Maman's Update

My friend has returned home after leaving her dear Maman in the capable hands of another sibling. Her reports are very positive and she is happy to share them with such faithful prayer warriors.

Maman continues to become stronger each day.  She is positive in outlook and is preparing for the TAVI team to get together to prepare for her aortic valve replacement sometime in the next few months. Fortunately that is not an emergency surgery that must be done immediately, so there will be time to get the proper TAVI team in place ahead of time.  For a woman who died twice in the ER when she initially arrived at the hospital she has come along way. As I told my friend, "An amazing woman has received an amazing piece of medical technology."  Thanks again for your prayers. When it is time for the aortic valve replacement I will be soliciting your prayers once again. Bless you all.

Why O Why Did I Bother To Ask???? Hahahaha....

We were "up 'n' at 'em" by 8am today; breakfasted and dressed and ready to go by 9am.  We wanted to get to our nearest post office branch before it got busy and we were successful in that.  It took just over five minutes to arrange for our mail to be held while we are away and then we were on our way home again.  

The plumbers are supposed to come today to suss out our leakage issues but we knew they likely wouldn't get here until later in the day. So at nearly 3pm we are still waiting, but that is just fine.  It is highly likely they got held up on another job, so if they don't get here today they will be here tomorrow and one of us should be home most all day to explain the problem to them.  Who knows when arrangements will be made for the issue to actually be repaired, right?  We know from our years in construction how the best laid plans in the trades can come apart within seconds, leaving the next customer waiting longer than arranged for originally. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Once we arrived home from the post office my husband headed over to our friends' house to complete the building of canoe racks for their and our canoes, so I stupidly asked myself, "Hmmm, I wasn't expecting to be done with the post office this early so what shall I do for the rest of today?"  Dumb, dumb, dumb.....I barely got the question asked when things began to happen.  I realized it was time to put a load of my husband's clothes into the laundry and some of it needed stain spray...that man never remembers to put on his chef's sized apron when he is stir frying with hot, spattering oil.....and I wanted to get that finished before the plumbers might arrive and have to turn off the main water valve.  Just got that in when my next door neighbour arrived with a giant tote bag filled with more bags of rice and rolled oats that, when added to what she has already brought us since the end of June, could combine to feed a lumber camp crew for an entire summer.  In the top of the bag were two large bunches of carrots and a giant head of broccoli, both veggies needing immediate attention.  So, I spent the next hour cutting off carrot tops and peeling and bagging them for my husband to make soup out of, perhaps tomorrow.  Then I chopped the heavy, tough stem off the head of broccoli, removed a section for our dinner tonight then cut the rest of it into somewhat smaller pieces, blanched the whole works, cooled all the pieces and bagged them for the freezer.  Originally I had hoped to have the freezer and most of the refrigerator free of any food items before we left town, but that isn't going to happen, so all we can do is pray our refrigerator, poor ancient scratched stained ugly old thing that it is, doesn't break down while we are gone. So thankful our friend is checking in several times a week to water plants and check things like basement flooding and dead refrigerators. God bless her!!  

After lunch I got the load of clothes dried and sorted, but I think I will wait and iron them tomorrow.  For some reason our lunch preparations resulted in more than the usual amount of dirty dishes, so I spent a fair bit of time tidying up the kitchen and washing plates and glasses and bowls and pots and and and and....

Now as I write this I am waiting for my son to call in regard to some mutual banking arrangements we need to make together in regard to our trip.  Those arrangements will dictate how I spend the rest of the next ten days in preparing to go. 

Tomorrow morning if I am looking at a chunk of free time after I iron the laundry I washed today I think I will just keep my questions about further chores for the day to myself!  Hohoho!!! I certainly can't whine today about not getting enough exercise.  I have lost count of how many times I have been up and down both flights of stairs and how long I spent standing in the kitchen doing various chores.  

That part is ALL good!!!  My hip muscles on the operated leg are finally beginning to strengthen up to cover up the fact that the tendon has not returned to full operation.  YAY!  I thought I was done with all of the healing and restoration process, but no!  That 18 month time frame for complete or nearly complete healing is still in effect for me for the next 5 months apparently. I am delighted and relieved as I see the limp finally beginning to lessen even when I am walking farther than usual without my cane.  Thank you God.

Maman Is One Tough Cookie!

 Today, 93 year old Maman is going home! She will be able to have the valve replacement in a few months, so that is great news. Maman is a journalist and along with being able to walk and eat properly again, she has also begun writing up the details of her brush with death.  My friend is amazed by how well she is doing and is grateful for such positively answered prayers.  I am very happy for all of them. ⛪️

We had our first lower atmosphere forest fire smoke overnight, so this morning my eyelids are swollen and my lungs feel irritated. What a blessing that we made it through June and July with only a few overnight hours of higher altitude smoke that didn’t even rate a Smoke Warning from the weather forecasters. The sun this morning is a giant, flaming orange red ball, similar to the sunrise suns we used to see in Tokyo on a typical smoggy morning. I was so exhausted overnight that only once was I vaguely aware of smelling smoke and I was so groggy I couldn’t wake up sufficiently to get up and close the windows. What a trade off: breathing in poisonous particulate matter with the windows open or sweltering, sweating, headaching heat. Happy summer night to you too! 😉

I haven’t been able to force myself to get up and check the leaking spot in the kitchen ceiling. My husband is preaching at our own church this morning so he hasn’t the luxury to staying home to babysit that dripping crack and I have no intention of missing his sermon, so hopefully the large catch basin we have on top of the cupboards will hold however many more drips drip! 💧 

Maman's Continuing Health Journey Update

 I have another update in regard to Maman's recovery.  She is still in hospital after all because it has been discovered that she requires a new aortic valve.  While there is no huge rush for the surgery itself, she will need to have an angiogram to ensure the valve will be able to be installed through a vein in the groin.  If the angiogram shows otherwise she could be in need of open heart surgery.  Her angiogram should happen next Tuesday.  Hopefully it will be possible to insert the new valve using the usual method and once that is established she will likely be sent home to await the surgery.  So, more to pray about, but overall things are so much more positive than they appeared they would be, particularly after her actually dying for a bit before the temporary pace maker was put in. Whew....Thanks for praying for her and for her family.  It is very much appreciated.

