An update of the weekend

Hello Everyone,

Well we were in Montreal for the weekend, firstly to assist my Dad in going to the notary to take care of the transfer of the house from my mom's name to his and then to go to St. Jean, Que. for my husband's high school reunion.

After going to the lawyer and notary, we met up with my Dad and son Brian to take a drive to see Brian's new apt. and new location of his new business. We then went out for dinner and got back to the house not too late.

Poor Chris had to do all the driving and we were quite tired, but we had promised Marlene and Charles that we would see them sometime during the weekend so off to La Belle Province for some much needed late night snacks of steamy hot dogs and fries. There is nothing like a Montreal steamy and of course the fries. I am sure they cannot be trans fat free, but we were good and shared two orders between the four of us. I was even better and passed on the hot dog and had a cup of tea. I don't want to ruin my recently new leaner look.

I don't even want to tell you how many years since Chris graduated from high school, but it was really amazing to see the bond between these people who lived in a small town and went to a very small school. Most of the students spent their elemenatary and high school years together. There were only 250 children in the entire school so compared to the school I went to which had 2500 students, it was a lot of fun to hear all the stories and memories of the past. Of course we ate too much but a good time was had by all.

On the way back to Toronto, Iro and Patrick invited us up for lamb kabobs and roasted vegetables. We couldn't resist, as if we were hungry, but as it was on our way we took a detour and enjoyed seeing them and catching up and were on the road home at 2:30. The ride home seemed long and tedious and we go hit my a rain storm around Kingston, but we made good time and arrived home at 8:00 p.m.

Our friend Michael had invited us for a BBQ and although we were quite tired by that time, we didn't want to disappoint him and went over there at 8:30. Thanks Michael, it was yummy and we enjoyed our visit.

I suppose you are all wondering how my knees are doing. Well, although I feel quite able to move around and manage quite fine with one cane, I am feeling a little impatient because I tried to wean off the pain meds again by reducing each medication by a half from Saturday night until this morning. I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to do my physio excersizes today, so in the middle of the night I upt the meds to the full dose again. I have joined a knee surgery forum on line and sent in a question to the other members asking them how long it takes to get off the meds and they replied between 4 and 6 months. That is really too bad. I guess I was anticipating the rehab to continue on a positive course as quickly as it did in the first few weeks. But I guess that is not a practical expectation. I am looking foreward to speaking to the surgeon on Wednesday. I have my six week appt. at 2:15 on Wednesday and am anxious to hear what she has to say about my progress and what I can expect in the future. I also have some numbness and tingling in my feet so I am concerned about this. I have an apt. with a neurologist to see what could be causing this problem. Fortunately it is not painful, but it is certainly annoying so I am anxious to get to the bottom of this.

When I am on the full dose of pain meds, I think I get a false confidence that I am doing great, but when I reduce them, my knees get very tight and sore and I am an accident waiting to happen. Going up and down the stairs and standing from a sitting position becomes really painful and the pain changes from minute to minute. I realize that if I lie around and rest too much, it gets worse so I am trying to keep moving and keep active as much as possible. The pain killers also make me feel more tired and cause constipation so I was really hopeful that I could get off them as soon as possible. I will have to see what the doctor says. I think she will probably say that if I need the meds to do you excersizes and to move around safely, I should continue to take them. Getting full mobility is of utmost imporatance at this time so I am thinking that I will need to rely on the meds a little longer, hopefully not too long.

I will update again after my 6 week check up.

Until then.

Marilyn