Cathy's Shoulder Replacement...

On Monday Dec. 2nd 2024 Cathy had a left shoulder replacement. Arthritis had been dogging her for about two years and ignoring it, exercising it and taking an injection from the doc had not helped making surgery the best option. Dr. McCall did the surgery and she was discharged from the hospital a little less than 24 hours after the procedure ended.   ,  

The rotator cuff was in pretty good shape but the supraspinatus muscle of the group which lifts the arm away from the body was torn. There's two kinds of shoulder replacement, anatomical, which is a prothesis just like the original joint or a reversal where the ball of the joint is placed on the socket side. The doc thought this was the best choice for Cathy.       
 

Surgery took about 2 hours and she came through fine. Pain control at Woodland Heights Medical Center was world class. The nerve block lasted well into Wednesday. In fact Cathy was so good I was a bit reminded why we don't let her drink. Prescriptions for home use have been adequate along with the use of the circulating ice pack. 

How much do you have to tip the surgeon so he avoids your ink? She won't say.   

Today, Wednesday Home Health Nursing came out and changed the surgical dressing and the Physical Therapist performed an evaluation. We had been performing a home exercise program as directed by the doc and the hospital therapist but though things will be pretty mild for up to 6 weeks he did add in a couple more exercises to be done 5x a day for 5 minutes or so and adjusted the immobilizer for more comfortable wear since it will be a friend and companion for the next 6 weeks. 

So far so good this experience has been smooth and it's been fun encountering old friends we used to work with and they have taken good care of us. We may be off the fishing and camping trail for now but the therapist said casting and reeling will be an excellent rehab. There will be some limits to what she can lift but as long as Cathy keeps catfish under 25 pounds she should be good.  

 

   

Toughest Guy I Know...

It was a big weekend with Miguel's sister Crystal marrying Herbey. It was a great wedding, we played the music and a fine celebration of uniting the two families. The most outstanding event of the weekend to me was that Miguel Sr. walked his daughter down the isle and then danced with her at the reception afterwards. He's the toughest guy I know. 

If you are a long time blog reader or know the families involved you are familiar with the story. In 2013 Miguel Sr. had a minor stroke, spent a bit of time in rehab recovering and was almost ready to go home when he had a major stroke. When I say major I mean the kind that people do not recover from. 

After almost a year in hospitals and rehab facilities he came home. He's limited in mobility but has kept working and exercising each day. Most of you know I retired as a physical therapist assistant with experience in the neuro rehab field and I have seen steady incremental improvements that he has been able to achieve through his never quit, give up or lose faith attitude. Don Miguel described his daily routine to me this weekend and I doubt most of you do as much.    

Cathy says she is glad we were at the wedding rehearsal and found out he planned on walking his daughter down the isle. She said "I might have not been able to play the guitar for crying so hard at seeing this." As you see his wife Alejandra and family has stood by him the whole way. Miguel Sr. can even pitch in with some grandkid babysitting if everyone is fed and changed to set things up good.  

Father/Daughter dance makes it all worth it. 

Next time you think it's too hard, you want to quit and can't go on remind yourself to be like Don Miguel and get tough. You can make it.  

 

She's Back on the Lake With a New Hip Joint...

After a hip replacement on Sept 21st Cathy clambers up the ladder yesterday attached to the front of the boat trailer and lifts her skinny fist like antenna to heaven in thanks as I back the trailer down and she powers off for our first fishing trip since her surgery.  

We spotted this dead catfish floating in the lake. It confirmed our theories that in her absence catfish were dying of old age. That's what happens if you are not there to get them out of the water.  

I might not have caught the most but I did catch the biggest. 

Cathy broke in a new Zebco 808 fishing reel. So many of our spin cast reels, from the heavy use have become grinders. When someone hooks a fish a loud screeching and crying of the abused moving reel parts sings out to pierce the quiet of nature and everyone knows you are fighting a fish in. With the smooth action of this reel I never heard when she had a fish on.