It is another very warm day here, the forecast is for +32C; not the hottest we have had, but today there isn't a hint of a breeze anywhere near our area of the city, so even though it is currently only +25C it feels too hot to be comfortable outside.  I had to drive to the nearest grocery store instead of taking my intended walk due to a late start to my now overly warm day. I DID manage to fall asleep again after the 5:30am "Fight Club" on the front lawn and I slept for over 90 minutes.  It was worth getting a late start on the day just to feel better for the rest of the day.

My husband is meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon so I think I will tackle the needed executor's package updates.  I never want to go away without all that information being immediately available to one of our executors.  I learned from my parents' well organized banking and other financial records how important it is to have all the required information ready for the executor, as well as a list of where to start and in what order to do things like getting death certificates, adding up the monies in accounts and investments to take to the lawyer for access to the wills and to find out if probate will be necessary.  There are so many steps and each time something is attempted out of order it slows everything else down sometimes by several weeks.  Mom and Dad made things very smooth going for me in terms of available information that I needed. The financial institutions were the main hold up as probation was completed sooner than expected and caught them unawares.  I learned so much so we want to make everything as easy as possible for any executors when it is our turn to go. 

Positive Update On Maman!

 This morning I received the report that Maman was able to have a permanent pacemaker maker installed yesterday and she has done incredibly well in her initial recovery. In fact she may be released in the next day or two. My friend is thrilled by these results and thanks you all profusely for praying. God must have intervened because the situation was dire, with these positive results not really expected. My friend and her husband will be staying with Maman at her home while she completes her recovery there. My friend is a wonderful daughter!

Thanks everyone and thank you God!

Already An Update On Maman!

 Just in the past few minutes since I posted the request for prayer for Maman, I have received an update that her permanent pace maker surgery is likely going to be pushed up to tomorrow instead of Friday. The situation for her is very serious indeed.  Thank you for praying.

A Lovely Evening!

 After a lovely outdoor coffee time with my friend this morning....despite heavy rain very early in the morning, the mosquitoes barely bothered us at the park table we were sitting at because there was enough of a breeze to keep them at bay....I came home to the news that my husband had invited two of our closest friends to meet us for dinner tonight at a newly discovered and loved Indian restaurant.  The visit was fantastic and the food was as good as always, but the best part was that my husband had not only the idea, but the oomph to take the initiative to formulate and execute the plan!  He has been feeling so much more cheery over the past few days and has been making things happen most every day for the past nearly a week!  Amazing!  I am as grateful as he is that the funk he has been in for so long seems to be lifting.  Thank you Lord for this answer to prayer.

I am wondering if he will continue his journey to feeling even happier about life as we grow closer to our departure date.  He had the paper map of New York City out on the dining room table this morning, tracing out routes from our apartment to various museums and art galleries and restaurants and parks that we want to visit while we are there.  He nearly completed the blessings and prayers format for the wedding reception and will send those off tomorrow for editing and approval from our "kids".  Each morning he has been up and moving in good time to accomplish a lot during the day. All this is in spite of ongoing tummy issues as he now cannot eat Bell Peppers or peanuts/peanut butter.  The last go round we had with new deletions from his diet was about 3 years ago now when both beets and pears became no-no's.  It is most disturbing when things he has eaten all his life and truly enjoyed start joining the "DO NOT EAT ANYMORE EVER!" list, but that has been the way of things since 1985 when the whole CFS/dietary upsets thing started.  Every few years new items must be eliminated from his diet and a few items he has not eaten in a decade or more can then be added back in with no apparent bad effects.  Sigh....it is a constant merry-go-round trying to feed this man properly.  After over 40 years of this I am well used to it, but it never fails to hurt me as well as him each time we begin the process of discovery to find whatever new foods can no longer be tolerated. God bless him. He is stoic about it and never complains or feels particularly sorry for himself.  What an example HE is to wimpy whiny ME!!

Surviving The Heat Thanks To Friends With A/C In Their House!

Last night was the first time this summer that I have removed all the covers from my bed and slept on top of the bottom sheet, thanking God for light summer overnight wear.  I will be doing the same thing tonight.  Today we got up to almost +34C, with not much of a breeze so it was like a sauna outside by mid afternoon.  Tomorrow the temperature is aiming for a high of about +37C and then slowly we will get back to more seasonal mid to upper +20C's.  Can't wait!!

I caught quite a magnificent break this afternoon. Two good friends contacted me and invited me to come to their house for the hottest part of the afternoon. Their house has wonderful A/C, so it was quite a treat!  An icy cold cola and a  fruit flavoured "frozen on a stick like a Creamsicle"  snack lowered my core temperature nicely.  I survived the afternoon well thanks to friends!!  God bless them for their invitation.  My husband was also invited but opted for a long nap in our basement instead after spending a few hours working on our kids' wedding reception programme.  

I must be finally getting into holiday mode because after I visited my friends this afternoon I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of food items, noticed their rack containing travel sized shampoos and toothpastes and such was full of excellent product, so I picked up everything that I need to pack in my carry on for our upcoming trip. Tonight I hard copied all our flight and rental apartment information so I have it immediately at hand if required at US Customs and Immigration instead of having to fiddle about on mobile phones trying to find what we need amongst our email files.  I cleaned out my carry on bag yesterday and started making a few difficult decisions about what clothing items I am going to take with me.  It always takes me awhile to get my head around the details of preparing for a trip. Fortunately I have had a lot of lead time for this one. Final clothes shopping trip here will happen either at the end of next week if it cools down enough or the following week.  My second last haircut is scheduled for next week, I have the dates for refilling my necessary prescriptions all juggled around so I won't run out of them before we get home and I have decided not to take my vitamin supplements.  I can purchase a month's worth once we get there and use them up before we board the plane to come home.  I made a list of what else has to be done at the end of this month: setting up our American mobile phone plans, getting our health insurance figured out and paid for, arranging to have the post office hold our mail while we are gone, setting up arrangements with our local utility companies to pay our September bills in advance of the trip, and figuring out how much actual cash we need to carry with us.  I have been putting off even thinking about any of these things because I didn't have the mental or emotional energy available.  Now, my brain is starting to compute the details and I feel motivated to get with it and prepare. YAY! I think my sudden enthusiasm to do these things was triggered yesterday when I paid the bill for our flights and the hold deposit on the rental apartment.  Once that much money is actually invested it is far more motivating to carry through with the rest of the arrangements.

