Recovery seems to be going well. In a couple days I should be just walking on one crutch and then about two weeks after that I should be off crutches altogether. I can’t wait for that. I have been doing water therapy for the past couple days. Although I sort of feel at times a little like Esther Williams twirling about on one leg, I can really tell a marked difference in my overall motion. Thanks for your prayers for it all.

Posted on September 11th, 2007 by John
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Well well well what do you know. This blog looks different. Thanks to Steve’s coding and big bigheartedness our blog has gotten a face lift. Thanks Steve for your help with this. I am going to have to write more about you now. Maybe a Steve and the roach part 4……

Posted on September 6th, 2007 by John
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It is so good to be back home. We got back around 9pm last night. The trip back was pretty smooth. The Lord was merciful on us and it wasn’t too hard on the legs. It took about 12 hours but it seemed to go by relatively fast. My bed was one of the things I really missed the most, second of course to my family and home. It’s good to be back.

Posted on September 5th, 2007 by John
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Let see what’s there to blog about now. There have been no recent incursions into our room by the roach populi. Can’t blog about that……. Though I wish I could Steve is just so hungry for another notch on his crutch. Oh yeah well we got our stitches taken out so we can now take showers at will without worrying about getting our bummed knees wet. That’s nice. The first shower I took was about a week after the surgery and it was rather awkward with doubled garbage bags and twine all over the place tied in the only Boy Scout knot that I remembered: the bow tie. Mind you all this tying and wrapping was done on the toilet sort of half on half off trying to get in a comfortable enough position for long enough to make sure the leg stayed dry, then from there a hobble to the shower where we had a plastic chair to fall into, in the end…. Great success. Of course this ceremony wouldn’t be proper without the dawning of pair of underwear freshly laundered ahhhhhh …..very nice!

Wait Steve spoke….. ‘it’s a roach!” “Steady now, no it’s not a roach” what is it I ask in a shaky voice? Steve in a collected monotone voice says “a scorpion”. The thing is that it is under the door but not coming in, it’s just sitting there as though weighing the options of this perhaps the most important decision it will ever make. One the one hand curtain death, one the other a chance to look up into the face of The One; Steve the Crutcher……… the myth, although by now a legend has gone out farther into the animal kingdom then I had early thought. Could Steve really be after all the Scorpion King?

Posted on September 1st, 2007 by John
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We just found out today that we are having a girl! We are so excited about that news. Abi called me let me know and it really made my day. That is what we were hoping for, now comes the task of naming her. Names that are out are any names of girls that I have had past relations with in another life, any that sound like them and any of their sisters. It is going to have to be just perfect. Any suggestions are welcome.

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by John
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Praise the Lord that even though the results of the last two years of going to the gym have now gone down the drain because I have to lie here getting a belly and every other part of my body is shrinking, my knee is fixed and I am on the road to recovery. Now how is that for an example of extreme praise, pretty good right? “Really, really miss Abi and the kids and the home”. I often find myself in some weird position trying to get comfortable thinking that thought. Any day now it will come true if I just hold on!

Linda and her family have been really nice and have taken really good care of us, thanks for all your doing. And while I am on the topic of Linda I will talk about Steve a bit, because guess what? Well wither you guessed it or not I will tell you. Steve and I woke up this morning and the first thing that Steve says to me is “there is a cockroach by my bed”. What was different about this one though is that it was already dead lying upside down. Neither of us crutched it. The only thing we could think of for reasons why the little pest gave up the gost was because when Steve killed the last one by the door the other day, the last thing that went through its antennas to all the other wanna be trespasser roach was probably something like and I quote “ouch, it was Steveeeeeee”. Now this little roach came into our room spying Steve on one side, his crutch on the other just rolled over and died. Makes things easy for us, PTL!

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by John
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Day 5

Steve and the Roach part two:

Steve is a master of form and balance on crutches. Once again Steve coming out of the bathroom see a big roach that has just make it under our bedroom door. I mean it had barely made it an inch into the room and Steve’s hawk like vision spotted it. I was lying on my bed so the only thing I could see was the poise and form as one crutch went up, it wasn’t fear that griped him just a heighten sense of things, the crutch came down with a bang and the next thing I know the roach is dead. Steve has now started naming the little critters this one was Daddy roach. He now also puts a new notch on his crutch for each one he kills. Woe unto you little critters for you days are numbered.

Day 6

The Leg is still in a lot of pain and it seems to shift in where it hurts, if that is possible. Steve’s recovering faster and better then I am. I guess I had more done. I really want to go home. We went to see the Doc and he said that I need to keep ice on it all the time as the swelling needs to go down. If not then it will be time for a tube to pull it out. I have been icing it all I can but don’t see much in the way of the swelling going down. Still painful to go to the bathroom but I still go for a number of reasons, two being obvious and the other is that it’s nice to be in a different environment other then the bedroom.