Note the snake head cane in the rod holder. It's positioned to look down into the water to be visible to any catfish looking up and it serves the same purpose of as the gargoyles on the towers of the medieval churches of Europe. It convinces the fish that if you get past that thing scaring you it's all safe and warm in the boat. 

Actually Cathy still needs the cane as assistance and support. Turns out her femur is narrow at the top and wider at the bottom and the bone needs to grow some more to attach to the prothesis in the wide part. She needs to use the cane for support so the bone cells, which grow slowly are trying to hit a moving target which is what would  happen to all this apparatus without the support of the cane.      

While our fishing areas were uncrowded there were a lot of people out enjoying the fall weather. We spotted this large boat in the back of the Hanks Creek cove. It's the biggest one I have seen on the lake lately. 

The boat ramp was quiet the comedy of errors. There were people in boats blocking the ramp by water, others that just pulled up after loading to the top of the ramp to secure their rig for towing all the while blocking room for others to maneuver their trailers, one guy whose boat came untied from the dock and drifted away (he swam for it and I rescued one of his flip flops that floated by) and the lady who paddled up in a canoe to Cathy as she was waiting in our boat for me to back the trailer down and asked if she had anything to drink. She declined an offer of water.    

 

By the way if you have this murderers row of catfish eaters over it takes and least 22 catfish to feed them all. We were lucky that was how many we caught. 

I did not measure how much ketchup was used but I have heard rumors of a shortage of that condiment in stores.  

 

Cathy Has a Hip Replacement...

After a period of hobbling around that was frequently exacerbated by a night at work on her feet, lots of stairs or long walks Cathy had a hip replacement on Sept 21st. Doctor Guse was the surgeon, Woodland Heights was the hospital. It was an anterior approach type surgery. I'm the boss of her physical therapy. The photo is the old hip cartilage. The worn area is circled.   

The new implant. She's going to need that airport hurry through the metal detector card. 

This photo shows the alignment. Looks like they evened her up pretty good. 

She was home from the hospital less than 24 hours after the surgery ended. Getting around well with the help of a walker now but one of the benefits of the anterior approach is that recovery to the least assistive device is quick. 

Thanks for everyone's prayers and well wishes!  

 

Update on my String Ray Injury...

If you are a follower here you know I was stung by a sting ray a little more than 9 weeks ago. I think I am well. Here's a photo of my foot and for the first time since the sting happened there is no sign of drainage. 

The dressing you see is a fexzan foam dressing. It's peeling up a bit but that's because I have had it on for 24 hours. In the past weeks I have sometimes kept the dressing on for 3-5 days as long as it remained intact. The hole it covered was about the depth and width of a cotton q-tip head and that's in all directions. It was a pretty fluffy and wide q-tip. The wound is basically all filled in from the bottom of the wound bed with only a slight indentation in the outer layer of skin which might grow back thick enough to leave no scar. 

Flexzan is a dressing described on their web sight as "sterile, ultra-thin, highly conformable, semi-occlusive polyurethane foam adhesive dressing that protects wounds from exogenous contamination and trauma while maintaining a moist wound healing environment.

Flexzan® is constructed of an open cell foam with a closed cell outer surface. Excess wound moisture is absorbed into the cells of the foam and allowed to evaporate through the outer surface, helping prevent fluid accumulation under the dressing.

Flexzan® should not be used on third degree burns or on wounds showing clinical signs of infection."

I used no medicine of any kind on this wound other than the standard antibiotics for a string ray sting. The flexzan lets the wound environment stay optimal so the body heals it's self. You can buy this stuff on the internet but I don't recommend you try this at home. It's not a one size fits all treatment and may not be as suitable for your wound as it was for mine. The main tenet of wound care is if what you do don't work, something else is needed. I do recommend you go to your doctor for help as wounds are complex and don't always heal and if I needed hospitalization I'd  go to Woodland Heights Medical Center. When I worked there I had some great mentors that perform the wound care for that facility and the things they taught me have been invaluable. 