I have not seen many mosquitoes here since all the rain stopped and the heat began, but they have apparently seen me!!  At the moment I have four wrist bites, a back of the arm bite, a back of the leg bit and three bites on my shins that are currently sending me nuts with itching! Fortunately this kind of bad itching usually only lasts for about a day when I get these miserable bites. By tomorrow I will have angry red little welts, but the horrible itch that tempts me with the urge to scratch at them should be gone. 

Sometimes A Little Complaining Goes A Long Way....Sad That Complaining Is Occasionally Necessary Isn't It?

 My husband just received a phone call from the bank where we have had SO much grief over the past few years.  It was to set up an appointment for him next week.  Seems that since I sent in a poor review to a questionnaire that bank sent out a few weeks ago asking how we find their service to be for us, some things have changed!  YAY!  My review was not scathing, but it was negative enough to warrant an in person chat with me a couple of days after it was received.  I explained in more detail what the issues have been and oh my goodness.....all of a sudden we have a new financial advisor there, after not hearing from the one we thought we had for nearly three years, we are getting calls about things we should have been contacted about many times over the past 3 years and heard absolutely zero about. Suddenly the new FA wants to review what we have left in that bank that has not been moved to another institution, wants to give us information we have been needing for more than four years that due to us not having it messed me up badly with the CRA last year that it took hours of phone calls and repayments of sales tax rebates I had received that year to fix the mess.

This is all good news....we hope. We shall see how things go at that appointment and in the future. 

In other news it has been another lovely warm day today.  There was a return of the rain and thunder last night overnight after a couple of gloriously dry days, but by morning the puddles were nearly dry already.  Unfortunately the thunder woke me up at 3am, but since the rain was tap, tap, tapping on the eaves and I love that sound, I got up and threw the bedroom window wide open so I could enjoy it. What's a bit of water on the windowsill after all, right?  I fell asleep again at about 5:30am and slept deeply for another two hours.  Then it was up for breakfast and a visit with my coffee buddy.

My coffee buddy and I have decided we are tired of paying big bucks for small cups of tea and coffee at the coffee bar nearest her place, so today we took a short drive around her new neighbourhood. Only two blocks away we discovered a fairly large park with not only playground equipment but several iron benches and a couple of wooden picnic tables to sit at. We sat outside at one of the tables in the glorious sunshine, chattering away like two old magpies and it was so much fun being out of the crowded coffee bar, away from all building construction noise and enjoying a couple of daycare groups who came to utilize the playground equipment.  Fortunately for us, despite the hot sunshine after more rain, we encountered only a couple of mosquitoes and one tiny brown spider that went racing across the brim of my friend's sunhat. We came away feeling energized, less broke, haha, and very pleased to have a new place to enjoy our weekly visits during the summer and autumn months. What a blessing to have only a couple of blocks to go for our time together. Next time I will try to find a visitor parking spot open at her apartment and we can walk to the park.  

This afternoon we ran errands, my husband and I.  He is rotating back onto a diet mostly of cooked vegetables, protein and unleavened bread to keep his CFS food sensitivities in check.  We now have a crisper filled with cabbages and purple turnips, radishes for his beloved potato salad, carrots and cauliflowers and a freezer full of frozen peas and Brussels Sprouts. I was able to purchase quite a few packages of free range ground turkey and chicken and some extra lean ground beef that is actually extra lean over at SaveOn Foods....the difference in the fat and transfat contents in those poultry packs and the ones with meat from farm fed/ big production farm birds is phenomenal. SO MUCH lower in the free range poultry.  

The horrific swollen glands (from the CFS) in the back of my husband's head are much better today and far less painful after being completely debilitating yesterday so he decided to take advantage of feeling considerably better to pick up his food items.  Tomorrow he has no out of the house commitments so he can rest again AND have a good long talk with our son and his wife when they call to confirm the plans for the spiritual portion of their wedding reception programme.  All I have to do tomorrow is return to the doctor for my osteoporosis meds injection and then I am done with all things medical for this week, yay!  I spent so much time in the waiting room earlier on that I think I could draw a diagram of very paint chip and black mark on the walls in there! hahaha  

We caved in and watched the chuckwagon races from the Calgary Stampede grounds all this week and even picked up some of the bull riding, kids' teams working to get one of their members on the backs of wild ponies, the womens' barrel races and free roping.....it has been a fun way to spend our evenings at home when my husband has been feeling lousy.  I am adjusting to having only 3 wagons per chuckwagon race but oh my....we very much miss the commentary from Tommy Glass who passed away, somewhat unexpectedly I believe, the week prior to the Stampede.  I can't imagine his son having to perform in those races the very next week, but he is doing his dad proud with his times and skills.  I know darned well I will also cave and watch the entire rodeo the afternoon of the last day to see the winners pick up their cheques and their gorgeous bronze castings of bucking broncs, bulls, cowboys and other ranching related scenes.  I am not really a big rural ranch scene fan, (although I have a great admiration for the hard work cowboys and ranchers have to do...very, very hard, dirty, physically taxing and often discouraging work), because I grew up in the city and, only knowing personally one rancher in my life,  have not had the opportunity to develop a lot of appreciation for that lifestyle and geographical scenery, but those bronzes take such artistry and skill to create. (How's that for a run on sentence, right???) They are lovely. So, I am learning that once a Calgarian who grew up loving the Stampede as a kid, always a Calgarian who still loves watching the Stampede events as an adult and is not ashamed to admit it.

We are about to embark on our own heatwave here on the prairies over the next three days at least. By Sunday we are forecast to reach +37C and overnight lows of a big +16C...not cool enough to help prior to the following day's heat. Church is going to be very difficult to sit through, but it will be a good break from our not air conditioned suite!! If it is only for three days before we get below +30C again we will survive. My husband will disappear for three days into the cool of the basement and I will have an opportunity upstairs to train for our trip to NYC during some of its hottest summer weather!!  There is good in almost everything, right?

Hmmmm...summer heat wave or winter ice....SUMMER HEAT WAVE all the way!!! hahahahaha 

Beautiful Summer Colors Abound In Our Complex!

No, the colours of summer around here are not from the few pots of blooming flowers on our and some of the neighbours' back decks, but from the colourful clothing some of the immigrant women are wearing.  The African and Caribbean women are dressed in brilliant yellows and greens and reds, while the Muslim woman are wearing less brilliantly coloured hijabs, but still in beautiful shades of light maroon and deep blues.  

