New Knee Brace

Today began as usual with my late wake up call from my darling hubby, with my coffee and breakfast.  While still in bed I eat my nutrition bar, a banana and drank my morning coffee and I usually phone Mum and have a chat. This morning Richard decided to grab a chair and visit with me while he worked out his day and told me what he had planned, that being done he left to continue on with his day and leave me to my phone call and breakfast.  Today Mum must have been downstairs with the other residents, I left a message.  Then I decided to touch base with my sister, Pat, had to leave a message there too.  This is my regular Saturday morning, when we don't have be anywhere. 

Today was a little different as I spent time feeling sorry for myself, shedding a few tears, and generally feeling miserable.  What was different?  Today I had to put on my new knee brace myself, unlike yesterday when I received said knee brace.

I guess this should begin with yesterday.  After months of frustration for me and my doctor trying to get me an appointment at the City Hospital Rehabilitation department so I could get the correct papers signed for a new prosthesis. 

Golly this is harder than I thought it would be to write.

My current prosthesis is over eight years old and is in a sorry state and requires replacing.  It takes ages to get an appointment in Saskatoon, an appointment I should have had when I moved back to Saskatchewan in 2008, same as for the Cancer centre, but that's another rant.  Anyway for months my Dr. has tried to get me into the system to get a new leg made.  During all this I have seen an Orthopedic Surgeon about the pain in my other knee (left one) which is causing pain in that hip.  He informs me that I have a detached ligament in my knee.  What is generally called an ACL, you will often hear about professional athletes getting this injury and they get surgery to have it fixed.

I, on the other hand, am not a professional athlete or a teenager (yes they can have the surgery too) but an old lady who is also an amputee, as far as I understand from my Dr., will not be getting the surgery instead I have to get a brace.  Those of you who follow my Facebook page will know that a basic brace does not work on me as my legs bend different from the average person.  I have now waited at least two months to get a brace but once it was determined that I would have to have a custom made one it only took two weeks, yes two weeks.

While I was being measured etc. for the custom brace I was busy chatting as I am prone to do.  I was telling John how I need a new leg, not the one he was measuring for the brace but the other leg.  Oh, I missed stating that where they handle the braces they also make the prosthetics.  So poor John had to hear all about how my leg needed replacing and that I could not get an appointment in Saskatoon for the Rehab. Dr. to fill out the requisition form.  John said he was the wrong person to talk too but he had an idea.

After that I saw Lyle, one of the prosthetists, who checked out my current leg and agreed it was old and not in great shape and he wasn't surprised that I now have an ACL of the good leg, good because it is complete, where as the other one is generally known as a residual limb, part missing.  Lyle heard my story and said he would caste me for a new socket and I told him that I did not have permission for a new leg, he told me not to worry he would work things out. 

I left Saskatoon that day not only measured for a brace that they would bring to Prince Albert on the 14th, but casted for a new socket, and most importantly an appointment with the Rehabilitation Dr. in PA on the 14th.  They fitted me in by using their schedule of appointments, so I could pick up my new brace and as the rehab. Dr. was going to be there too she would see me at the same time.  Talk about people using the back door to help an old lady out.  They pulled more strings than I can even begin to imagine.

Now getting back to today,  I had watched John put the brace on as he explained it to me, and I read the directions on how to put it on this morning, but I couldn't do it, I used our phones to contact Richard in the basement to come and help me.  By the time he got upstairs I was in tears.  It's bad enough being a amputee and having to put on a prosthesis everyday, which of course I'm used to doing considering I've had one since October 2000.   But now I also have to put this knee brace on every day probably for the rest of my life, unless the Orthopedic surgeon decides to do surgery and fix the ligament. 

I start work at 8:00 each week day morning in order to get to work on time I have to get up at 5:30, I can't just get up, jump in the, shower, throw some clothes on do the hair and make up, make lunch, have breakfast and head to the office.  Now on top of  having to put on my prosthesis I also have to put on this brace.  Maybe it shouldn't take all that extra time to get ready but as we get older we get slower and I have to use crutches when I don't have my prosthesis on, so it all takes time.

This knee brace has five straps that have to been tightened in a specific order, so I took a picture of me with the knee brace on... it's not a great picture because I was using the computer camera to do it, so here it is.

Not a great picture you can see that the top part of the brace is angled to compensate the way my knee bends.  The first strap is the lower one which straps in the front, the solid part of the brace is at the back of the calf, then you do the top strap which is behind the thigh,  while your doing those straps you have to ensure the brace is aligned correctly on the knee.  Then you push the side hinges back and tighten the strap behind the lower part of the thigh, the last two straps are on the section below the knee which really has three parts the wider part across the leg is fastened tight and then the front strap and then the back strap.  Now I have to be able to do this all while making sure the hinges on the side of the knee remain in the correct position.

Richard got cross with me because he said I should have made sure that John, the technician, made me put the brace on myself once he had done it and shown me, I didn't ask, and he didn't suggest it.  Now these guys do this all the time the fit people with braces surely they would know to have the client show them that they can put this thing on properly, well he didn't and all I had to go on for Richard to help me was the written instructions and what I could remember yesterday.

