Knee Scope

The second Christmas Drew has been not working in most of our married life and what do I do but schedule arthroscopic knee surgery for the Friday before Christmas.

I'd had nagging pain whenever I exercised hard for a couple of years.  Way back in 1985-86 I tore my ACL clean out so I've been living life with no ACL, which creates a lot of instability.  I can't count the number of times I have re-injured this knee since then, most recently that big hike I did two years ago Thanksgiving.  An MRI revealed a probable tear in the medial meniscus and potentially the start of a bone spur on the front of the knee.

 Doctor Mark Scholl went in there after it on Dec 18.  Here's what he found.

The piece of tissue to the right of the metal probe is the flap of torn meniscus that had folded underneath the rest of the meniscus.  This medial half of my left knee meniscus is about 1/3 the volume of a healthy meniscus. The good news is that the femur and tibia surfaces (the top and bottom flat white surfaces in the photo) look to be in good shape, i.e. no arthritis.

The video below show the doc trying to maneuver the flap so he can cut it off. There is not sound, but you can click in the lower right of the video to make it full screen.

In this one, he has separated the nickle-sized hunk of meniscus and is pulling it out of the joint.

The bone spur turned out to not be a bone spur, but just an area of damage to the soft tissue that wouldn't heal, so he cut slits in that area to get some healthy inflammation and blood flow to it.  This video shows that area while he is articulating my knee.

Drew was not due home until late that evening so my friend Shelly retrieved me from the hospital.  I had my recovery room all set up the day before so that I could just get kicked to the curb (well, not really, Shelly escorted me into the house and made sure I had everything I needed) to recover until nursemaid Drew came home at 8 pm that night.

I felt pretty good with my kitty nursemaids by my side.

After three days I was putting weight on it but still using crutches.  I was allowed to take the bandages off.  Here are before and after surgery pics. 

Before

3 days post-op. Not too swollen, really.

 My sisters and Mom sent me gorgeous flowers to brighten my bedside.

By the following Wednesday I was able to go to work and not use crutches.  Christmas came and went with a lot of limping, but not much pain.  Then I went to work two days the next week and Kapow! my knee swelled up like a puff ball mushroom and became really painful.  Back to crutches and laying around.  Max and Marley didn't mind that at all, especially in the warm back bedroom.

I brought some work home. I like these office mates.

So today, after nearly a week of being really careful, I was able to walk a little and went to my first PT appointment.  The PT really helped; although the knee is sore, I have a lot more movement in the joint.

I hope to have no more set backs so we can have fun in February.

UPDATE: 3 WEEKS POST OP
Feeling pretty good. PT helps. I'm able to go around a full pedal stroke on the stationary bike.  Still limping a little. No cardio exercise but I'm able to get a decent upper body work out in at the gym.

UPDATE: 4 WEEKS POST OP
Same as last week except that the knee feels less weird and I'm walking almost without a limp now. I can spin easily on the stationary bike and I've done yoga a couple of times.  Still being careful, but I occasionally forget I had the surgery and just do normal things.

UPDATE:  5 WEEKS POST OP
I had a PT appointment at 5 weeks. The very best PT in the valley, Dr. Colin Bywaters (who also helped us coach high school mountain biking) gave me a good session today.  He pushed on the top of the knee to stretch the back of the knee, which helped immensely in being able to straighten almost fully. He then made me lift actual weight by doing leg extensions and curls with 30-40 pounds.  I was afraid the knee would be really sore and swell up, but it didn't. He also gave me the go ahead to do easy cardio, so in the following days I did 20 -30 minutes on the spin bike with some moderate resistance. 

I feel SO much better about the recovery now.  I am walking almost normally most of the time and my knee feels almost strong.  I can go up stairs with no problems; coming down is still odd because I'm at about 100 degrees of bend.  It is still stiff after I have been sitting in one place for a long time, but perhaps that's just the body's way of telling me to get off my butt and move. 

I think I'm gonna live.

UPDATE 6 WEEKS POST OP

Feeling pretty strong, but not 100%. 

UPDATE 7 WEEKS POST OP

Dr Bywaters said I was good to go on vacation. I have full extension and I can flex 127°. The swelling is hard for someone who doesn't know which knee was operated on to tell. Some of the quad muscles are still atrophied and it feels funny going down stairs. I do moderate cardio. I still feel that it is pretty far from being able to ride a hard effort on a real bike, but we are leaving on vacation and I'm going to walk and hike as much as I can!

Tax Day Lunar Eclipse Photos

Lunar eclipses are cool.  You get to watch a normal night sky object change shape and color in the humanly possible time span of a few hours.  This morning's total lunar eclipse was especially cool because 1) I had my best buddy Drew to wait up and enjoy it with me, and 2) Mars and the star Spica would be close, 3) I could try out my newish little camera. 

