Watching our demon granddaughter...Hurricane Isabella...period when she was 1.5 to 2.5... I would TRY to wash a dish....try to fold a towel....just a second away from her...and there was trouble..

I pinned a bell to her shoulder.. I found that I could at least keep track...when that bell got silent..........oh boy....

Man, can I ever relate to where you are coming from, Ken! The surgeon fused the L5 and S1 vertebrae last year and did a decompression on L5. The pain got to where it was really bad even when I was sitting. I wasn’t able to so much as work the raised beds from my wheelchair.
The ladies watched me like hawks. Going so far as to get out the bathroom scales to prove to me something was over the weight limit the doctor gave me for lifting. Then, there were times when they dragged me out of bed for home therapy. That meant walking around inside the house using a walker.
I was stunned to find out exactly how many things a person can’t do when they can’t twist or bend the spine. Some of those things VERY basic. It was a humbling experience.
I still use a cane to get around and occasionally resort to my wheelchair on bad days, but the pain is tolerable. It is nothing compared to what it was before surgery. Hang in there! It does get better.
I found the violas today. This incredible weather has got all the gardeners out. Nurseries are running out of stock fast. It was gray and dropping down below freezing only days ago. I will never grow accustomed to how dramatic weather changes can be here.
(Jim)

Rehab is so important after orthopedic surgeries.

I guess with or without any surgeries, none of us will ever be as good as we once were

Seacanepain, where are you located? (i.e., where is there incredible weather? a lot of us might want to head in that direction...)

@Seacanepain, do go to your profile and enter your location. Then, we'll all know where you are when you post.

I am headed to the neurosurgeon in an hour for my post-op. Hopefully he'll give me good news, though it has only been two weeks since surgery.

I suppose if you can feel your feet...keep them from doing an unintended tango and manage your bladder.....that is a good sign.😊 Seriously, I guess at this stage maybe they look for infection and pain levels, adherence to post op instructions, etc.

Physio is THE most important comment in a surgical intervention .. this from a nurse who thought physios were nuts .. I worked a surgical unit for a few years and was forever at loggerheads with them .. but .. as time passed, and, I needed to see one for treatment, my opinion changed ..
I had in home physio for 2 months following my total hip replacement .. had it not been for 'Kristen", I doubt I would have healed as well ..
That said, I have issues with 'some mobility' .. and, the hip gets cranky on these cold northern Ontario days .. but, nothing like before the surgery ..

Guess we all just get on with it ..

~M~

@MISSINGROSE
Thanks for the memories!! When my son was a little one: when he was quiet, I knew to drop everything and go see what he found to get into!!
Some of the things he found. . . .

There, my profile is complete. I updated recently and my computer hasn’t reacted well to Windows10. I’ve been doing only the minimum necessary online and getting off quickly before a crash. Windows and my system have finally ironed out their differences I stepped back to Windows 7 with win 10 I lose my network adapter and my system will crash all the time.

I’ve lived in the tri-states area, where southeast Alabama, north Florida and southwest Georgia come together, for years, but I am originally from Pennsylvania. I doubt I will ever get used to seeing people working outside in their yards during January wearing shorts. No one is packing away their gloves and winter coats yet though.

Rosie, that was a clever idea with the bell and your granddaughter. Did you know that visually impaired parents/grandparents will tie clusters of those little, round bells in their toddler’s shoe laces to help keep track of what the kid is up to?


It’s still warm, but rainy today. We will take advantage of the saturated ground and move some small trees and shrubs while the digging is easier.

I hear alabama got some scary weather today.

Mississippi got numerous tornadoes but I haven't heard of any deaths from them. Yesterday, in a six hour period, we got 5+ inches of rain but no strong winds. The closest tornadoes were about 50 miles S and SE of me.

drdawg said:Mississippi got numerous tornadoes but I haven't heard of any deaths from them. Yesterday, in a six hour period, we got 5+ inches of rain but no strong winds. The closest tornadoes were about 50 miles S and SE of me.

I'm glad you go no tornadoes in your immediate area, Ken. That is a lot of rain! We don't ever see rain like that.

The deep south, Karen. It looks like no snow for us this year, which is not all that unusual.

We had 9 inches of snow a few days ago. Now it's warming up and melting off. I didn't know the deep South could get rains like that. Do you have the same sort of humidity as they get in Florida?

Yep, every bit as bad humidity but higher temperatures in the summer. It feels like walking into a sauna when walking outside (from the AC) in June-August. Florida has the advantage of having the Atlantic on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. And the deep water of the Atlantic sure helps cool that side of Florida. The upper Gulf Coastal areas (Fl. panhandle, AL, MS, LA, and TX) all have very shallow water that really warms up quickly in June and can get uncomfortably warm by late summer. I guess the Gulf Coast of mid to southern FL also would have pretty warm water in the summer but those waters may be deeper than we have here.

Very interesting, thanks! So far I've only been to Florida. We've lived a lot of places, but it has been mostly all over the southwest, and in the Marshall Islands. We did have very high humidity there. I had to stay under the AC or in the water the years we lived there.

I think Mississippi was hit harder. This far south and east we just had a lot of rain. The nearby Choctawhatchee river is at flood stage…again. This has been an incredibly wet winter.

Here, too. . . cold and rain, rain, RAIN!! (But not as much in MS)

The creek behind my granmother's house came out of its banks and is washing up against the foundation of her building. I tease her that one of these days, her building's gonna fall IN that creek!! Then we both just laugh and laugh!Q!

There's large areas of lawn outside my house that has standing ponds and lakes!! Even the worms are looking for a dry place; I draw the line at my livingroom!! Two intruders were RUDELY introduced to my plumbing!!

I spent my day inside not so productively: poring over new plant catsalogs and dreaming of what (and how) I'd plant. . . in 2017!!

happy, Happy, HAPPY!

The snakes looking for high ground! Eeech