One of our African neighbours is on her back porch, washing her kids' clothes in a Tweety Bird yellow plastic pail that exactly matches the yellow in her head wrapping and of the flower pattern on her black skirt.  So lovely....her deck railings and covered in tiny baby blue, neon green and pale yellow items belonging to her youngest son, 4 year old Jonson.  We suspect that either the dryer in their unit doesn't work well or she has decided she cannot afford the electricity it costs to run. She is a resourceful woman: took some job training and got some kind of job, has sublet the basement to another younger couple who also assist her in baby sitting the five kids when they are off work and no longer has to receive food from the immigrant food service providers here in the city.  She is an amazing woman accomplishing all of this in the 18 months they have lived in our complex.  I admire her stamina and her resourcefulness.  We are praying with her kids that their dad will be able to get to Canada very soon. It has been nearly 2 years since he had to return to his home country to sort out some extended family issues and was refused re-entry to Canada.  

Well, it is now time to iron my own colourful summer clothing that I washed a couple of days ago.  Ironing is most relaxing and I quite enjoy it.  It is the kind of task that gives instant reward: wrinkles to no wrinkles in a matter of a few minutes and, unlike dusting and vacuuming whose results last anywhere from a matter of only hours, to a couple of days at most,  the results of ironing last for days or even weeks before the clothing is worn and becomes wrinkled again.

Good to have the blue sky and sunshine today.  There are some possible thunderheads forming now, mid afternoon and there is a possibility of more rain and thunder tonight, but who knows?  All I know is that our basement didn't flood in yesterday's deluge! (And my husband is feeling so much better today after I prayed for him last evening.  He isn't 100% back on his feet after what we think was an extreme food sensitivity reaction that seems to be forming now when he eats his favourite bread, but what a difference between him being nearly immobilized from headache last night and only a slight tummy gurgling today.)  

Thank you Lord! It is a good day!

The Usual Working Around the House Saturday!

 Gosh, but I find Saturdays difficult!  It seems to be a really great day for my husband to work on sermons and articles he is writing, but I nearly lose my mind every Saturday.  Yes, I could get out and shop or look about at some little art galleries, but Saturday is the day working folk and school children are off and so of course it gets rather crowded at most venues and restaurants.  With it being Father's Day weekend, some places are even more crowded than usual today from what I can gather.

So today I did the laundry. hahaha Happy Saturday!!  Good to get it done and I can iron tomorrow or Monday afternoon.  Great to get the exercise going up and down the two flights of stairs as well, although that second hip is giving me grief over it.  Dang it, but I really am going to have to get a prescription for Naproxin to get me through our US trip this summer. Oh well...I was on it for hip number 1 the last time we visited our kids there.

Our kids wrote to us today about the possibility of spending 3 nights in upstate New York with them the first week of our holiday. They know how much we are NOT going to pay for three nights of cabin accommodation there when we have already paid for our apartment in the city, BUT they want to cover that cost.  It is a beautiful cabin with a lovely outdoor barbeque area, which greatly appeals to our BBQ King son and our daughter in law has been talking about this sort of possibility ever since we told them back the end of April that we were coming for a whole month.  The cost of the cabin they want to rent for 3 days made us gasp, so we told them if they truly want to pay for that, okay, their choice, BUT we are paying for the food, train transportation and event entry fees.  Just waiting to hear back from them as to whether or not this is going to happen.  I know they both want to get out of the beastly hot city for a few days and I can't blame them as I too would love that!  Guess we shall see what their decision is. They are nothing if not full of interesting ideas!!

It has been a lovely warm day with only a bit of a breeze wafting through the tree tops.  Not great to be stuck in the house all day, but I have been enjoying the unusual quietness outside on the lawns.  Over the past week all the African kids have found other friends in a different area of the complex to play with, so they are gone over there right after school during the week and took off across the parking lot once again early this morning, not returning for more than a few minutes at lunch time.  Moh and his brother have barely been outside playing in the past week and it seems their family has had a serious falling out with our next door neighbours, so Moh and his brother are not playing with the two boys next door now.  The indigenous kids in our part of the complex have been packing up trucks and vans with camping gear, either heading out before school ends this coming Tuesday or getting ready to go as soon as they are free at that time.  They are too busy packing to play outside.  The other slightly older kids are heavily involved in baseball and soccer now and so by 8am every weekend day they and their parents are gone to practises and tournaments. Wow, it is so quiet around here lately it is downright eerie!! We miss the kids playing outside, yelling and kicking balls and riding bikes and fighting. haha

Our one truly beautiful day this week, today, is apparently a one off, unfortunately.  According to the forecast we have very heavy rain on the way tomorrow, followed by another two days of showers.  The poor tomatoes are so far behind I am not sure how much of a harvest we will get before we leave for our vacation this summer.  We assumed we could pick and freeze a fair crop and that we would have already picked a fair number of our wee cherry tomatoes, but nope.  There are only three tomatoes that formed nearly two weeks ago but are still dark green with not a hint of ripening. I noticed two more blossoms this morning....TWO!!  That will make a total of five tomatoes in the first three weeks of this month...that is assuming they fill out and ripen sufficiently to be eaten.  Sigh.... We need sunshine and heat for our plants now! The bonus of the rain in our province is that the forest fires are not starting and getting out of control because the rain in that area of the north has not had the accompanying lightning strikes....yet anyway.

We made a big decision yesterday to drop out of the one Bible study group we have been attending twice a month regularly for the past three years. There seem to be other things coming up for us this fall that will leave us unable to keep that commitment regularly.  That is disappointing on the one hand, but on the other hand it will be nice to have some new things to do. It will also leave us more time to invest in our small care group that began meeting some months ago and that has proven to be not only a good spiritual learning time, but also a time of deep and personal fellowship with a few folk who are significantly younger than we are and who help us restore our flagging energy levels. We don't meet nearly as often as the Bible study group does, but we enjoy everything from Bible studies to movie nights to group dinners....it is so much fun!  

My husband is doing the scripture readings at church tomorrow, so it is nice for him to have a service task that is super easy, much easier than teaching and preaching.  Next weekend we will be out of town to attend the ordination of two of the deaconal candidates he has been mentoring, so that will be really fun. AND it is on Saturday!  A GOOD Saturday for me for a change! hahaha

Well, if we survive the heavy rain that is supposed to fall tomorrow, it will be a nice relaxing Father's Day.  My husband is a great father!  Another of his many gifts!! 

Busy Times With The Neighbours, Etc.......