I made the first-of-the-year rhubarb treat to celebrate the occasion.  

The backyard rhubarb, which I started back at my old house in about 2002 from a sprout carried home on the airplane from my mom's patch and which has been moved 4 times since, once into a pot to wait out the traumatic first winter post move.

 

Strawberry rhubarb crumble pie has a pie shell on the bottom but crumble top.

We built a fire in the backyard fire pit and ate our pie while we waited for the moon to pass into the earth's penumbra.  I took a picture of the moon to figure out how to make my little Canon PowerShot S120 point-and-shoot into a fully manual machine.

Normal full moon. Cannon PowerShot S120. 1/100th sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, set to 2 second self timer and infinity manual focus.  The lens has only 5x telephoto and then I cropped the files.

First few minutes of the eclipse. 4/14/2013 23:53 MDT. The earth's shadow is encroaching on the left side of the moon.  This picture is a little blurry due to camera, or rather, porch, shake.  1/100th sec, f/8.0, ISO 100.

By the time the fire died down enough that we could think about bed, the shadow was obvious. 4/15/2013 00:14 MDT. 1/100th sec, f/8.0, ISO 100.

By the time we actually went to bed, the moon was more than half way there! 4/15/2013 00:42 MDT.  1/100th sec, f/8.0, ISO 100.

By that time, I was not tired anymore so I just waited until 1:06 to see the moon in full umbral shadow, just in case my alarm didn't wake me. It was very nice. It was also about 45 degrees and pajamas are not appropriate for stargazing at that temp, so even though a had a built in bed heater (Drew), I couldn't warm up to go to sleep.  I was still awake when my alarm went off at 1:40 for the full blood moon. I bundled up this time and took the little camera to the deck and got some pretty decent shots for a camera that fits in my jeans pocket.

See how tiny.

So here is my best shot of the Tax Day Blood Moon in full lunar eclipse.  The star Spica is the speck down to the right. 4/15/2013 01:43 MDT 6 seconds, f/8.0, ISO 125.

And here is the same shot not cropped so far showing Spica down and to the right and also Mars in the upper right corner of the shot.  4/15/2013 01:43 MDT, 6 seconds, f/8.0, ISO 125.

I enjoyed this eclipse especially for the beautiful bright star Spica and orange Mars within 9 degrees of the moon. And also because I had Drew to snuggle up to afterwards.  I did not set my alarm to watch the moon come out of the earth's shadow ;-).

Just a cute cat

Our cat, Max, loves to play in this bag.

And, yes, I realize I post a lot of pictures of my cat.  He is cute.

Bad kitties. Very bad kitties.

I am back because I have figured it all out!

Yay! I finally figured out my photo posting problem.  For months now I have been wanting to blog but when I try to upload photos, Blogger tells me I am out of space.  I finally had some time to research what is going on and figure out a way around the upload limit.  This involved updating Picasa on my computer, learning how to get Picasa to recognize which photos I want uploaded which I would rather do in Windows Photo Gallery, getting Picasa on my computer to sync with Picasa web albums, and then finally grabbing the pictures for my post from Picasa web albums.  Here are two pictures to prove it.

 Marley doesn't seem to care that I figured this out.

But now I am happy that I can get caught up.  Still have those Grand Canyon posts to do!

The Budster, workhorse

Grocery run

Tried out the cargo capacity of The Budster today. $130 worth of groceries is no problemo for my ghetto version of a trunk.  Would love to get some sort of foldable crate to attach to the rear rack. Then those after work quick stops at the market and perhaps even a Home Depot run would be a cinch.

I am taking a motorcycle driving course this weekend so I can learn how to be a Motorcycle Mama, or really, a Scooter Sweetheart.

Scooter life is rad.

_______________________

Update: I took the two-day basic motorcycle driving course.  It was very hard.  In addition to balance and throttle, motorcycles have that whole issue of shifting.  There is a lot going on at one time.  I did all right though and aced the written portion and only went outside the line of the slow-speed maneuver box on the driving portion of the test just a little way, so they passed me with flying colors.

I think that I am a much safer scooter driver now.
___________________________
November 27 update:
I officially have my motorcycle endorsement on my driver's license!  Because I took a qualified course, I didn't need to do the driving portion of the motorcycle test.  I went to take the 25-question written test today and I actually failed on the first try.  (There was one question about how many parts are there to the driving portion of the test: what do I care - I don't have to take it!)  But I tried again and passed.  So, Hooray!, now I can officially drive a motorcycle on the street.  I just need a motorcycle.

