Christmas Time 2015 - No More Falling!

Here it is a few months later, Christmas is almost here and the end of 2015.  As promised this is an update to our situation.  Beverly’s mom is doing better and settled into the nursing home for the time being.  She still needs more assistance than not but she is working on improving to the point of moving to assisted living out of the nursing home.

As for me, things are very much better.  The last visit to the doctor allowed him to see me walk on my own without a cane or walker.  He wants to see me in three months instead of six weeks as originally planned because the rehab is working so well.  Today is December 17 and I have officially had my last day of rehabilitation under the eye and direction of the trainer.  She has given me a certificate for 30 days of gym usage and a set of exercises to continue on my own.

Since I did my own rehab after a previous ACL surgery, I am confident I can finish the rehab job on this surgery with these exercises and the gym time.  Beverly and I are very pleased with the progress.  In about six weeks of time, I went from no weight on the injured leg to walking without any assistive devices.  There is still a lot of work to do to gain full strength in the leg and increase endurance so that I do not tire so easily.  We are working towards those ends now.

A lot has transpired in the last six months.  Having moved into the motorhome (to begin full timing) the day before the accident, we did not expect to stay in the sticks and brick house anymore.  The plan was to finish prepping for a living estate sale and then sell the house.  Due to the accident, we had to move back into the house because the steps to the motorhome were too much for me to negotiate right after the surgery.

After regaining some strength, we moved back to the motorhome to re-establish our living quarters there and finalize the house and contents for selling.  I learned to “bobo” walk up and down the stairs, which is not an easy feat because the treads are covered with a non-slip surface.  It felt like I was sandpapering my bottom each trip up and down.  Not a good feeling or an efficient way to lose weight.  The prep work has been done and we are happy to report all of our possessions have been reduced to a storage unit facility or carried with us in the motorhome.  We are “official” full-timers now. 

So when is the next adventure?  We anticipate wrapping up doctor visits and such by the middle of January.  We will meet up with our traveling companions to finalize plans and head out around that time.  Our initial inclinations are to pick up with our plans from last year (before mine and David’s health interrupted them) to head west.  We are thinking Arizona might be just the ticket to wait out the cold temperatures and begin another exciting adventure.  As soon as we are underway, we will post an update.