This week has flown past in a flurry of "busy". For someone who has spent the past two weeks fighting ear and sinus infections I seem to have had very little time, particularly this week, to just sit around and heal.  But it is okay because the antibiotics I am currently on, along with the nasal spray, seem to be doing the job sufficiently this time....so far at least.

Attending the annual Big Book Sale, a fundraiser for the seniors programme to promote life long learning at the U of R, has taken up a few hours of our time, both in donating a ton of my husband's books, (yay you, sweetie), and purchasing books, particularly for myself.  My husband picked up a handful of books that he has been wanting to read...but not keep....that haven't been available through his online library account and I found some novels to get me through the rest of the summer.  So we purchased 26 books and three record albums for $44! Not bad, not bad at all.  As I am still working through quite number of books I picked up at various community library boxes around the end of April, first of May, I should be reading well into the coming weeks.  All the books we purchased will be read and then funnelled into various community library boxes.

My husband had three mens' meetings this week, particularly enjoyable as they involved men visiting from out of town who have only been involved in the weekly Zoom meetings with my husband and his friends, but happened to be in Regina this week, so it was a joyful first in person meeting for the out of town participants with the rest of the local group.  I enjoyed my weekly visit with my coffee buddy and one of my husband's meetings this week was a breakfast meeting with her husband. They have become such good friends over the past 3 years...they are older like us and we have lots of mutual ideas and shared life experiences.

The most time this week has been tied up with the next door neighbours.  It has been really fun, but having to use translators is rather exhausting.  This weekend my husband is meeting with the husband next door to peruse Facebook Marketplace together, trying to eventually find a used car that is clean enough and in sufficiently good mechanical condition and that fits our neighbours' budget....could take some time, but we will do what we can to assist them.  I was invited to sit on a blanket out on the goose poopy back lawn one evening with the wife from next door and her most hilarious friend that she met while jogging around our complex one morning.  We drank tea, talked as much as we could via translator, worked on their English words for awhile and they assisted me in learning a whole 3 words in Arabic....3 nouns so I won't get confused. hahaha  

Another day, right around dinner time, a frantic sounding hammering on our back door roused me from the dinner table.  There was our neighbour with her oldest son, nearly in tears because their ride to the son's Grade 8 graduation at his school had not shown up and was not coming after all.  Freaked out driver MOI to the rescue. Trying to drive to a school I had no idea existed while glancing over as quickly as possible at the tiny screen on my neighbour's cell phone that showed the route, (There is a good reason it is illegal to look at cell phones while driving!!!!), was terrifying and the worst fear was that I would get completely lost along the way and the kid would miss his special ceremony.  Although I did manage to miss seeing the school on our first pass by because my neighbour has not yet figured out the difference between Left and Right while waving her hand in the air rather vaguely, I was able to get around the block for a second pass by and found the school at last.  As they were getting out of the car, in plenty of time to get to the ceremony after all I might add,  it hit me that they would need a ride home afterwards and none of us had any idea how long the ceremony would last.  Rather than wasting time putting my phone number into her mobile...because I was stopped in a no parking zone on a very narrow street with an impatient car unable to get past me from behind....she decided she would call her daughter and the daughter would come to our house and knock on the door to let me know it was time to pick her mom and brother up.  So, about 90 minutes later I was on my way back to the difficult to locate school...found it first go this time, managed to stop in the no parking zone once again while my passengers loaded in and with no other car behind me this time freaking out because I had stopped illegally. YAY!

When we got back my husband and I were invited to their back porch for tea....the first time our husbands would be sharing this social time with us. My husband had only just then heated up his left over DarBar food and was about to eat, so he apologized profusely for bringing his dinner with him and the four of us shared a lovely, happy time with lots of laughing due to odd translations from SIRI or "whoever" and it was great fun.  We finally got the budget from him for the car he wants to buy and we can only thank God for Facebook Marketplace possibilities because there is no way he is ever going to get anything remotely decent anywhere else for the price he is able to pay.  

We found out they got to Canada on a federal government refugee programme, so now we understand why they are not allowed to work at this point in time.  They are being financially subsidized by the government for a certain period of time, when their ability to work and take care of themselves here vs whether or not it will be safe for them to return to the Middle East will be reassessed.  They left their home in Syria about sixteen years ago due to war and settled for about the next fifteen years in southern Lebanon, but then war caught up with them there. All three kids are traumatized by the sound of army aircraft buzzing closely overhead and dropping bombs in towns near where they lived.  It explains some of the behaviours we have seen from the kids, their reluctance to talk, to even make eye contact on occasion, even though their English is improving now enough to carry on a short conversation.  They are completely freaked out and afraid to believe they are now safer than they were. They are used to working hard after school back in Lebanon and we watched some phone videos of the three of them, even the youngest, planting and harvesting the huge vegetable garden they had back home and working at cleaning inside their huge house...now they live in a teensy, overpriced, poorly maintained two bedroom townhouse with nothing to do after school but kick a ball around and try get along as best as they can with all the other kids of varying ethnicities and languages.  We learned that the one couple who tend to show up at odd times, unannounced, at their place and take them to various grocery stores and the food bank, are teaching them street rules and driving laws, finding them doctors etc., are their government assigned sponsors who are monitoring their use of their subsidies and helping them get their kids looked after for school enrolments etc. Our neighbours were supposed to come over here for tea a couple of afternoons ago but just as they were leaving for our place their sponsors showed up, again unexpectedly, so that was the end of that.  We are going to try again tomorrow to have them over for tea.  

Just before we left their place they gave us news that really upset me, although for VERY selfish reasons:  by the time we return home from our trip south in September, they very likely will be moved into far less expensive government housing.  When they told me what their rent is on their little old town house unit here, I was shocked to the core.  Our suite is far larger than theirs but even when our own rent goes up in August, we will only be paying twenty-nine dollars a month more than they are right now!!!  Highway robbery!!  We have been fortunate I think because we have not made any demands for the new flooring or for cabinet and appliance updates we have a right to ask for. It does keep our rent lower and since the whole place has to be remodelled once we move out, we are not asking for anything right now from the management company....in the (possibly once again mistaken) belief that God will help us move out of here sometime in the next year.  My selfish fear is that once again after only about 6 months with these neighbours we have come to love, we will be in tenterhooks about who is going to be living on the other side of the wall.  Sigh.....  Assuming they leave either just before or during the time we are out of the country, what on earth are we going to come home to for new neighbours?  The last two times new people moved into that suite while we were away, we came home to one horrific nightmare and one so so upset that at least got taken care of within a week or two.  Oh Lord, what next?  Are our neighbours at present going to end up in some old scuzzy bucket apartment that has even more neighbours on the other side of their walls making noise, or a building that has been badly maintained even more so than the buildings here at this complex? Sigh again...what is going to happen to these people Lord?  Do their kids really have to change schools for the third time in less than a year???  

