Physical attributes

It has been a long time since my last posting, and much has happened. This post will focus on the most significant events related to physical health.

TKR
    In November of 2013, I had a Total Knee Replacement of my right knee. The problems with the knee had gotten to a point of no return. Also, I was having problems with my back and there was some who thought that once I got my knee fixed that my back would get better.
    The surgeon's assessment was troublesome. He stated that the knee was so out of place and there was so much tissue build-up, he was unsure if the knee would turn out as well as he would want. That was a downer. The surgery went without incident. I went into the hospital on Monday morning ans was escorted out at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Yes, someone was there after surgery to get me out of bed asking me to walk for them.
    The worst of it was the physical therapy afterward. A therapist came to the house three times a week. When he first arrived I could straighten my knee to 60 degrees. He wanted to get to 90 degrees as soon as possible because the longer it takes the more likely it is that scar tissue will develop and keep the knee from moving at all. I wrote to the military and offered this physical therapy technique as a way to get information from terrorists. I screamed, cursed, and called out to the saint of all joints. Nothing saved me from the excruciating pain. It did not help that when the therapist had me in a leg lock, trying to get the knee to bend, that he was humming. Every session lasted between 45 minutes and an hour. On the last visit, my knee was at 106 degrees. The ideal is 120 degrees.
     The knee continued to work well and I was pain free. On my last visit with the surgeon, he marveled at his work. He showed me x-rays of the knee before and after. I told him that I thought those images had been doctored.


MID and Complications
     As the knee healed, I started to get increased back pain. The legs might go numb and tingly. I would get the urge to go pee or poo. Sometimes the body signals were real and other times not. These symptoms would disappear when I would sit for a few minutes. When I got the urge to go at home, no big issue. When I got them at the store, I would rush to the restroom, just in case. This was not a way to live.
    On March 5, I went to the hospital to get a MicroInvasive Decompression. The plan called for an overnight stay in the hospital. Bones or bone spurs were crowding into the spinal column affecting the nerves. The procedure would snip at these and relieve the pressure on the nerves. I was promised a 1.5 inch incision and got a 4 inch incision for the same price. I went by all accounts the surgery went well. I was in the recovery room feeling no pain and I was able to pee freely. This is the key to this surgery. Once the patient can urinate, they are deemed ready to be dismissed. I did not get to my room until 2:30 p.m. That is when the problems began.

      Pain
     I started to feel the urge to urinate, but not being able to. As the urge increase, so did my pain. At times I would put out a little dribble here and there, but the pain was constant. The nursing staff told me that the pain was the irritation from the catheter during surgery. Since I had never experienced this, I bought the story. I was asked if I had pain and I would clarify that my back was pain free, but there was pain elsewhere.
     This pain continued until 8:30 the following night, more than 24 hours. Overnight I got some relief from the pain medications, it did not go away. Finally, the urologist that was asked in for a consultation came in, inserted a catheter, and in not time, I was pain free. I had more than 1200 cc initially and another 1200 the next morning. The problem was that I was in acute urine retention. There was nothing cute about it.

     High blood pressure
     Many years before I left Washington an abnormal heart beat was detected during a routine doctor's visit. Since I did not have a history of high blood pressure and I was not complaining of chest pain, it was a none issue.  Before my first knee replacement the issue of the heart beat was noticed but was not a concern. The same happened before my second knee replacement. Amid the pain from the retention, my blood pressure was very high and all of a sudden the irregular heart beat was an issue.
     A cardiologist, and Internist, and the hospital Physician Assistant were called in the consult. In two shakes, I was hooked up to heart monitoring telemetry. An Echo scan of the heart was ordered. One by one these assessment tools showed no irregularity as a cause of the high blood pressure. However, no one considered the urinary retention as a cause.

     Never Mind
     After the retention was relieved, my blood pressure began to drop. The pain disappeared and I was ready to go home. However, the only one to give the "all clear" was the cardiologist followed by my surgeon. I waited all day on Friday waiting for the word. A nurse finally called and he stated that he had already be on the floor and had written on the chart. However, he did not have the professional courtesy to come by the room to give me a summary of his findings or to suggest follow-up care. Was this a fear of admitting he was in error in missing the retention problem? Someone wrote an order for medication for high blood pressure and I got some pills, but what do I do when I run out? It reminded me of Gilda Radner's line, "Never mind!"

As I write this I am still trying to get my bladder to work on its own and hope to have that resolved in a couple of days. I am not ready to walk around with a catheter for the rest of my days. I am also not in any hurry to return to the hospital any time soon. I would like to think that I am physically stable, for now.
Before surgery I took only one prescription drug, but I left the hospital with five.

My bikini and thong wearing days are over.

Before the end of the month, I hope to be back to my one prescription drug.

