Recovery

It's been about 3 and a half months since the surgery. So far things
are going pretty good. I'm doing physical therapy for my leg 3 times a
week (highly recommended) and I even signed up for a 5 week "adventure
challange". This week we did rock climbing (I got to the top of the
tower twice! - even with my weak leg) and (today) swimming. I did about
20 minutes of laps and my knee felt pretty good afterwards.

2.5 weeks at home

Getting better and stronger every day. I walked 2 (two!) blocks around the neighborhood. And these are BIG blocks. Later I was in the backyard and fell down. Oops. The grass was soft, but it reminded me to be careful!

Home Sweet Home

The flight home was relatively uneventful and we're back home in Charleston!!!! Got in around 10:30 PM and my brother picked us up. Mom was in the car too. When we got home, everything appeared in order and the dogs were VERY happy to see us. Played with the dogs some, took a shower and went to bed. Both of us slept very soundly. No street/city noises going on all night - very peaceful. Since I slept all night, I missed my 3 AM pain pill dose. At 9:00 AM I sure could notice it! The right leg (where they harvested the muscle) is still pretty sore. We'll get hooked up with the pain management guys at MUSC to work out a plan. I'm sure it will get better over the next couple months. Still a little unsteady walking as well, but I'm sure that will get better too. Anyone know of any good exercises for someone missing a rectus femoris? We'll figure out a way to do some "easy" squats and work up from there. HAPPY TO BE HOME!!!!

THANK YOU to everyone that has posted and supported us through this ordeal. Reading the blog posts, getting emails and knowing you guys are out there thinking & praying for us has been an amazing source of strength for us. It has truly helped my recovery and means so much to Sheila and I.

FYI - We'll keep posting here occasionally, but don't expect any more daily updates!

Almost there

In the plane now about to takeoff! Yay,yay,yay!

airport

Made it to the airport. Sheila's dropping off the rental car and then
we do the stupid human tricks... I wonder what they will think of the
plastic container hooked up to a tube in my knee. I'm pretty sure it's
too much blood to carry on. We will see... That's not including any
fluid taped to my belly either. Both bags are pretty empty now, but I
have been drinking a lot of water.

On the way

It's sort of early but we haeding to the airport. Yay!

Operation: escape Houston - part 2

We got to the bookstore just fine. After about 30 minutes of browising
I noticed the the urostomy seal had broken. Dang! Those things are
supposed to last 5 days or so and it had only been 2. Fortunately we
had our "emergency backup" equipment handy and after 20 minutes of
cleanup, I had the new appliance on. A quick trip to TJ Maxx for new
shorts and we were back in business