Well, I need to get to bed now and stop fretting about the neighbours.  They are so easy to love and so easy to want to help. If they move I hope they end up living close to even more people who are able to assist them as they try to deal with all the trauma they have experienced in the past year or more.  

Tomorrow is my last day of antibiotics, so hopefully there will be no more ear infections. I have not one commitment for the entire day, so I can sleep in and do laundry at my own pace. Looking forward to it. 

PS I have decided to add a new label called Stress because there has been so much of that in our lives lately with more to come!   

Doctor Eagle Eyed Fleagle!!

Yesterday I was able to access the final report from the fill in surgeon I saw earlier this month at my one year THRA checkup. It proved this young woman had a lot more going for her than I realized! 

I did not of course see her when I was in the outer waiting room and she was occupied with another patient, out of sight, when I arrived in my examination cubicle. Hoping I could hide the fact that I was still using a cane, (why I felt this need to be deceptive I am not sure….some kind of childhood issue with authority that leaves me feeling like a kid sent to the principal’s office for using a cane I “should” no longer need?), I saw a great space along the back wall of the cubicle to stash it pretty much out of sight. From the time I entered the clinic to the time I left I had the cane draped over my arm and was not using it to walk. 

As the surgeon bebopped into and back out of my cubicle during our ten seconds of interaction she made no mention of the cane and neither did I. Stupidly I thought I had gotten away with not admitting I still need it for walking farther than a few blocks.

As it happens, no I did not. 

The final sentence on the post appointment report was, “The patient still walks with a cane.” 

Sigh….turns out the surgeon, who appeared to me to be about twelve years old, does indeed have the sharp eyes of the very young. 

I tried. I failed. 

So Glad I DID Quit Monkeying Around And Went To The Doctor!

 After some rain overnight the moisture stopped moisture-ing and the sun burst forth from behind the clouds for most of today. How very lovely. The wind was more of a light breeze and the temperature was a bearable and enjoyable low plus 20C's.  Aaaaah....a true taste of spring today.  Unfortunately our city may get hit with heavy rain and more hail tonight into tomorrow. Dang it!!  All I can do is pray and hope for the best: that the hail will miss us completely this time.  The big storm system is starting off in Alberta this afternoon and heading this way. Wow...what a weird spring season.

I felt somewhat better again when I woke up this morning, but as has become usual in the past few days, by noon I  was aware of the sinus issues and just a slight inflammation inside my ear.  So glad I called the doctor for an appointment. She checked me over and decided that the first batch of meds nearly 2 weeks ago started to clear an infection but not completely because then the symptoms returned immediately after I finished the meds, with mid day fevers occurring after being outside. So I am on a different, faster acting antibiotic for the infection, along with what has been in the past my most effective nasal spray.  I expect the antibiotic will wallop me for a day or two, but it is a short term dosage so I will be done with it by the weekend after being instructed to begin with a double dose today.  Surely the combination of the two meds will help clear any residual infection and calm the sinus inflammation. I don't want to spend my entire summer battling sinus and other respiratory issues, that's for sure. My husband and I were looking last night at a slew of medical appointments we have coming up in the next six weeks and were reminded of that old senior citizen joke:  "You know, people who are retired do a lot of travelling; a LOT of travelling! They travel from one doctor's appointment to the next!"  Sadly funny, but also sadly true.  Sigh....

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day and we will do a few other short errands as well.  With no other commitments (yet) we should be able to sleep in and take our sweet time getting things done.  If we can both sleep as well tonight as we both did last night, tomorrow should be a very relaxing and productive day....as long as we don't have to spend it lined up at SGI filing a hail damage claim for our car.....eek....I can't wait until the June hail season passes. 

Lovin That Sunshine!

 Although I could happily do without the howling winds today, it was marvellous running errands late this morning in the blessed sunshine!  The warmth of the sun's rays are so welcome and so soothing for the soul and body.

It has been a very good day indeed in productive and fun ways.  I wasn't feeling terrific by the time we went errand running before lunch, even though I had a solid just short of 7 hour sleep last night and originally awakened feeling quite healthy, but after getting some banking done with no hassles for once and driving around to various library branches while my husband picked up books he had been waiting for, I was feeling pretty cheery and relatively healthy again.  (I did make a doctor's appointment for tomorrow afternoon to see if I can get some nasal allergy spray to get a handle on the inflammation in my sinuses. Happily, our neighbour has not smoked his hookah for the past two days so I have had a break from worrying about the horrendous odour taking even more toll on my respiratory system.)

We found ourselves parked near the downtown library branch round about the time we needed to eat a late lunch, so we toddled into the Western Pizza across the street from where the car was parked. We had low expectations, but our meal was a slight bit better than meals we have had at their other locations around the city.  WP is kind of a last choice spot, but we were parked, our parking pass was already filled out for an hour's worth of parking and, well, why not since WP was right there. I had the smashed dill pickle burger with a Caesar salad.  The salad was pretty much not very Caesar salad-like, but it was tasty enough. My burger was delicious with two smaller sized smash burger patties, lettuce, cheese, tomato and red onions on a very nice small bun with a brushed butter top crust.  My husband's pizza was very tasty although he found the sauce to be an odd combo of "sweet and sour" for lack of a better description. I noticed that he still ate half of it, plus all my croutons and part of my salad, hahaha. He will have the rest of it for dinner tonight. I am so stuffed from lunch that I will have a couple of slices of ancient grains bread with melted cheese and a glass of water for dinner!  That will be more than sufficient!!  The bonus for us eating at this restaurant is that we arrived at 12:45pm and they close the table service at 1:15pm when they revert to take out and delivery only.  We were allowed to still order anything we wanted and stay seated as long as we wanted. The only thing we had to do differently was to pre-pay for our meal.  No problem, happy to do so.  Lunch was just over $40 including the sales taxes, we were delighted.  The restaurant was seating only ourselves, so we felt quite relaxed and happy with no noise to interrupt our chat with each other.  We will try that same arrival time again some time just to have that kind of alone time in a public restaurant.  hahaha

The sun is still shining as I write this post just after 5pm. I can't believe how a few hours of sunlight makes me feel better over all.  I would be almost as happy without it today though because my husband booked our flights to NYC at long last.  Yup, expensive compared to other years, BUT nearly eight hundred dollars cheaper for the basic fare than the same flights were charging three weeks ago when we first looked at the possibilities. Even with paying extra for our seat choices, we are still all in at five hundred dollars less than that original base price, so we are content.  Hallelujah. So now the prayers begin that we won't be delayed leaving and miss our connection to NYC from Toronto on flight day!  I have already explained to my OCD that God is in control and if we do get delayed for some reason that is on Him and no need to get all in a twist about it. Things will work out.

