Mama at the doctor, Champ, time off

Mama and I had a good visit at the doctor’s yesterday evening. When the doctor did come in he put on a mopey body language and a sad face. He is more surprised by Mama’s poor recovery than we are. He told me and Mama that he does eighty procedures like hers every month, but that he does only five or six secondary manipulations per year. Her x-rays look perfect so what we are dealing with is scar tissue that has bonded to the soft tissue of the large muscles at the front and back of the repaired knee. We have to not only stretch the shortened tendons and soft tissue of the muscles affected by the replacement surgery, but we also have to dislodge the scar tissue. He had Mama swing her leg underneath the table as we talked and a couple of times he would force the leg a little further back than Mama was allowing on her own. He promised Mama that once she got the knee to bend, breaking loose the scar tissue, that most if not all of her pain would go away. Mama even remarked as we left the office that even the little that he did to her in the office had made her leg feel better. There was less pain. that was encouraging.

His recommendation for the next two weeks was for Mama to take half a muscle relaxer every eight hours along with taking a whole one each night. She is to take a whole pain pill after physical therapy session and one each night. He will see her again in two weeks. He is hopeful that the combination of the muscle relaxers, pain meds and aggressively bending the knee will get her to the point he has predetermined she should be before he intervenes again. If she is not at 120° of bend in that knee by the end of two weeks, he will schedule her for a second manipulation. He has done that only three times in his entire career. 120° of bend is what is required to get up from a seated position without twisting the hips and back to move into the standing position. This week is the last week that Mama will be getting physical therapy, so it will fall to Victoria and me to help her bend her leg during the following week. We will be her physical therapists. Not the best course of action, but the only one we have at this time.

When I went out to feed last night and saw the little buckling all cleaned up, I was impressed. I think we have decided to call him Champ. It is still a little sad that we lost all the other kids that should have been born to us, but we will eventually get over that. Speaking of getting over things, Tom has been absent from the farm for about two weeks now. We are never sure where he goes when he leaves – or where he came from in the first place – but he may be gone for good. I told Mama that he probably wandered to his old home versus telling her that he may have gotten eaten by coyotes. Mama really enjoyed having him at the farm. She has talked about getting a replacement for him, but so far, I have not given my opinion on the matter. It was nice to have him around, but I was worried what lengths Mama might go to to keep him comfortable through the winter months. I admit to being a little relieved that we do not have to resolve that issue.

I got pre-approval for the time off I need in November…sort of. I lack the vacation days with my current company to take the time off in a customary manner. The new Manager of Education acted as if it would not be a big deal to arrange, but he is new to the EWN cross-that-bridge-when-we-come-to-it processes. If all other plans to have that time off fall through, at least I have an advocate to help negotiate the time off. I keep delaying my real goal for time off, but that’s okay.

God is still I control.