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Dunkirk NY – Today began the physical therapy regimen. I am going to a different PT clinic that I did for my left knee, since my former therapist retired and moved to Florida. This is the next major development in rehab, and it will give me something to do for the next month or so.

My initial workup was pretty positive. After almost two weeks of recovery, my right knee is only about 3″ more in circumference than my left, and my range of motion (ROM) is about 10° less. Doing all the icing I’ve been doing has been a help in terms of bringing the swelling down and keeping it under control. My walking gait is almost normal with little sign of limp. So I am starting off in a pretty good place.

I was started off with 10 minutes on a bicycle, which was much different from the first time. A year ago I didn’t get on a bicycle for maybe a month. After that comes a series of leg lifts, quad tightening, heel slides, and so on. The idea is to regain strength in the quads and the muscles around the knee. What’s difficult about these is that they also work the core muscles as well. Once you get into them they are not bad and easy to do. 15 to 30 reps of these things depending on the particular exercise gets it done. I was also surprised by the lack of anything requiring a resistance band. I bought a set anticipating using them, but I did not use them today.

My brother gave me a few more to do, like wall slides, squats, and lunges. I will have to incorporate some of those into my workout over time at home. I get two sessions at the clinic each week, and then work at home. One other difference is that this therapist wants me to do these exercises 2 to 3 times a day. Last time I only did them once a day. I think I will go with two for now, so once in the AM, ice, once in the PM, ice, and then one final icing at night. That should get me up and running fairly quickly.

I realize PT is a short road to recovery, but I am willing to bet that simply normal activity and time will actually do much of the work even if I didn’t do PT. But I have noticed a weight gain of 3.5 lbs, so I do hope that getting the exercises done will result in some weight loss. I rode the bike 2.5 miles today and got my heart rate up to 85, but that is nowhere near enough to burn some decent calories (I think I burned less than 100). I can probably also go for short walks up and down the block as well. So it’s off and…well, not quite running. But we will get there! -twl

Dunkirk NY – Nothing much to report today on the knee. It’s coming along fine. Tomorrow starts physical therapy, bright and early at 8:30 AM. I’ll probably get an evaluation and begin the exercises. I also contacted my brother, who is himself a physical therapist, and he gave me a list of things to try at home as well. PT is actually a bit boring, but it does offer something to do at any rate. Put on some headphones, and just keep repeating the exercises over and over. Tedious, but necessary.

More exciting is the fact that I went and bought a Pixel 3a phone, upgrading from my current Moto G5+. I’m not a big believer in paying large sums of money for phones. In fact, most of my tech is quite minimal in scope. The 3a went on sale for $300 on Sunday, and I could not resist buying it, but not so much to upgrade my phone experience. By all reviews, the camera is supposed to be excellent, and so I bought it mostly for the camera features.

When I am out on vacation, it’s always a toss-up as to whether I will take pictures with my SLR or my phone. The phone wins more often than I care to admit, because it’s just convenient. My SONY A6000 is a good camera, but of course it’s clunky to carry around, and it’s heavy. It takes far better pictures, however, especially when I have the 50-200mm lens attached. If I am in one location where I know I’ll take a number of pictures, that’s the camera I want to use.

On hikes or just walking around, though, the phone is really hard to beat. I’ve also bought a small pocket camera, but then you’re carrying two devices. What’s the point of that? So in buying the Pixel 3a, I am thinking about it as buying a camera upgrade rather than a phone upgrade. I am simply not as dependent on my phone as working people are, so a $300 phone from which I can make calls and do minimal communication work (email, text, chat) is all I care about and need.

Once it arrives I’ll enjoy getting it up and running. I’ve been trying to get a new VPN router going so as to have a higher level of security on my WiFi, but it has eluded me thus far. I think somehow it can’t get past my cable modem’s gateway or something. Technology puzzles are always nice challenges, but this one has me stumped for the moment. The Pixel should be much easier to handle. There are some nice deals on a lot of stuff out there, and when you’re laid up with little to do, internet shopping becomes a way to pass the time. I bit on the Pixel, but I have to resist the rest. Living on a fixed income requires discipline!  -twl

My Slippers

Dunkirk NY – I have a pair of slippers that, come winter, I wear around the house. My extremities get cold very easily due to a youthful bout with frostbite, and so I have to wear something on my feet other than socks. The thing about this particular pair of slippers is that, for some reason, when I walk around the house, I tend to shuffle my feet rather than picking them up. For some reason, in these slippers, that feels a more natural way to walk. I have to make a conscious effort to lift my feet when I walk, but I usually end up forgetting. The result is that I sound like an 80-year-old man shuffling around the house.

