Mama, birthdays

Mama had a rough morning yesterday. When she woke up her leg was so stiff that she worried that she had actually lost ground with the manipulation. It took a call to her good friend Kim Cantrell to get he energized enough to get up and going. By the time she got done at the physical therapist she was back on track – and hopeful. She and Kim decided that Mama should wake several times through the night and do the exercises that will help keep her leg flexible. That sounded good to Mama that morning. She took a silicon spoon with her to physical therapy, so she had something to bite on as the therapist moved her knee into the painful area of the bend. The therapist liked the idea – it kept her from screaming as he was pushing the limits on her pain tolerance.

So far, she is at 85% and increasing a bit every therapy session. She has lost some of the straightness measurement of the knee, but she is not far off of 100%. By tomorrow, the additional swelling caused by the manipulation should begin to subside and her range of motion should begin to increase daily. For the moment, she is waking several times through the night and moving the leg. I was surprised by the determination she showed in adding that to her routine. She is fairly pain free and walking more normally than she has been able to do over the past several weeks. She will need an insert in her right shoe to make up the height difference from the corrected left knee, but that is a small price to pay until it is determined to replace that knee.

Those are all good things since today she will be running several errands for our business and getting new tires put on the Sequoia. That vehicle has a right front tire that has had a screw in it for a couple months now. Until very recently that did not cause us any problems. Lately however, the tire has not help pressure very long. I aired it up this morning before I left the farm, hoping Mama would get out early and get the tires replaced. If not, the tire should be good until mid-day today. She does need to get it replaced before taking off for the longer runs required for our business. Plus, we will be driving to Lawton this Saturday to look at houses to determine which ones we will bid on at the auction Monday morning. We are both excited about that.

This is our birthday month as a clan. We have seven birthdays this month; mine and Mama’s included. I may have missed one as I looked at the calendar, but I am pretty sure we are standing at that count for now. Kathryn’s birthday was on the 17^th. Cori’s birthday was on the 18^th. Mine is today. Rebecca’s in tomorrow. Nate’s the following day. Mama and Chase will be celebrating on the 29^th. When we had all the kids at home I had to plan for the birthday purchases and special dinner outings a month or more out. Then we only had five birthdays in the month. It as and always has been a fun month.

Mama and I will be busy this weekend – and through Monday.