Woulda... Shoulda... Coulda...

This was in the "memories" portion of my newsfeed on Facebook yesterday:

Any of you ever feel this way?

I posted this in March 2012, two months after my diagnosis. Now, four years later with careful attention to my meds and very regular visits with my psychologist and psychiatrist, I feel that nagging regret. People say "hindsight is 20/20." Well, my foresight is almost nonexistent.

Woulda... Shoulda... Coulda... LOL

Surgery Day is Behind Us

View of Pensacola from Mom's room at Sacred Heart Hospital

Surgery day is behind us. Ugh. It was a long one. I woke up at a quarter 'til to two, left home at three and made it to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Fla. by 5 p.m. Mother's surgeon said her knee replacement went extremely well. The only snag we ran into was that the hospital was out of rooms. Momma basically spent six hours in recovery waiting for one. After she was given a room, Sydney and I stayed with her and with Daddy until things were settled. She had PT and OT and a meal before we left. We hung around until about seven because, with the rain, traffic was a nightmare. The ambulances left for another call as soon as they dropped off their patients at the ER, just underneath us.

Medical Milestones

Mother's left knee

This is a big week for our family. Tomorrow, my mother has her second knee replacement in a little more than four months. It's a big deal. A really big deal. Her knee were horrible. She'd been having cortisone shots for years and at 59, was basically tied to a walker when she was home or a wheelchair when she had to travel any distance. She hadn't bought groceries on her on for more than a year and had long since left her love of flowers and gardening behind.

Mother had what is called "windswept knees." One knee curved in and the other out, so her body was basically sitting about six inches to the right of where her feet were, instead of right on top of them. After the first knee was fixed, the second has deteriorated to the point that the tibia has worn a hole into her femur. Bone on bone.

Tomorrow, we take the last big step to getting her life back.

She will have a complete knee replacement. We talked this morning and she knows it will be painful, but is hopeful that, with having the earlier replaced knee to depend on, recovery will go much more smoothly.

My Favorite Cow

Guess who's back...

Sydney, Julie & Craig from Winter 2016

As you can tell from my catty little "About Me" box, I've decided to do the blog thing again. Hard to believe this is the first post I've made in two and a half years.  Things have certainly changed. Back then, you'd link your blog to your Facebook page and that was about it. Now, we have Instagram, FB, Twitter, Pinterest and a variety of other forms of social media.

I think I'm going to enjoy being back on here. There are times I like to post things, but don't care for some of the silly comments I get on FB. This way, I can pretty much say what I want and not feel like I need to censor myself because this friend is voting for that candidate or that friend attends a certain church with differing viewpoints.

I can just be me.

I'm going to try to catch up on a few things we've done these past two years that were photo worthy.