Mom Gets a New Knee... and Dad Semi-Retires! (Armageddon must be comming.)

As many of you know, Mom went in for a total knee replacement just under two weeks ago. Her surgery was on Jan 18 around noon - and they had her up and walking the next morning (using a walker, of course). We took her home just two days later. She's doing incredibly well. She's getting around with her walker with ease, she's doing well keeping on top of the pain. I was just up there on Sunday and she looks great.

As always happens though - it couldn't possibly go smoothly. She's been putting this surgery off for years and finally agreed to have it done. Recovery from a total knee replacement is a pretty big deal and you need a lot of help - so Dad has to take care of her and help her get around and feed her and all of that good stuff. Sure enough - the week before her surgery something goes wrong. An ice storm came through and killed the power. Which means Dad spent three or four days running up and down the stairs keeping the woodstove burning and going up and down the hill chopping ice for the cows (there's an electric heat element that keeps their water from freezing in the winter).

After all of that activity, his leg got so swollen that he could barely walk or bend his knee. We were concerned there for a little while that it was DVT (deep vein thrombosis - a blood clot), but it wasn't - it was a ruptured Bakers cyst. The cyst probably developed in a wrestling match he had with a cow last year - but we won't get into that... Anyway, he got sent home to keep his leg up and ice on it and Mom's surgery went forward. By the time she got home, he was able to be mobile again and assume his nurse-maid duties.

But in the meantime - he retired from the cattle business! He's been talking about it for a few years, but I never thought I'd see the day. He sold all of his cattle and rented off the pasture rights to Busch Farms for one year to a neighboring farmer. And he doesn't miss it - he says it's nice to sit in his recliner and look at the thermometer reading 12 degrees, and see someone else out feeding the cows.

So now she's got a new knee and he's semi-retired. They've decided that they're going to start spending a month or two of their winters in a warmer climate and enjoy themselves more. I'm amazed. Like I said - Armageddon must be upon us.