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by John
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So Steve and I are in bed. We came out of surgery about 30 hours before and Steve has to take a trip that we both have come to dread, the bathroom trip. The reason being is because all the blood rushes down to the leg and it is just very painful. The alternative is the pee can so we both make the trip on crutches. Steve coming out of the bathroom, spies a little critter by his bed.  On closer inspection he realizes that it is a nasty looking cockroach. I tell him that I hate having cockroaches crawling on me when I sleep. Now Steve being the caring person that he is has sort of taken to the roll of helping me to manage down here and has been taking very good care of me. And so he continues to show his benevolence by chasing the little roach around the room on crutches. I trying to be the best help that I can, egging him on and helping with recon work, letting him know the position on the roach. When it is all said and done. The roach lay dead on the bottom of one of Steve’s crutches and Steve leaning on the other crutch has the look of one of the Three hundred after the first day of defending the Hot Gates.

Day 4

The leg still pounds and hurts. I am not sure where more pain is coming from, the drill holes or the ham string and veins that were taken out to fix the ACL. In any case, it hurts. We are supposed to be doing exercises to stretch and get motion back in the knee but it is hard to do these faithfully as it doesn’t seem natural to be trying to move it around, it just wants to lie in bed and be fussed over.  Did work off line and then played a game of chess with Steve should have know that I was going as a sheep to the slaughter but it was a nice change and I learned much seeing  Steve the master at work.  Linda brought over some Mexican ice cream, which was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

Posted on August 24th, 2007 by John
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D day:

Operation bummed knee. Steve and I are gone from home for surgery down here in one of the nicest cities that I have been in here in Mexico. Hermosillo from what I have seen of it is a pretty cultured place. The hospital that we are getting out work done has a very good standard and I have a very good feeling about the doctor. I get to the hospital at around 8am check in at the front desk and I am just so glad that Steve is there to hold my hand in the absence of my baby love.

After check in, my nurse takes us to my room where I will be spending the next few hours before surgery getting used to the IV drip etc. I think that nicest part about it all is that I get a new piece of clothing. You guessed it, a hospital gown. As the nurse hands it to me she remarks about how tall I am and let’s out a little chuckle. I go to the bathroom thinking of Ryan and hold it up for size; well it will have to do. Mean while Steve is sitting in the room laughing at what he knows I will look like when I come out. The laugh is more a nervous laugh though as he knows that within in a couple of hours he is going to be all dolled up as well. I come out and twirl about in my new found freedom and yes the gown is well above my knees. It took some getting used to and Steve help me tie up the back side, but if I had to get into a gown in order to get my knee fixed then that’s what I will do.

After about three hours of fannying about I was taken to the operating room. After rolling over for the needle in the spine I lost all the feeling from the waist down. I got to watch the operation as it was happening on a monitor that was one way to keep me desperate in prayer. I had my ACL replaced, and a good chunk of Meniscus taken out all in all it was about a three and a half hour procedure. I am just happy that after two years of waiting it is over. Now comes the recovery.

Day 2 Recovery:

I am starting to get some feeling back in my legs and I can feel my member again that’s nice! I am getting used to the pee can and can use it now without missing a beat. Steve and I got released at around 5 PM and we are on our way back to our home away from home.

Posted on August 21st, 2007 by John
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This is not a blog post, which is something that I haven’t done in a very long time so I forget what those are like. What triggered this out the blue I don’t know; maybe I thought it was too good to not tell you all about.

As Abi and I were driving yesterday and we were talking about our vacation plans. I mentioned that it might be fun to do a sol guys thing and take the boys camping and that maybe my brothers and Dad would come along. I just thought it would be easier that way. Abi then asked “well then what will I do” I said that she should do a girls thing.

Now I don’t really remember how we stumbled on to the next part of the conversation, maybe it was the chuckle that spread across my face when I thought about how funny it would be if all the girls, and just the girls of the Fisher family went on a camping trip. We were talking from Natalie all the way up to Carole. And then the more I thought about it the funnier it seemed to me. Abi then of course being the great outdoorsy that she portends, became annoyed that I was making fun of the fact that it just wouldn’t work. She claimed that building a fire was not a problem, they could definitely do that. Tents, that would be harder to do but they could figure that out for sure. And what else is there a need for? Oh yeah, food, well I don’t have to worry about catching fish or hunting because I can easily buy that with my credit card. I don’t know if you think that funny or not but knowing the fisher sisters that sounds about right.

Okay now in all fairness, I will say that I really love all the Fishers and they are great family to have and all that good stuff that needs saying to make up for this very mean post about the Fishers girls camping prowess.
.

Posted on June 8th, 2007 by John
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