Rehabilitation at this point feels like a preview of getting older. Each morning I get up, put on my slippers, socks, sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt. Since I know I am not going anywhere or seeing anyone, I don’t bother to put on regular pants. My day is filled with light activities, such as making coffee, taking out the garbage or recycling, shredding mail, writing, icing the knee. The combination of the shuffling, the appearance, and the activities all feel at this point like the things I’ll probably be doing once I hit 80. When my parents were that age that’s about all they began to do, apart from shopping. My mother, at 90, can do little else, and when I hear myself shuffling it’s almost as if I’m hearing my mother go from her bedroom to the TV to watch Blue Bloods.

It’s not unnerving, but it is, shall we say, revealing. Once this is over I am going to have to remember this feeling so I remain active as long as I can. And perhaps it might be a good idea to get something other than these slippers to wear around the house. -twl

Dunkirk NY – Well, I finally did it. I stretched myself out just a bit too much this morning and my knee got a little tired. So here I sit on the couch once again, icing the knee and giving it some rest for the rest of the day.

Needing a change of pace, I’ve been puttering around the house trying to do small chores around the house. I’ve been down the basement and up on second floor a number of times, requiring the climbing of all those stairs. I’ve been sitting on office chairs rather than having my leg elevated. This morning I moved the couch a bit to see about re-installing some springs (which was not possible), and did a little work in the back room trying to straighten that out. All small items, and I think nothing too strenuous, but perhaps the cumulative effect was more than I anticipated.

It sort of reminded me of the summer of 2000, when I was laid up a bit with some complications resulting in the removal of my gall bladder. I remember feeling pretty good one afternoon and thought I’d go out and take a walk. I got down the driveway and halfway down my own sidewalk before I realized if I didn’t turn back I wasn’t going to make it home. When I got back on the sofa I was completely exhausted. I learned then that when recovering from surgery, you shouldn’t underestimate how long it will take to fully recover. Your body may feel good, but if you try to push it a little before it’s time, you’ll pay.

So since it’s Sunday, I’ll sit here and watch a little football (just a little, to pass the time mostly) and go back to passing the time icing and resting. I can’t afford to screw this up and not be able to drive a week from now for rehearsal. -twl

Dunkirk NY – I’ve been spending the better part of today updating the security aspects of my site. I noticed that my site was always being displayed as “not secure,” and while I am not doing any e-commerce business or gathering any information, I always like to know that people coming here will see the locked icon in the URL bar. I think that makes people more secure about using the site, and I also think it helps keep my own information secure. Getting the SSL certificates was something of a pain and took me a couple of days to figure out. I was just about ready to move to a new hosting site, but I think now I won’t have to, since all my domains are secure. Continue reading →

Dunkirk NY – Today’s first post-op followup appointment was a breeze. The stitches came out, and my surgeon came in and checked for swelling, discoloration, and range of motion – all good. I got my surgical report and pictures, as well as my Rx for physical therapy. My first PT appointment is Wednesday morning 11/20. In another week I can test myself behind the wheel of a car, so I should be able to drive to make it to my volunteer gig for Shakespeare in Delaware Park. I pretty much expected a good report, and certainly got one. Continue reading →

Dunkirk NY – Recuperation is now one week old, and it’s getting to be old hat. I’ve locked myself into a very distinct rhythm and flow to the day. I get up at about 8 AM, and by 8:30 or 9 at the latest I have ice on my knee. Coffee, breakfast, and my usual information-gathering session on the computer are done by 10. From about 10-noon or so I will answer email, chat with my youngest son, write a post for the blog, or take care of some other digital errand.

About 12:30 starts another icing session. Then I may start either consuming some media, get into some other project that can be researched via computer. Yesterday I spent researching Fidelity funds for my son’s small Fidelity brokerage account, and I’ve also been looking up snow tires to put on the Kia (Blizzak DM-V2 was the outcome). I put in a two-hour session of Catch-22, ice the knee again around 3:30 or 4, and have dinner around 6 PM. Yesterday I took in a cricket match between the USA and Windward Islands; the USA lost pretty badly, falling apart during the late overs, going all out while trailing by 46 runs.

Evenings around 7 or so comes another icing session. Then my wife and I watch a movie. We went with Jackie Chan last night. The first attempt, Wheels on Meals, was a loser, and we only got about a third of the way through that before changing to Rumble in the Bronx, which was much better but still a bit of a muddle. I usually spend the last hour of the day sort of tying up any loose ends, and do some final icing. I get to bed around 11-11:30 PM. That’s the day. Nothing terribly exciting.

Today the knee feels a little more flexible than yesterday. I was able to place my right foot over my left knee and put my sock on, which is progress. I took three Advils before bed to sort of take the edge of the general ache, and perhaps that helped to reduce the inflammation as well. Tomorrow is my post-op appointment, and the stitches will come out, and I’ll be able to look at the pictures. I find that recuperation is really not so much about the pain as it is about preventing clots. I hope I can get to PT next week.