It feels right I can't completely straighten my leg, which is good because they do not want me to be able to lock my leg straight as that would cause pain, damage, etc.

So there you have it, a prosthesis on the right leg and know a brace on the left.  If anyone can give me ideas about where I can buy dress pants that are not tapered at the knee and wide enough to accommodate my new contraption let me know.  I have an ugly pair of jeans that I got a long time ago from a jean store that have wide straight legs, but gape at the back when I sit, actually I think they are men's jeans but they seem to work.  I know I have at least one pair of dress pants that should be OK.  Other than that I shall be wearing skirts, which I do most of the time anyway even during the winter.

Thanks for listening, reading... if you made it to the end of this.  I know just as I got used to wearing a prosthesis I shall get used to this but it is the pits, and it may not have happened if I had had a new leg two years ago.

Tomorrow Never Comes.

Yes I know!  I should have known better than say tomorrow I will...  that was on July 8th it is now August 12th and we have done a lot.  We have very little left to unpack and some of those boxes have not been unpacked for quite a few years. 

Richard has been a real trouper I would say he has done 95% of the unpacking all while still doing his full-time work as a Pastor.  That means I've only done 5% and mainly when I have needed something specific that I dig through a box to find that something, so while I'm looking I might as well unpack the box.  As you can tell I've not looked for much.  I guess I've spent the biggest chunk of time working in the yard.  I work full-time at a desk Monday to Friday so once the week-end is here, weather permitting I prefer to be outside even if there are a ton of mosquito's this year.

Richard has sorted the garage as well as unpacked all the boxes inside the house.  This was the first part of sorting as not all the boxes were unpacked yet and the motor home was still full when these pictures were taken.

Here he is helping me by chopping down that big old lilac shrub, tree, bush... not quite sure what you would call it at this point.  I had removed a load of brunches that I could cut through with the trimmers.  Richard enjoys swinging the axe, this lilac is now gone and be is working on chopping out the stump.  The stones that I take from around the pond I will store where the lilac was, once the stump is gone.  Which basically means my work on this pond has come to a standstill.

That branch just missed me, I guess I was a little too close.  We placed all the branches over the fence along our property but in the back alley, we had no  more room in the yard unless we left them on the lawn but it doesn't take long to kill grass when you have things on it, so over the fence until Ron could come and help take them to the dump.

I wasn't sure what this last picture was of but now I remember.  Richard went to Sears to buy a lawn mower arrived home with, not only a lawn mower, but also a gas weed whacker and a garage organizer.  They were all on sale and he can't pass by a sale especially if it is something he can use to make his life easier.

So there you have it.  That is what Richard was doing while I cleaned ponds, cut down branches, hedges and moved stones about.  Our little deck area is now finished this year and I have the small pond there working with a bamboo fountain.  The stones are back and a few plants placed between them to fill the gaps.  The snow on the mountain is still being pulled out, we used round-up between the deck boards and the weeds are just about gone. 

More pictures will follow on some other tomorrow.  As the house is basically box free and the garden is being dug.

More Garden

Now to continue the garden tour. 

There are about three different vines on the side of the shed and we are hoping one will be a grape.  Then we have either gooseberry or current; they might be just too old to retain.  Our one rose this year, which now doesn't have any petals left after Richard knocked them all off throwing the lilac branches over the fence.  I have been discovering all these different plants as I cut back the over grown catoni- aster (sorry about the spelling) hedge.  I will be cutting the hedge back more because there are parts that are dead and need to be removed to allow the healthy parts to grow up.

The pyramid planter we appear to have inherited the previous owners wanted it back but have not come to get it so if we still have it next year then we will fill it with plants.  You can see a part of the hedge that is cut right back.  To the left of this picture is another large maple.

Yes that is a wet dry vacuum, I used it to clean out the rest of the crud from the second water feature.  This one is a lot larger and has waterfall and a fountain but I need to cut the hedge back and clean all the old decomposed leaves from amongst the rocks and also pull out all the young trees.  I missed taking a picture of the 2nd maple but the last picture is a beautiful honeysuckle, but it has been allowed to become leggy I'm not sure how much pruning it will handle but I am going to try and cut it back.

This lilac has become so wild and was obscuring the water feature so I was slowly cutting out branches, it is going to be completely removed as it is not a pretty shrub.

A saskatoon bush that is a bit overgrown and has a lot of old wood that will need to come out this fall.  We should have lots of berries as the blossoms were absolutely lovely.

Two piles of brush which is mainly lilac bush and a bit of the hedging that I have been busy cutting down.

Now I am back in the front of the house.  We hate to cut the lawn because we have these blooming in it and it is such a shame to cut them off especially when we don't have very much in the garden yet.

This mess is in front, maybe next year it will have a whole new look.  Daisy's that have gone wild, yarrow that grows like a weed, there are some delphiniums in the back and some red flowers.  Earlier in the spring there were some primula, pansies and flowering chives.  Central of this mess is a rotten tree trunk that.  Richard will hack out with his axe.

