairly noisy, and it didn't help as he had a hard time sleeping. He finally took his knee out of the machines and was able to sleep from 5-7. At 7 he brought in the box my sister had sent us here and proclaimed that it was time to open presents... and thus our Christmas Day began! (thanks Becca!!!!)

Therapy this morning was with Phil, and I went on a long walk around Vail and Lionshead while he was in there. I even got asked for directions to a coffeehouse... and was able to give two options. I tell ya, I'm feeling like a native :) Now I just need to actually ski here.

We're back in the condo now, on a lunch break before heading back for the afternoon session at 1.

Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends, and we'll see you all soon!

Lucky half dozen

Alex's wife here :)

His 6th surgery went smoothly - as far as we can tell! Alex went in around 9:45, and they found me in the waiting room a little before 12:30. The surgeon didn't stop by afterwards this time, probably because we weren't in the same centralized location with other post-op patients as the last time, so it wouldn't have been as convenient for him. Regardless, we'll find out more tomorrow when he goes to his first full physical therapy appointment in the morning... Dr. Steadman is expected to make the rounds there around 10.

He came out of the anesthesia pretty well; a little nausea, but nothing that our capable staff at the Vail Valley Medical Center couldn't take care of! The view outside of the room was a goreous scene of several ski trails, dotted with skiiers throughout the afternoon. His dinner was "okay", which is to be expected with hospital food. Rae came by to chat, as she'll be out tomorrow through Thursday and wouldn't see us the next day as she did the last time. I ran into Kim in the hallway and she was surprised to hear that Alex had surgery. She stopped by his room for a bit too, and we'll see her on the PT floor after she returns from a holiday weekend off.

I was planning to stay the night, but he was in a regular hospital room and the staff didn't seem to excited about me being there (they have set visitor hours). So I decided to come back to the condo, update the blog and head to bed. Tomorrow we start the two-a-day PT appointments, one at 9 and one at 2:30. It'll be a fun day of getting him moved to the condo and getting his post-op equipment set up.

The weather has been very nice, with an impressive layer of snow on the car and roads when we left this morning. Thank goodness for our good planning in having picked up a snow brush/ice scraper thing the night before!!! I drove like a good little Texan out of her element... SLOWLY!

Thanks for your support and encouraging thoughts... Alex will post more with details tomorrow.