Here's hoping for more good weather tomorrow.  My husband is going out for breakfast with a buddy, so that will be fun for him.   We started out this week with only one commitment on the calendar and now there is only one day free....but I think we will have to do our grocery shopping and other away from home errands that day, so...... it should be a good week! I have a haircut scheduled, coffee with my friend and other happy events planned. We will not be bored, that's for sure!

Time To Quit Monkeying Around!

 I felt kind of lackadaisical this morning about making a doctor's appointment about my sinuses. Waking up feeling so much better meant I was procrastinating again, as I often do with "iffy" respiratory conditions. Then a little while ago I got a text from my coffee buddy asking me if I had made that appointment, so I decided to take it as a sign I should.  I am going to see my own doctor tomorrow afternoon. YAY!  Since it seems this issue with my sinuses is allergy based I am definitely going to need help this summer keeping the inflammation at bay.  Thank you coffee buddy.  You gave me the nudge I needed to get off my duff and git 'er done!  As a result my husband has also gotten himself in gear and made two medical appointments he also should have made for himself a couple of weeks ago.  There have been so many details accruing regarding our trip this summer, along with a myriad of other attention grabbers and stressors that the easiest things to leave out have been the making of medical appointments, but no more.

The sky is blue with large white cloud formations forming to the west. To the east it is cloudy, opaque grey, so who knows if we will get more rain today?  One never knows around here, hahaha.

Off to pay some bills while I am feeling well enough to go out for awhile. I expect that will knock the starch out of me for the rest of today as it is also fairly warm outside. 

Not Healthy Again After All....Drat!!

Weeeeelll, I managed a great sleep last night after feeling the previous evening like my ear just may be showing signs of ongoing infection, but after that good sleep I felt quite fine so after breakfast we got dressed and headed off to church.

I made it easily through the first hour of the adult learning class but about ten or fifteen minutes into the service afterwards I stood up to sing and nearly fainted.  My head was becoming fuzzier and fuzzier, usually for me a precursor for blacking out from some kind of illness, generally sinus related.  Fortunately my husband realized what was happening and led me out while the rest of the congregation was still on its feet and singing lustily as it was an old favourite hymn.  Not many people noticed our departure, so I wasn't completely embarrassed and making a scene.  Whew!!

We got home and I spent an hour lying on the bed dozing. By 12:30pm my upper sinuses were very clogged and my head has been full feeling  and achy ever since. Dang it!  Guess I will call the doctor's office first thing in the morning and set up an appointment with my own physician who has seen me through these allergy based sinus/ear infections in times past.  I am fairly certain it is a reaction to the hookah pipe tobacco next door. Sigh.....  If I can get some spray for my sinuses to control the allergy on days when it is too cold to open the windows to eliminate the fumes and odour, I will be okay this summer.  As I suspected at the time the meds I got from the walk in clinic were not quite strong enough to clear the infection OR else they didn't do much apart from specifically helping my ear because the sinus aspect is allergy and not bacterial in nature.  

Thankfully the first part of this week doesn't contain very many commitments for me apart from a trip to a couple of banks tomorrow that I absolutely must make happen. 

Today is a lovely day.....at last. All the windows are open, the sun is bright but not overly hot, the breeze is not very strong...most enjoyable, even sitting here at my computer.  These are the days I live for when the winter snows and ice buildups are finally gone and the rain gives us a break for a day or two or three. 

Grey Skies In Winter, Grey Skies in Spring! WHAT THE HECK???!!!

It has been very nice to have all the rain showers we have had over the past week and more, but it would have been even nicer to have had some more sunshine between showers.  An hour or two scattered here and there throughout the past ten days or so has felt sadly insufficient, not only for us humans but also for our struggling tomato plants and herbs.  The tomatoes vines are stunted this year and the two or three tiny pieces of fruit on the one plant have not ripened at all in the past week since they appeared. I am afraid we may lose those teesy tomatoes to rot. The second plant wasn't huge when we got it and it hasn't grown much at all. Both plants are too spindly for this phase of the growing season. Glad the herbs are thriving much more and we have a fair crop of usable leaves and stems all ready. YAY!

I am discovering the joy of Ancient Grains bread that my neighbour shares with us on occasion.  For a strictly commercial brand...Dempster's....it is quite delicious.  Not being a great fan of the flavours of spelt and kamut they do blend together well with the other grains in this particular bread.  Yummy!  I have a loaf in the freezer that I am going to thaw today and enjoy!  It is a good kind of bread to intersperse with my Coop and Superstore Loaves of Alpine Grain breads.  

My husband is so refreshed after his trip to the mountains and his mind is clear, no headaches at all since going off his current statin meds. So on Monday he will call his doctor for a new med to be prescribed. He really does need the help as exercise and diet adjustments are not quite sufficient to keep his cholesterol count below scary range.  Inheriting that penchant for over producing cholesterol of the bad LDL kind, makes it that much harder to control without help.  At least he has tried to avoid meds, very seriously, but has had to admit defeat.  

Yesterday I got my courage together and called my orthopaedic surgeon's office manager.  I told her what happened at my appointment with the fill in doctor earlier this week and asked her the question I was leery to ask:  would I have to return to my GP to start the referral process all over again for the second hip?  The answer, to my huge relief, is NO! Hallelujah! His desire to do that hip is right there in his notes.  She will know sometime in August when and even whether my surgeon will be returning to work sometime in September after his extended medical leave. She has explained to me exactly what I need to do to see him as soon as possible after I return from my trip in August/September.  It will involve my GP ordering new x-rays of the other hip and getting them sent into the surgeon's office as soon as possible upon my return.  She also confirmed that should the  worst thing happen and the surgeon cannot return at all, there is indeed a contingency plan in place. YAY! The O.M. has been incredibly helpful and when this is over I must find the perfect card of thanks to send to her and to the surgeon.  It has turned into a very long haul between the length of recovery time for the hip revision arthroscopy and the eventual surgery on rapidly deteriorating hip number 2.  I am going to have to get a prescription for Naproxin again to get through my month long holiday this summer.  Drat!  My kidneys will be less than thrilled about that, but I already know there is no other way I will be able to cope with all the walking I am going to be doing on the trip.  Such is life, right?