     
   

The Weslaco Museum and Valentines

         In July of 2013, I started volunteering at the Weslaco Museum. At 65, I am the youngest or one of the younger volunteers. Septagenarians and octogenarians are the rule. Volunteers take on different roles, depending on their interests. Some volunteer to staff the front desk, greeting visitors, selling from the gift shop, and offering tours. Some focus on the archives room. Some are more visible at social functions, tending to preparing and serving food. My interest was in inventorying the artifacts in the attic.

        The four or five of us would meet once or twice a week and tackle as many boxes as we could. Although the job is not complete, we have gone through more than 500 boxes. The contents should reflect some of Weslaco's history, but many items are of questionable value and should be thinned out. The Museum may have served as a dumping ground for "Aunt Tilly's" dressing table contents after she passed on to her reward. Over the years items were accepted as donations without regard to their true value. While it is good to save  an old fashion meat grinder, the need for 7 of them baffles my mind. The same can be said of the innumerable ladies' hats. Needless to say, it was always fun going through and documenting the Museum's holdings.

     In December, the Museum director resigned, as did her assistant. One of the volunteers was asked to step in as Interim Director while a new director was hired. She agreed if I would help her in the task. Thinking that we would be doing this for two or three weeks, we agreed. Two months later, we were still at our posts. On March 3rd, the new director took over.

VALENTINES, FLOWERS AND YOU

      As Program coordinator, my charge was to develop/ create exhibits. The one for February was an easy concept, "Valentines' Day."  The title of the exhibit was "Valentines, Flowers, and You."  . It was to be an exhibit with a feminine/ girlie look. Valentines, ladies hats, fans, and beaded purses. All of the items for the exhibit came from what was in the attic. We had antique valentines, lose and framed. Fans came with feathers, and sparkles. The beaded purses from the 20s and 30s added sparkle to the display cases. There was no problems finding hats for the exhibit. The problem was selecting from the vast numbers.
Having never done this kind of work before, I discovered that this was a three piece puzzle: deciding  the theme, deciding which items to show, deciding how to exhibit. The theme was the easiest. Here are some pictures.

This was the display that greeted the visitors. I could have done a better job with the lettering if I had been given a budget.

The black and white beaded purse is from the 20s and the red martini glass is mine. 

I had the idea to hang hats, but I did not know how.  I also had to take care and not damage the hat.  A very fine wire, a cardboard round, and lots of time on the ladder did it.

The top shelf holds very old lacy paper valentines. The lower shelf holds items that could walk off when no one was looking.

Certainly not very romantic or related to Valentines, but I wanted to show some men's hats.

One of my fears was that I would have blank empty wall spaces. Where there is a will, there is a way.

These display cubes are deceiving. They are of glass and very heavy. So after the display is set, the case must be lowered. so as not to disturb the items.

Quilts and Texas Independence

The idea for the March exhibit was an easy one. The volunteers had mentioned it prior. They suggested an exhibit of quilts and or Texas Independence. I did not want an all quilt show because it would limit the audience. So, I combined the two ideas.

Quilts
    The Museum has about 30 quilts in storage so I knew that we would have from which to choose. Hanging the quilts was the issue. I went to a quilt show and saw what others were doing. The quilts needed to have a pocket into which a rod is inserted and then the rod is suspended from the ceiling or the wall. Not all of the Museum's quilts had pockets, so I chose those with pockets. I would up with too many of the same color palette or very boring looking ones. Ultimately I chose ten quilts to display. Here are some pictures.

The front quilt is from South Dakota and celebrates its statehood. It is from 1880s.

The quilt with the red spots is from about 1840. The others are 1920s and 1930s.

The Texas quilt is not handmade or old. I used it because of the theme and the size covered that wall perfectly.

The purple quilt is the Weslaco Anniversary quilt. To celebrate the city's 75th anniversary, several city groups got together and each panel denotes a decade or significant events.

Texas Independence

    This part of the exhibit was more difficult to realize. The Museum does not have any artifacts that could be used to tell the story. After much deliberation I decided to tell a brief story and maybe get the viewers to continue researching or reading on their own. I arranged the movable panels in a diagonal across the galley's space. This created a 24 foot wall. This arrangement took some of the volunteers aback. They had never seen this arrangement. 

     On one side of the wall were portraits of some of the key players in the battle for independence. beneath each portrait was a brief biography of the individual and his role in the fight for independence.  On the other side of the wall I displayed maps showing the changing boundaries of Texas beginning prior to 1803 and the Louisiana Purchase, after Mexican independence from Spain, after Texas independence and after the Mexican American War. There was also a display of different flags used during the fight for independence. Another panel asked, "Why Declare Independence?" This set the background for the story. A different panel was a tribute to the "Yellow Rose of Texas." I could not omit the names of those 189 who died at the Alamo. This list also identifies the person's origins.

This shows the panel dissecting the gallery space.

At the far end of the picture is the tribute to the Yellow Rose.

I sprinkled some old artifacts here and there to add some character to the exhibit. If I had had a budget, the images, biographies, and maps would have been professionally printed and mounted on foam core.

I was very happy with the outcome. The exhibit was ready for the March 1 deadline. I did not think I would be able to put it together.