Sixth Grader #2

Sixth Grader #1

Scrimmage

No games this week but a scrimmage on a Friday night. It will be good to be game free for a weekend.

My Hero

I'm coming up on four weeks since my knee replacement and things are slowly improving and getting back to normal. I still have a rough road ahead to get my leg to a 130 degree bend but I know what I have to do.

I'm not sure I could have made it this far without the undying support of my incredible partner and love of my life. I appreciate the support from from my mom, Linda, Sam, Dylan and the daily supportive texts from my dad as well but Nicole showed me how much she cares about me in to many ways to count.

Sleeping in my hospital room in a chair for two nights, advocating for me with the medical staff, pushing the pain med drip button when I dozed off, making sure I had all my meds and medical equipment, bringing me breakfast in bed, filling my ice machine, messaging my knee, completely rearranging her schedule and providing moral support and water during some tough PT sessions.

All this on top of doing all the kid stuff we used to split on any given week. I truly got lucky when she agreed to marry me 13 years ago and I just want to say thank you for everything. I love you.

Victory Cake

Nicole went all out for the season ending party last night. The boys had a great time celebrating their championship season.

Snap, crackle, pop

It's been a little over three weeks and I'm falling behind in the bend department. I don't have the range of motion that I probably should have at this point and it means some really painful PT sessions for the next few weeks. The routine is basically to pull/stretch the knee beyond is current limits to break up the scar tissue which you can hear pop in the knee. It's hard to describe how uncomfortable that is. I don't have much of a choice but I'm a little dismayed at this point. One day at a time but I have some tough days ahead of me.

Sent from my iPad

Champions

The little Ducks won a huge game today by getting a 110% from all the kids. I'm pretty sure every kid scored points in a 44-22 drubbing of the iNiners. Dylan scored two beautiful rushing touchdowns and Sam had one rushing TD. The team scored 3 safeties and had the iNiners on their heels the whole game. This was a much needed win after falling in the playoffs the last four years. They worked their butts off and came up with a game they will remember forever.

Championship Moms

These ladies have a lot of flair going on.

Cake Boss

They both consumed a quarter of each cake. I didn't think they could but they did. It was Mom's idea to let them try.

Birthday Boys

A couple of 12 year olds today. Love these guys.

The Bend

The Physical Therapist really started to work the knee to do stuff it doesn't really want to do. I need to get it to bend about 130 degrees and at the moment, it's at about 85 degrees. A person needs about 110 to walk up steps, one foot after the other and to ride a bike. It seems I have some work to do and it ain't all that pleasant.

Sent from my iPad

Just Another Day

The knee continues to improve, slowly. I ran out of the longer acting narcotic yesterday and while I believe that's the plan to get me back to no narcotics, it did mean some extra pain the last 36 hours. I still have short term pain meds but I realize now that the long term stuff is better. All in all I'm doing well but the days are adding up and improvement is slowing down. I have another pt session in the morning then a day of more exercise and the continuous motion machine. It's hard to tell which day of the week it is at times. I'm getting there.

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Two weeks Home

My in home PT has run out and it's out to PT early tomorrow. I'm fearing they may kick my ass a little but I've been keeping up with the exercises at home so hopefully I'll be ready for them. The knee does continue to improve and sleeping is a little easier. I think getting out of the house tomorrow will be good for me. I need to see some different turning leaves than the ones I can see from my window.

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All Hallows' Eve

The kids are out trick or treating with friends and I have these spooky dudes looking at me. The house smells like pumpkin guts and burning wood. This what fall is all about.

Halloween

The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Fantasy Football on the way to school this morning. On another gruesome note, I just got the staples on my knee out. It was annoyingly painful but it went pretty fast for having 38 of them.

Fiddling Fox

Sam played at Edison High in the greater Springfield area orchestra this evening. I think the football and basketball coaches would have rather seen at practice but Sam wanted to be part of this multiple grade school orchestra concert. He had been practicing for it all month. It's good that he likes things beyond sports, keeps him well rounded. His ears are part of his Halloween costume, TheFantastic Mr. Fox. A Roald Dahl book.

Two Weeks

With two weeks almost behind me, I'm starting see some faster improvement in my leg. I've graduated from a walker to a cane and the swelling is going down quite a bit. The whole thing is still a little painful but that's to be expected. My Pt session on Wednesday was pretty brutal. She had me doing some things on my feet that was causing some severe discomfort but I went back at trying them again today. I know this is a long process but I'm getting through it step by step.

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House Arrest

The knee is improving a little everyday and I'm getting more and more energy. It's amazing how a little surgery can knock you out for a while. Everything seems to be going how it's supposed to be going while I did expect to have more movement in the leg by now, I'm not terribly disappointed. My big activity this week will be getting the 30 plus staples out on Friday. That and a couple more PT sessions.

The biggest problem with doing this surgery this time a year is that I'm missing all the good leif turning action. Their are a few spots on the way to work and school that are pretty spectacular and I'm going to miss those spots at peak. Maybe I'll get out and see something this weekend.

One week home

It's been a week since leaving the hospital and while I've had some better days than others I'm still experiencing some good pain. I did more moving from upstairs to downstairs and spent more time on the motion machine than past days but that sucka is still really stiff. I know everyone's knee is different and healing times may vary but it's clear I won't be in the early healers club on this one. More PT and exercise tomorrow.

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Bed - Chair

And back again. Same old routine around here the last week and while I don't really feel like running around in the leaves, the same thing, day after day is kinda a drag. The knee is still really swollen and the pain is still high but I have good parts of the day. Hanging with the kids in bed before their football game as fun.

The boys lost their game today but combined for 6 touchdowns. Sam threw two TD passes to Dylan, ran a TD and had a pick 6. Dylan also had a pick 2, he intercepted an extra point conversion attempt by the other team. This is the team they will see in the championship game in two weeks. I hope their defense improves a little by then.