Hello Buddy Scoot!

I got a scooter!

Genuine Buddy 170i. He/she (I have not bonded with it enough to know its gender) has got a 170 cc, fuel injected engine.  I debated between the Stella and the Buddy, but in the end, Buddy's large underseat storage and ease of operation won out over Stella's fantastic retro looks.

Brand spankin' new!  Picked it up today from Salt Lake Scooter Co.

 Going out for Buddy's first errand.

Buddy's first trip was to Papa Murphy's tonight to pick up a pizza.  I am happy to report that a large pie fits nicely in the underseat storage compartment.

 

Cat wars

We have two cats, but until yesterday, had only one Tower Of Power on which the cats could perch.  I saw a good deal on this one at Costco, hoping to alleviate the nighty episode where Max rudely kicks Marley out of the top seat.  Last night, poor Marley was resting peacefully on the new cat furniture when Max once again bullied her out of her spot.  Kids!

Another brush with fame and a nice little visit

Seems our previous fame was not enough, and we are on to new exposure.

Drew's brother and his coworker, Mike, were passing through Salt Lake City so they stayed with us last night. In return, Kirk treated us to breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint, Eggs in the City. ABC channel 4 just happened to be doing a spot on their morning show from the restaurant, so we became extras on the show. Plus we got free cheese blitzes - famous ones that had been showcased on TV!  The week is starting out pretty good.

Oh, yeah, that is not me between Drew and Kirk, that is the manager at Eggs in the City.  She is a sweetheart.

The cat is IN the bag

The cats were having fun one day playing in an Ikea shopping bag.

They grow up so fast.

Happy birthday to our sweetest little kittens!  Marley and Max were born sometime around Thanksgiving last year, or so the shelter told us when we got them.

They were the cutest kittens.

Being one year old, they are almost full grown now, but will probably continue to fill out.  They are in their late teens in human years, and they totally act like teenagers.

This fall, Max had taken to spending lots of time in the neighbor's overgrown back yard.  Isn't that so typical of a teenage boy?

Marley has a bit of a belly on her now and can't quite fit through places she used to.

We took them to Moab again recently.  It takes about 45 minutes for them to settle down and shut up, but once they do, they seem content to ride in the car.

They "help" me with everything, especially Marley. She has to be in on the action all the time.  Most of the pictures of our house projects on this blog that have a cat in them picture Marley.

But Max wants in on the action sometimes too.  Here he is helping us put Ikea furniture together.

He does spend more time resting in the top of the cat tower though.

 They strike cute cat poses all the time.

We're trying to teach them to use the cat door, but it is easier to stand at the back door and meow when they want in.

Yes, they own us

But even when they are controlling nap time, 

 we are getting the best end of the deal; warm kitty friends!

Summer weekend at home

I think it has been 3 years since Drew and I spent an entire summer weekend at home together with no out of town races, no going off to work on Saturday or Sunday night, and no real plans except to ride and get together with friends.

So to mark the occasion, we had a yard sale!

I had boxed up unwanted clothes, household items, tools, etc., intending to have a yard sale before we started the home addition back in APRIL 2010.  With the construction last year, I never seemed to have a Saturday available.  Until now.  It felt good to unload our unwanted stuff on others who can use and appreciate it.

We made $149,

but better than the cash was the discovery of my set of car and house keys that had been lost since last winter!  Apparently I had put them in one of the boxes of yard sale stuff.  Hooray for finding them!

With that excellent accomplishment on Saturday, we felt we could indulge in a long bike ride with friends on Sunday in Park City.   It was warm and sunny and we knew all the trails would be in perfect tacky condition because the rain the night before would have destroyed the dust on the trails but made no mud. I was the fearful leader

on a loop up CMG, Keystone, and Apex. Back behind Shadow Lake and climb to Scott's Pass, at which point we said good-bye to Rhandy and Mary who were going a Crest ride.  We turned left on a trail new to 4 out of 5 of us, Scott's Bypass trail, which we followed to the top of Jupiter Bowl. (Great trail!) We then descended a rocky ridge

to Dead Tree trail and from there followed our tracks back down to the parking lot.   We managed about 3100 feet of climbing but it was so worth it to be up on the tippy top of the Wasatch Mountains looking down at Shadow Lake

on a skinny, wildflower-encased trail

breathing pristine fresh mountain air by the gulps.   

We stopped to document the scene of Shelly's crash last weekend.  The rain had also washed her flesh off the stump.

Best ride of the year so far!


I've also been trying to keep up with the harvest.

I've made two batches of zucchini bread, two chocolate zucchini cakes, and a large bowl of salsa.  Yum.