Password Please.

This blog is password protected.

If you are one of the lucky ones holding a password ..... type it in the long thin rectangle with the blue outline, click OK and you're in.

Then.
Scroll down until you see a new post.






Keep scrolling.







Little farther.







Ahhhh.  You're there.

Quality Time.

Our niece Olivia spent some quality time on her Syracuse University graduation day with her brother Paul (our nephew) and her Dad (Vin's brother) Chris.

Springtime In Ohio

We're back in Vermont where I haven't been letting myself read or write anything other than school stuff which mostly means editing the footage I got at the Arizona RV retirement community in March.  And editing in this case means staring at clips on my computer screen that initially seemed really interesting.

Ohio in March and April.
Feeling like observers rather than participants we rolled into Ohio and school with 5 weeks left in the semester.  Like good collaborative filmmakers we volunteered around a hundred hours for our classmate's as they shot their second semester films.  Then, in return, they would help us.  Except they mostly didn't.  One guy had 'Tech Heads' the night we needed him and another had to sleep.  A few said they'd love to help and then blew us off.  The two guys we knew we could count on, showed up.  But.  In the end it was mostly Me and Vin....just like old times.

We shot Vin's film at the Busy Day Market after they closed at 10 PM which means the shoots lasted to between 4 and 6 AM.  He rounded up a '68 442 as the getaway car, a Colt Python 357 full load blank firing replica, a skateboard and really good actors.  The kind of film any 20 year old would dream of making.  And the kind of film 3 patrol cars would show up at 2 nights in a row responding to reports of armed robberies.

Who done it?

Until TOMORROW.

Day 85.

Max likes Athens because he can watch people walk by.

He also likes our bed.

My new knees turned 'one' yesterday and other than the right one not really bending, they're good. 

Good thing.
After a month of aggressive knee flexion PT, it feels like the scar tissue is starting to give up.  When I started, my flexion was at about 100 degrees and where I was sure it would be forever (things are rarely worse than I imagine).  A few weeks later, I was high-fiving Vinny the therapist at 114.  Yesterday it was 125-ish (with Vinny yanking on it until I yelped) when I limped out of the rehab clinic.  Enough to pedal my bike indoors pretty well but not quite enough to walk down stairs without turning sideways.

Femur.
If I really concentrate, my limp is better but not good.  Still hurts a bunch but they tell me that's normal.  Can get around without crutches it just looks funny.

School.
Monday we're heading back down to Ohio and school.  With six weeks left in the semester, going back will be weird.  I feel really disconnected but it was 60 degrees today in Athens and a trip will be fun.

The skyping novelty wore off about a month ago.  We got tired of not really being able to see and not really being able to hear or participate.  Last week in 'Production' class we had Skype sound but no picture. Vince sneaked off to ski and everyone thought he was still sitting there 'in class'.

Skiing.
More like a timid shuffle, but just being able to get outside makes me a whole lot happier.  The other day in the entryway I ran across a plastic bag of ski clothes and realized it was from the hospital.   The stuff I was wearing when I had my accident.  It was all there except one glove and my panties which made me worry about which panties I'd had on when I crashed.  All the times I'd laughed about those 'wearing clean underwear in case you're in a car accident' warnings...

I want to talk about our trip to Arizona.  Just  not tonight.

Day 65. Milestone.

I skied.

Normally skiing back and forth for an hour fifteen over the same 200 yards of trail would have been intolerable but this time it was OK.

Thirty-four degrees.  Quiet with no wind, and light fluttering snow.  Very happy to be out.

Looking at the house from the trail beats looking at the trail from the house.

Day 59.

Got the hospital bill.
For $32,978.88 you can either fix a broken femur or buy a nice house in Fargo, North Dakota.  Seems like a lot for either one.

Friday, 11 months after my bilateral total knee replacement surgery,  I had my one-year follow-up. Snooping around the examination room while waiting for the x-ray tech I noticed 'Katherine Swanson' at the top of the computer screen.  I couldn't believe it.  It was my 'chart'.   You know, the chart you never get to read?  "Should I be reading this?" I asked myself while putting on my glasses.  Line item 1 made me feel good...'Pleasant female'.  I smiled.  Then the x-ray tech entered and I didn't get to read anymore.

It was no surprise that my stiff stiff right knee got the surgeon's attention while my poster-child left knee pretty much got ignored.   We came up with a plan.
1. Aggressive PT for a month and if we can get the flexion to 120, we'll call it a day.  He says "it's only 1/2 of a degree a day".  Easy for him to say.  OR
2. If we can't get it to 120, get a cortisone shot and repeat #1.  OR
3. The manipulation.  Where he puts me to sleep and cranks on the knee to break up the scar tissue that's making it stiff.  Not a bad option except there is a chance the bone around the knee could break and you can imagine how the thought of that makes me feel.

Today was the first aggressive therapy session.  The therapist did all the work.  All I had to do was lie there and endure the pain which totally wore me out.  I got home and passed out for 3 hours.

Vinny the therapist's question-of-the-day..."now should I be working on the hip or the knee?"







 

Day 52.

Cricket Update.
When we finally got around to our sound class assignment...the one where we had to record a cricket...we realized neither one of us hadn't heard her for a few days.  Bummed because now 1) we'd get an incomplete and 2) our pet cricket had died, we went ahead and recorded the rest of the assignment (a breaking plate, a spark and an elevator door).  Good enough.  Then.  Just as we were sweeping up the last plate shard, guess what?  We heard a chirp. 

The Hip etc.
The other day I was riding the exercise bike at PT with a pair of running shoes that have never been used for running.  With each left pedal stroke was a mechanical sounding click.  Happily pedaling away, I didn't hear it even though everyone in the place was inconspicuously looking over their shoulder thinking "Can't she hear that?"   I looked up and saw Vinny, my therapist, jogging toward me "Is that you hip or your knee?" he asked.  Luckily it was my shoes and their 'one-pull QuickLace™' system (woohoo) flopping around.

Sunday, Vin and I shot a short film.  Five hours of walking mostly without my crutches.  Even though it was uncomfortable, it'll make the hip stronger.  I limped, yes, but if Festus in 'Gunsmoke' could do it...  

Ohio.
Wondering if it makes sense to go back after missing so much of the semester.  If it was free it wouldn't be such a huge, hard decision.  

Remember Alfalfa in 'The Little Rascals'?

Vin and I were trying to figure out how many days Vince has been walking around with his hair like this because neither one of us ever really pays much attention to grooming.  You probably think he just took off his hat or he just got up and hasn't fixed it yet...nope, it's just the middle of another day.   BTW. This is taken from the good/neat side.