When does a pet become part of the family?

Is it one year? five years? ten years?

Bubba passed away last night sometime between 11:00 and 12:30. He was definitely a part of our family and was with us for well over 17 years. We all knew it was coming, but he was just so full of love and affection that we hoped he would be with us forever. We knew he was suffering from renal failure, but he seemed to be happy and was still quick to jump in our laps. It just hapened all of a sudden. Cara noticed that he seemed to have lost his balance while walking yesterday morning. His conditioned worsened throughout the day. I was able to hold him last night after I got home after 9:30. Cara and I tried to comfort him in bed before we knew we had to turn out the lights and try to go to sleep.

Bubba will be deeply missed even by those who really do not care for cats. He was not a normal cat. He loved to be around people. Any time we had guests over to the house, he would visit with them and stay in the room where the people were. Cara and I often joked about cloning him because we know there will never be another cat in our family that could compare to him.

Our family is hurting right now. We know he is at peace now and we surely hope he was not suffering during those last 12 hours.

Say goodbye to our very special member of the family.

J

Quick Note on Allen's Recovery

All, Cara took Allen to see Dr. Coker yesterday and as expected he has been cleared to put full weight on his leg. He still has to wear the protective boot for about 6 more weeks. When he got home, we worked on using one crutch and then using one of my canes. When he came downstairs this morning, he was walking without the cane! He thinks he can make it the entire day at school without crutches or a cane. I hope he does not overdo it. We will certainly hear about it tonight. He told me he was very happy to walk again as I can only imagine. The thought of us both going to rehab together will be a distant memory as he recovers way faster than me.

I am doing well and back at work. The staples will be removed from my knee tomorrow or Thursday and rehab starts next week. I have been trying to obey the doctor's orders of flexing my quad muscle regularly and trying to lift my leg. I think I am very close without the immobilizer and shoe on.

Talk to you soon,

J

Back from the doctor

All,
I just got home from my follow up with Dr. Arnold. As you may know the knee surgery was way more difficult then it was intended. No I am not going to work today as I had hoped or tomorrow either. You should find me signed on in Facebook as I rest in bed. I will try to do some work from home.
Physical Therapy is to resume in 2 weeks. I am not supposed to bend my knee at all from now until then. We are going to baby step into getting the motion back in my knee as I continue to try to strengthen my thigh muscles. Even during surgery, what was left of the patella continued to dislocate as they bent my knee. He opened my knee using the same scar from the trauma surgery and removed the rest of the bone fragments. This is still going to be a long process. I have to go back next week to get the staples removed, and I will see Dr. Arnold again in three weeks (after I have been to therapy for a week)
The bad news is that my left hip is in very bad shape and will likely require some attention or some form of procedure. The good news is that Dr. Arnold has agreed to help me with it, but he wants some good progress on the knee first.
This all goes back to my need for patience. We are so ready for this to be a thing in the past and it seems like things keep popping up. I know we are still going in the right direction, I just wish I was in the fast lane...
Allen goes to see Dr. Coker on Monday. I will be sure to post an update on his status. I have high expectations that he will be completely healed and cleared to put full weight on his leg.
Check back Monday night or Tuesday,
J

Total Patellectomy

All,
With all things considered, I think the surgery went well yesterday. Dr. Arnold said there was nothing he could do to salvage my knee cap as he removed 20 individual pieces of bone. He did re-structure the tendons in an effort to help stabilize the joint. For those who know me well, know that I have had bad knees basically since birth. After Dr. Arnold saw it yesterday, he said the groove that the knee cap rides on is not as deep as a normal knee joint. We are optimistic for better joint very soon. I have to say that I felt great after coming home. I called Joe at work to tell him that things went well and I expected to return by Thursday. Dad and I watched a movie together and I retired to my room for a nap at about 2:30. The truth is I was still high with Diloted and when I woke up the reality set in. Yes, this stuff hurts.
I go back to see Dr. Arnold Thursday morning for a follow up and I am afraid we will be discussing a possible left hip procedure.
I will follow up soon after Thursday's visit.

J

Two cripple guys in a convertible

All,

(the picture is from Thanksgiving)

Allen and I had another good driving lesson last Saturday. We took off in his Spyder gased it up, drove it through the car wash (yes - it leaks), dropped the top and headed out on the highway. He drove me down HWY 59 through Van Buren and into Fort Smith. We ate lunch with my parents and caused quite a conversation piece as two handicapped people, Allen on crutches and me with my cane, climb out of the convertible and walk to the restaurant. After lunch, we were pressed for time so he took I-540 back to Fayetteville. His driving is improving every time and he expects to take his driving test in March. I am still not sure if I am ready for him to be on the open road without me.

Gall bladder - I started to feel like a different person on Friday in a good way. The weekend went well and my follow up with the doctor this morning gives me clean bill of health.

Left Knee - The surgery date on my left knee has been moved up from March 6th to this Friday. I am very optimistic that this will be the last surgery as a result of the motorcycle wreck and the jump start to the final stages of my recovery.

Allen's leg - Allen will still be on very limited weight bearing on his left leg for the next few weeks, but he is getting around much better. Around the house, he tends to leave his crutches and hop on his good leg.

With both me and Allen having limited mobility, Cara really gets the short end of the stick. She is doing an incredible job of keeping the house in order, but I can tell it is wearing on her. I can only hope that Allen and I will be back in the game soon so we can take some of the burden off of her.

I do not know what I would do without her support.

Sam is doing well.

I will try to update the blog again after my surgery this Friday.

J

Ice Storms and Gall Bladders

How about that for a subject header?
People in Northwest Arkansas were hit by a major ice storm last week that left many without power for over a week.
Trees down everywhere etc.

We lost some major branches on the Japanese Maples out front, but the Crepe Mertyls in back sprang right back up. The forested area of our yard was thinned out pretty good, so I guess the Storm kick started that plan. Tim Stuthard was nice enough to come by yesterday and arrange the branches and trim them to the right size.

Throughout the storm, we never lost significant power. The lights flickered and the TV's reset a couple of times on Tuesday, but it was while we were sleeping when it was off the longest - maybe 3 hours.

As many will say and have said in the past, we were very lucky and fortunate.
Both Cara and I ventured out to work last Thursday and Friday. You wondered why at times with so few people there.

Shortly after lunch on Friday, I started to get some fairly significant stomach pains. On trip to the restroom did not provide relief I was looking for, so I finally told Vong and Stephen that I needed to go home and lay down. The pain kept getting worse and by the time I wanted to go to the walk-in clinic, it had closed. I refused to go to the ER on Friday night, so I vowed to tough it out and go to the clinic Saturday morning if this pain had not passed. The clinic doctor confirmed Cara's suspicion and sent me to the ER anyway. I was not in the ER for more than thirty minutes before they admitted me into room 5319. One quick trip to ultrasound and a brief visit with Dr. Keller and I was scheduled for surgery on Sunday morning to remove my Gall Bladder.

It turns out that this was a little different than most. The gall bladder was "dead" ugly dark green and black. They call it lathroscopic, but he had to cut the removal hole a little bigger.

I was home for the Super Bowl, but it was not a party. I tried to sleep in my bed, but ti just hurt too much. - -It shows you how good those special drugs really are.
For the past two nights and days, I have stayed primarily on my recliner dozing in and out of naps. My stomach is still swollen like a tick, but each burp relieves more pressure.

There is no speculation that the gall bladder is related to the wreck, it just feels like bad circumstance.

J