Tuesday Evening Update

All seems to be going well. Sharon is more and more getting through the effects ofanesthesia. Having been here before, it usually is in the middle of the second day after that she is all back!! Her "drift off" sessions have been getting farther apart and she is beginnning to feel the physical effects of being operated on. They removed her from intravenious (SP?) today and she is now totally on oral medication for the pain. I will say that she is getting "top-quality" goods!! I mean, this stuff has high street value!! [:D]

She (we) begins her Physical Therapy at 8:30AM tomorrow. I suspect that the main part of her's will be just getting vertical for a change and maybe going to the "little room in the corner!" Actually, they already had her doing some muscle flexes today. Every hour on the hour she had to flex her feet, do the knee push-downs, and the old glutemus maximus "squeeze!" Much of the day, she actually fell asleep right in the middle of those sessions. Ditto with the "breathing machine."

Unfortunately, the side effects of the anesthesia wearing off is the increasingly discomfort. She has never complained about a lot of pain from her previous operations (she says she is uncomfortable!), but she is complaining this time from some lower back pain. Dr Emerson told me yesterday that she may feel some pain there as a result of the stretching of the muscles to bring her leg back to it's standard length. The lengthening of the muscles also tighten them which puts pressure on the nerve bundles in the legs and that usually shows up in the form of pain where the bundle goes into the spine. So, once again, we seem to be on the predicted track. Hopefully, as she is able to get up and get some movement back in the leg, the muscles will stretch and relax and the pain should disappear.

I left about 10PM tonight and it appeared she was going to be able to sleep OK.

ThanX to all who have been in touch. That has meant so much. Friendly voices have never been more welcome!!

Until later

Cheers!