So now that my husband is back and rested we are going to have to tackle our CRA account notices and track where they are with assessing our income tax forms sent in to them in April.  Oh please Lord, don't let me owe any more money to them because it is such a hassle ensuring the bank and the CRA employees actually get that money to the correct department, as I have sadly discovered in the past.   What a year it has been with this task!  Well, it can't be put off any longer. In the next hour or two we MUST get to it.  

After being awake in the middle of the night for a couple of hours,  for the fourth night in a row  last night, I finally got a solid four hours of post awake time sleep today. It was nearly 9:30am when I finally woke up. YAY!  My husband also slept in and we feel a lot more clear headed today, have more energy and are now up to dealing with that CRA account and other online "things" that have been amassing this week.  

Have  a happy weekend one and all!! 

My One Year Hip Revision Arthroscopy "Appointment", And I Use the Word Lightly! Haha....

 It has been a very active day and I feel all the better for that! This morning I was all cleaned up and dressed and off to the grocery store before 9:30am.  Yay me!  Now my husband will have actual food to eat when he gets home tonight from the mountain "expedition".

We have been receiving weather notifications most of the day regarding impending possible severe thunderstorms, but looking at the sky when it was time to walk over to the hospital to attend my one year surgical checkup I was quite certain I wasn't going to have to worry about that.  So glad I cottoned to the fact that it was going to a few hours before any rain would become an issue because I had a delightful walk.  Looking at the complete absence of parking spaces available on the streets surrounding the hospital I was even more grateful I hadn't had to drive there.  By the time I found a spot on the street....so much easier to get out of than the larger pay parking lot....I would have been far enough away from the hospital doors I would have been soaked in a rainstorm just getting to the car.

The walk there and back was refreshing to my soul and to my operated leg. Unfortunately my non-operated hip complained all the way there and all the way back.  Sigh....yup, I will definitely need that hip replaced fairly soon...or before the Naproxen I will likely have to go on by the time we leave for NYC leaves my kidneys non-functional...whichever comes first I suppose.  Wow....it is getting worse rather quickly!!

I was grateful to be earlier than asked arriving at the Admissions desk because there was a long lineup and it took awhile to get registered and get my paperwork to take to the Ambulatory Clinic for the appointment.  The doctor replacing my surgeon temporarily to do these appointments was as close to being on time as any I have ever had.  I arrived in the Clinic at 12:45pm for my 1pm appointment, had my x-rays and talk with the surgeon and was on my way home at 1:30pm.  

So, the appointment itself took less than 10 seconds in total: the doctor appeared at the foot of the table I was asked to sit on, didn't even actually enter the cubicle,  told me my hip x-ray was perfect for the operated leg, and turned to leave. I called her back and asked her what the full hip x-ray had shown for my non-operated hip and she whipped back out to the x-ray reader to have a look, whipped back in and told me the arthritis had progressed from mild to moderate since my last appointment 7 months ago and turned to whip out again. I called her back again and asked her what was going to happen if my own surgeon was not able to return to work as planned for a possible second surgery in the autumn, so I at least found out that his office has a contingency plan if that turns out to be the case and all patients would be informed. Then the doctor whipped out again and that was that. SO, when my x-ray results arrive at my own surgeon's office in another day or two, I am going to call that office and ask the very efficient and extremely knowledgeable office manager what I need to do to have this second hip replaced. How do I get back on my own surgeon's waiting list assuming he does indeed come back?  Do I need to be referred once again by my GP? Will I have to wait up to 3 years for this second surgery since he will likely have a huge backlog to deal with?  If that is going to be the case then I will start researching another surgeon possibility and see if I can get any quicker action, but I suspect sticking with my own will work out if he returns.  He already had me pegged for the other surgery and was originally hoping to do it last autumn, but of course...as you know...that would not have been possible with my uber long recovery time with the first hip.  

I am SO grateful for the years I spent living in another province where advocating for myself was the only way I got any kind of medical help within a reasonable amount of time....and that was decades before the COVID and its ensuing problems created the ongoing medical system disasters of the past six years.  I learned so much and now in this province I have learned to tweak my knowledge to the methods used here in our city.  

Thank you praying family and friends for praying with me about this appointment.  I am grateful to know that my operated hip is looking so good on the x-rays. None of the hardware has shifted, there are no bony growths returning at the site of the surgery.  The fill in surgeon didn't think it was at all odd that I have had such a long recovery time and am still working on my walking gait with occasional cane assistance. This much I was able to draw out of her before she left the door of the enclosure I was in for the last time. haha

My husband was apparently going to be on his way home this morning starting at about 8:30am.  I figure that by the time he drops off his friend in his town, gets him unloaded and then drives the other hour back here he should be home by about 6:30pm.  Fortunately I remembered to take meat out of the freezer to thaw so there will be dinner awaiting him when he arrives.  It will work out for me to eat late tonight because I had to shorten my lunch intake to get to my appointment on time, so on the way home I stopped at Subway for a six inch veggie sub on Italian herb and cheese bread.  The staff packed it with white cheddar cheese, spinach, banana peppers, black olives, green peppers and cucumber slices with just a small amount of Greek herb and oil dressing.  I managed to get home and into the kitchen before I wolfed it down.....not a big fan of those subs, but o wow, when I am that hungry they taste amazing, hahahaha.  Yum!

We are now under a yellow level severe thunderstorm watch, but looking at the sky I am thinking it may be possible for my husband to make it home and get all his equipment unloaded before the pouring rain arrives. Here's hoping anyway. By then the myriad pooping geese should have left to return to their nightly haunt and I will be able to get outside with my scoop shovel and poop collection bag to clear a path for my husband to unload and get to the house without him stepping in too much yucko!! 

A Whole Year Since My Surgery!

This past Friday was one year since the revision arthroscopy. Unbelievable that much time has passed, but on the other hand it seems like years ago. Thanks everyone for your concern and support of all kinds during a miserable time of recovery. I so appreciate it!