As noted on my home page, I am very interested in writing haiku. Here’s one I came up with last night before heading to bed.

Light fades; snow gently
falls, offering no promise
for a tomorrow

-twl

Dunkirk NY – An unexpected but gentle is snow is falling today. They are the best kind. They add a little accumulation, but not to the streets and sidewalks. The light fresh coating over the stale snow is a pleasant visual sensation, adding just a bit of curved obscurity to the sharper iced edges, filling in the footsteps and bare spots, and allowing me to gaze, mesmerized, at the large flakes descending lightly from the sky. The cold and snow makes being trapped inside a bit more tolerable, though I’d still like to be able to get out there and take a walk a few blocks up the street, just to feel the crisp cold air. It all feels so exciting in November. It will get very, very old by February.

Nothing really new to report on the knee. I ice it about 4 times a day for 30 minutes or so, which always feels so good. I keep it elevated during the day and at night while I sleep. I take tours around the house now and again just to get it moving. Range of motion and stiffness are the main complaints now. There’s little in the way of pain. I suppose the thing I have to be careful of most is not overdoing it, not feeling as if I can do more than I really should. The days are actually going by faster than had thought they would.

Last night’s movie was Pirate Radio, which was stupid and fun. The best aspect of the movie was the soundtrack. In the process of trying to find out what’s on and available to watch, though, I notice that the streaming choices are now becoming out of hand. There are simply too many streaming services out there now, and it is becoming a difficult matter to try and “cut the cord” and save money by not having cable. Between YouTube TV for live TV and all the various streaming service I have and share, I begin to wonder if going back to cable is not the smarter and simpler choice. Ordinarily I don’t watch enough screen entertainment to make all these subscriptions worthwhile, and I don’t have the patience to cancel and switch all the time. My wife consumes far more media than I do, so it’s not like I can just pull the plug on it all. But sorting out what I need and what is superfluous is becoming more tedious by the month. Too many choices.

I’ve also begun re-reading Catch-22, and it actually strikes me as somewhat unusual that I would have been allowed to read this book in high school. But the other fascinating thing about re-reading this book now is how much I actually understood about the book back then. Re-reading it now, I haven’t yet really found anything about the book that I understand more than what I did at 16. The book made as much sense to me then as it does now. I found the same mostly true of re-reading Vonnegut’s work. On the other hand, John Updike’s Rabbit Run offered far more depth and insight to me at my present age than he did at 17. Absurdism, it seems, always makes the most sense when the real world is absurd.  -twl

Dunkirk NY – November snowfalls are nothing unusual around here. The way I look at it, after Halloween comes winter. Up until the end of October, one can still get that fall feeling. A few trees still display their colorful leaves, the temperatures stay above freezing, and snow remains only an outside possibility. Come November, the clocks change back to standard time, the skies become noticeably grayer, temperatures begin to drop, and the expectation of snow has that “any day now” feel.

As if on cue, the first significant snowfall fell yesterday. We got maybe 4″ here, but other locations got a good 10-11 inches. Nearby Buffalo broke its Nov. 11 record with 10.9″ officially. Temperatures are also plummeting, with highs of about 25° and wind chills around 15°. Those temperatures are a good 25° below normal for this time of year. Continue reading →

Dunkirk NY – Tony never liked Veterans Day. He would allow me to call him and wish him a happy Veterans Day, but I always had to endure a rant about his intense dislike for the “thanks for your service” bullshit. As far as he was concerned, the words meant nothing as long as he was living in an 8’X10′ dormitory-style room along with other veterans who were homeless, jobless, on methadone programs, or otherwise dysfunctional, and as long as he was receiving poor health care service from the VA.

Anthony J. Rasemus, May 2016

Tony died a little over a year ago, on Sept. 21, 2018, at 2:00 PM, in the VA hospital on 23rd St. in Manhattan. When I received the phone call from the doctor, I was standing in his room at the veterans shelter on E. 119th St. I had gotten up early and was driving down that morning to see him in the hospital, as I was told he was not doing well. I was supposed to be getting my first knee surgery on my left knee at the end of September, but when I was told he was close to dying I had to postpone the surgery and try to get back to the city. I had visited him the weekend before, and he looked very weak and emaciated. I stopped in his shelter room because he was missing his wallet and cell phone, and he thought he might have left them in his room when he was transported to the hospital after falling out of his bed (they were more likely stolen).  I was two hours too late. It took me almost two hours to drive from E. 119th St. to E. 23rd St., park the car, and walk up to the hospital room. Continue reading →