So the half dead low growing cedars will be removed.  There are three spruce or is it four, one will be coming down to give some of the other spruces a chance to grow back in and allow the elm and maples on the boulevard to grow back.  What can I say about that final picture.  In there are the two maples that I showed the tops of earlier two young, but very high, ceder trees and a dead mountain ash.  Most if not all these will be coming down soon.  We have a dog run back there too, this is the other side of the back deck.  If we keep the dog run Ian will not have to worry about bringing his dog with him when he visits us.

So there you have it, all the uncared for trees, shrubs, flower beds and water features.  Lots of work so any volunteers?  Help especially trips to the dump with all the wood that is being cut down would be very much appreciated.  What has Richard been doing while I've been working on the yard?  Tomorrow I will show you just some of what he has worked on.











The Garden as of Today July 8th

As I chatted with Lynda last weekend I was talking about what I was doing in the garden.  She said it would be better if I had posted pictures of what our garden looked like.  You have an idea about the inside of the house but not really anything about the outside.  That being said when I was too tired to do anymore in the garden I took these pictures, you will see we have a lot to do.

These three pictures of delphiniums are in the front of the house to the left of the front door, I spent part of the day pulling thistles and some weeds from this flower bed.  Actually there are as many weeds as there re delphiniums.  In the second picture is a spirea.

That was full when I had had enough of pulling weeds in the heat.  Having a white house means the sun reflects off and feels even hotter.

The day lilies are just beginning to bloom.  These really need thinning out, under neath we have found iris and other varieties of lilies.  As we walk up the side of the house you notice the peonies are almost finished.  These I will not be digging up as they take a few years to come back to blooming profusely.  The third picture in this series we are looking back and the 2 x 4's are lifting up the eaves troughing angled so the water would flow down to the downspout and not over flow and then seep into the basement.  So Evette sorry I chuckled over your temporary fix of your eaves trough we have one of our own.

This series shows part of our back yard.  The first picture is actually a small water feature that I am cleaning and resetting out to add my fountain.  By the side of the pond is a small tree that grows with the branches bending over and growing toward the ground, it needs to be pruned.  Also we are over run with goats beard, which is a ground cover that has infringed between the deck boards.  Because the east side of our double lot drops off steeply the deck extends to the property line so the slope is usable.  The last picture are my few annuals that I purchased on sale to add a bit of colour to the deck.



The first tree by the back porch is an elm, which we are not allowed to prune until early fall.  Also at the bottom of this elm is some sort of fruit tree.  Behind these is a very tall but contained lilac that will be cut at least half way down to encourage more blossoms next year.  The second picture over the top of the back porch are the maples that have to come down as they are against the house and the roots are infringing into the basement walls.

This is our second yard.  Against the garage wall are raspberry canes that hopefully will have fruit.  Then we have an apple tree not sure what type or whether the fruit will be edible.  What isn't shown are the trees behind the garage.  Another apple that probably will never bear fruit so will probably come down.  A small saskatoon bush and a bigger one hopefully these will bear fruit.

This would be classified as the bottom of the garden.  The first picture shows our first pile of hedging that we cut late spring.  The tree is one of the two large maples, and behind this tree are the two compost areas.  Then the shed where Richard has been piling stuff we don't know what to do with yet.

I've run into a technical problem more pictures still to come.

June 2011 Relay of Life In Prince Albert

This is my third Relay for Life, all of them here in Prince Albert.  Each year has been decidedly colder this then was the coldest.  Some of the pictures are not very good and a bit fuzzy but you will see why I've posted them.

Marg and Hilda have always collected me for this special time each of us being cancer survivors, added to our group this year was Dennis, Marg's Friend.

Yes we are as cold as we look.  Marg and I had to wear medium shirts and they would never fit over our winter coats, Dennis and Hilda lucked out with XL ones.

As you can see the Relay Groups were dressed for the cold.

This is the youngest group the "Tiny Tots" I am always impressed that even the youngest children take part.

Sorry this is fuzzy, but there is no way I can run ahead to get a better shot.  Vicki, a member of our congregation on the left holding the banner, put this group together.  I think you can understand the reason for their name The Hot Knockers" by the many pairs of bras hanging from their banner.



There were many on the track early in the evening not just the relay groups but those who were staying to watch... I was taking a break but was getting very cold.

 I always love to watch the lighting of the luminaries and then take pictures, especially the one on the slope that spells HOPE.  The number of people on the track was beginning to dwindle as were the spectators.

Marg and Dennis out walking trying to keep warm... I had just finished another lap and sat down and wrapped myself in a blanket, I was frozen.

The tents that were very much needed this year for the relay groups.

Hilda coming to check on me.

Marg always buys a luminary for me and adds something special for me.

This year I purchased a couple, one for Marg for being such a great friend and one for Evette's Mother-in-Law Rosa (they messed up the name by forgetting her first name and added it afterwards).

Rosa if you are reading this, Jesus has paid the price for all sin even the one of cancer, it doesn't take it away but the promise is that Jesus has suffered for all the sins of the world.

I feel it is an honour to be able to walk with the Cancer Survivors each year and to remember those who have lost the battle.