Knee Report

We were at the orthopedic doctor for over two hours this morning. The news was basically good–as far as the xrays show, the knee is healing OK. They exchanged the big immobilizer for this smaller brace which can be worn under the pants. Unfortunately, Gary says this one is very tight and actually more uncomfortable than the bigger one.

The dr. assigned three days of physical therapy for next week. We hope that works, because he has lost almost all movement of the knee–he can bend it only a few degrees at this moment.

In other news, we had to cancel our trip to Phoenix to see Gary’s parents. We had booked on dates that turned out not to really be free on Gary’s work calendar. Then when we tried to rebook to different dates, we learned that Delta had instituted a $150/ticket change fee–to either change the ticket or reinstate the frequent flyer miles. Ugh! So, to save ourselves $300 we are just going to wave goodbye to 50,000 miles. Sad. Not sure when we’ll be able to go–finding a time that suits Gary’s parents and that fit’s Gary’s schedule might not be all that easy, but we do hope to visit them sometime in 2012.

Speaking of visiting family, David is interviewing in Binghamton, NY tomorrow, so he is going to spend the weekend with Andrew. I hope they don’t choke each other.

Rachel has had a busy week. She called as I was about to go pick up Gary from work (he usually walks, but I’ve been his taxi since his accident), and asked if we wanted to go out for dinner. She gets so busy she forgets to eat lunch, and goes for days without even leaving her house/office. So we picked her up and went out for pizza so she had some face-to-face humans to talk to! She is co-hosting a baby shower this Sunday, so she’ll see friends then (and I’m making a cake for the shower).

Busy Grandbabies

I was happy to get new photos of both grandbabies today. I miss them so much!

Gary Working

(click individual images for a better look)

Gary has only had a little pain with this injury, but it has been a trial to find a way for him to work comfortably. When you can’t see very well you have to be close to the monitor, but when your leg won’t bend, it is pretty hard to get close to the monitor. So, sometimes he stands up at this makeshift standing desk in our living room, made from two of the three tables Grandpa Simons made for us many years ago.

At our office it was even harder, until my colleagues found a recliner up on third floor and brought it down for Gary. We fiddled around trying to find a way to make it work, and finally found a use for the world’s first luggable computer (in the silver case)–as ballast to keep the bookshelf from tipping so Gary could slide it out in order to put his big monitor in front of his nose.


This set up is actually working quite well, but we’ve decided to get him one of those articulated, adjustable arms to hold his monitor–I’ve already ordered it–because even when his leg does bend, he still has troubles getting close enough to the monitor to see without breaking his neck, etc. Let’s hope that works!

It is only about another week before he goes to the dr., and maybe the immobilizer can come off. Today we got the bill from the ER in Atlanta–yikes! I hope our insurance pays at least half…

In other news, our backyard has been overrun with female and juvenile red-winged blackbirds:

We had a brief dinner with David on Wednesday. He was here to interview at John Peter Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth for his Year 1.

Our last bit of news is that Andrew has taken on another part time job since going to grad school is turning out to be pretty expensive. His classes start next Monday, and he’s trying to finish up his report from his recent work in Ethiopia before then. We’ve heard that Laura is job hunting, too, but not sure how that is going to work out with regard to childcare for Isabella.

OK, I guess that is enough news for today. I need to go outside again and enjoy some of this 77 degree weather.

Today’s Dose of Cute Baby

Don’t you just want to pick him up and give him a big hug (even if he is dripping wet)?

We have a day off tomorrow, being MLK day. But we will probably do some email reading anyway, since we are so far behind. That, and I have my 2nd out of 3 dental appointments for the crown I’m getting.

Gumpaste Flowers–Getting Started

For Christmas David and Sarah got me this cool kit for making gumpaste flowers, but I hadn’t had a chunk of free time to play with it until tonight. Rachel did a bit with me too, after we had gone grocery shopping and she made a lasagna. Gary was watching football during this whole time, resting his leg.

Welcome Home, Daddy!

We’re happy to report that this afternoon Andrew arrived home safely from his three weeks in Ethiopia and his family had a birthday party waiting for him! I chatted on the phone with him while he was waiting for his flight in Detroit, and it sounded like he had a very pleasant time in Ethiopia. I know Isabella will be happy to hear about the friends she left behind.

We’re also happy to report that yesterday David got a wake up call from his future employer at the OHSU, letting him know he had gotten his first choice for his residency in ophthalmology. (This is actually for years 2-4, and he won’t know until March where he will be for year 1.) So congratulations to David!

And you may wonder how our invalid is doing. He’s actually doing fine, but we’re learning the hard way how long it takes to go out the door in the morning when you can’t bend your knees. We’ve been late for everything since this injury! Today I made an appointment with an orthopedist for Jan 26. Gary is looking forward to vegging this long weekend, sleeping in front of the TV with his leg up in the recliner.

Gary’s Big Adventure

Most of you reading this will have already heard about Gary’s mishap on his way home from LSA yesterday, but for those who haven’t gotten the story, here it is. First of all, Gary’s presentation at LSA went well, he had a great visit with his sister, and the preaching at one of our supporting churches was well received. He appreciated those folks who came and picked him up since he wasn’t able to drive himself there.

The plan was for him to take the red-eye flight back to Dallas on Sunday night and be more or less ready to go to work on Monday. The flight from Portland to Atlanta was no problem, but when he was boarding the flight from Atlanta to Dallas at around 5am, he twisted his knee and hit his knee cap on the arm rest and completely dislocated it–as in, the knee cap was now located on the side of the leg, not on the front.

This meant he was in great pain, and could not even bend his leg. The lady in the row head said she heard it move! So, boarding of the plane halted, they called the airport ambulance and eventually he got to a local hospital. The ambulance attendants could not give him any pain medication because they said his blood pressure was too low. This was when Gary first called me, 7am Dallas time, saying he was on his way to the hospital and could I hear the sirens?!?

It was over two hours before they gave him pain medications and x-rayed the knee. Then they sedated him for 5 minutes while the dr. moved the knee cap back into place.

Fortunately, he and the flight attendants had had enough presence of mind to remove his two carry-ons, thus providing him with another pair of pants to replace the ones they cut up:

They wrapped his leg up in an immobilizer, but coudln’t find any crutches, so just used a wheel chair to take him to a taxi, then someone else took him to his gate, and he actually got home to Dallas by 7pm. Rachel came with me to DFW to help with his luggage, etc. He was able to fit in the back seat with his leg up along the seat.

Turns out he had had nothing to eat all day except for the pack of graham crackers I had sent with him for snacks, and even the flight home in first class only gave him a bag of pretzels. Luckily, there were still some Christmas dinner leftovers in the freezer.

This morning he had to get right to work since someone had arrived just today to work with him, so we had to figure out how to get him out of bed, into the shower (nice we have a no-lip shower in one of our remodeled bathrooms), and into some pants–makes you realize how often you bend your knees in a day! Then there was learning how to use the crutches I got at the clinic, and finding something to prop his leg up on while sitting in meetings.

He will need to see an orthopedic doctor after two weeks and see what he needs to do next. The rule is to not bend or twist the leg for at least two weeks, but he can put some weight on it. It looks like we’re going to have to make a few adjustments around here to cope with the extra time it takes, etc.

Wrapping Up Christmas at Sunday School

I volunteered to teach Sunday School (elementary ages) for the Sundays of Advent. My tour of service got extended through today due to the intervention of our Christmas play and the fact that both Christmas and New Years were on Sunday. But it worked out just right, if one keeps with the church calendar, as we just had Epiphany on Friday.

My idea was to have the kids build their own Christmas Story book using these chunky rubber stamps:

I had figured out that our story books would have 8 pages, and we’d try to do two pages each Sunday of Advent. Well, that all sounds good in theory, but it didn’t actually work out quite that well due to some kids being absent on some of the four Sundays and the fact that some of the pages were quite complicated. Only three of my seven students finished today, and I decided to fill in the missing pages for everyone else, thus the mess all over my kitchen:

Then of course Morty had to get into the wet paint:

Here is a collage of all the pages:

We also made photo ornaments:

Now  I am cleaning up the mess that has been hanging around since mid-November, and someone else  is teaching for the next round or two.

You Heard it Here First

You heard it here first. During coffee break today my colleagues and I (Carol Orwig and Karl Franklin) made up two new words/phrases to name a couple first world problems:

1. sic pick=when you chose the wrong name from a pick list. For example, when you chose the wrong Rachel in your list of Rachels in your phone contact list and you call the wrong person. It also happens often with email.

2. customer serveless=the process of corporations moving more and more of their customer service functions out to the customers. For example, pumping your own gas, buying airline tickets online, etc. This is a brilliant move on the part of companies; not always so great for the customer.

My Best Christmas Present

Rachel had a brilliant idea to get me this thin flexible piece of fabric–space age teflon fabric, that is–which catches all the drips in the bottom of the oven. When dirty, you just take it out and wipe it off.

I got lots of other nice gifts too, some I haven’t even had time to try out yet.

In other news, Gary’s trip to Oregon got bumped up by 12 hours (for an obscene about of extra money) because the folks organizing his conference were none too clear about the starting time. At noon today he discovered that his presentation was early tomorrow morning, earlier than his flight arrival time!! So, we scrambled and got him on a flight this evening. That made things rather hectic today, but he phoned me saying he was on the plane, had been upgraded to First Class, and the plane was scheduled for ontime take off. He has made tentative plans to see is sister Teresa on Friday, so we’re hoping that works out. And on Sunday he will be preaching at Gateway Presbyterian church, then flying home on the red-eye Sunday night/Monday morning.