Some one called my wife this week and asked how my foot was. She told them "It's fine, he's already on to the next thing," meaning crashing into a deer as I did last Saturday night. It's heck getting old and not getting out of the way as fast as you used to when danger presents.     

Mary is a Nurse...

Mary's pinning ceremony was tonight. She is a nurse. In this photo she receives her nurse pin from her mom. Her degree is BSN, bachelor of nursing.  Tomorrow she will walk the stage as a graduate from Stephen F. Austin State University. 

We are proud parents.   

More Fish Fry...

At the fish fry we held one of those relationship training courses. Notice how the teams were arranged. Rose and Miguel on one team, Mary and Juan on the other. The lesson? When it comes to spiking the ball, your significant other usually does not need your help and if he does, well that's another course.


Juan spikes. He is currently enrolled in the Texas Department of Public Safety Academy. He's off this week on break and for vacation he and Rose head to New Orleans. Remember, I get that father in law no speed limit pass. It's a sign on a little handle like a fly swatter, when the lights come on behind you, you stick it out the window and they turn the lights off and you proceeded on your happy way.

I work with these guys, they are also PTAs.













I guess it was a good party. Lots of hot sauce, I found two pairs of flip flops left behind, Where were those people going without shoes? Almost all paper plates were used, but hardly any napkins. Figure that one out.

October was PT Month...

Picture of our Physical Therapy Staff from the Lufkin Daily News this week. October was Physical Therapy Month.

Check the links at the side bar for info on our in patient services as well as a new link I added to our out patient clinic.

Don't forget our other staff, we have occupational therapists and speech therapist too. They each have their own month.

So now I wait...

The deed is done, the PTA board exam is taken. Funny how there are some things that can just instantly make you sweaty and stinky under the arms. This is one of those things.

I can't even begin to guess how I did. I never really can guess what I made on a test. Maybe it's a mental trick of mine, a way of maintaining lowered expectations if I did not do well. The test itself was no harder or easier than any of the practice exams I have taken so at least there were no surprises.

The real down side to not passing is that I lose my temp license till I can take it again and pass. That will be bad since things are going well for me at the hospital. Funny how the exam can be harder than the actual job, with the job you get into the routine. You look at the care plan for the patient that the Physical Therapist has written and while it does not describe the exact interventions you will do it gives the goals for the patient and from there you make it happen.

Worst things worst to use a quote from the Great Bill Cooney (I know you must have heard of him) "If money can fix your problems, you don't have problems." That means I can just sign up for a study seminar, for a nice fee of course, and bone up.

So this evening finds me mentally tired. Funny how all this brain work can make you so tired. I been getting off from my job each day, which is very busy, feeling very refreshed. I get a 30 minute lunch break and that's about it. Rest of the time I am running all over the hospital only to stop now and then to type a patient note. One of the PTAs that used to work with us once wore one of those walk meter things and logged 8 miles in a day I think it was. I pretty much have her beat now. But even with all that I get off and feel like fishing or TKD or anything except for ths old stinking under the arms brain tiredness I have now.

They gave me a note today that said several weeks to receive results in the mail. I might know pas/fail by Monday by checking the board web site.

Thanks so much to all the folks who called and encouraged, who said they would pray for me, you have touched my heart.

Got my temp license...

I checked the Texas Physical Therapy Board of Examiners web site yesterday afternoon and found myself to be temporarily licensed as a Physical Therapist Assistant until I am able to take the national exam. I have until Aug. 31st to take the test. I hope to take it much sooner, but that is how long the temporary license is good for.

My boss is checking with HR today, I would not mind getting a call to come on to work. I am scheduled as a tech this weekend, but my boss mentioned that he would let me work as a PTA instead if I had a license by then. I hope so, I am ready for this schooling to start paying off.

Maybe I will be able to schedule my exam later this morning. I'll update this post in that case.

UPDATE!
Report to work at 8am tomorow!

The Pinning Ceremony...

The Kilgore Class of 2007 PTA grads had their pinning last night. Very nice occasion. The sign out front said it all.

Here is the class picture, that's instructors Carla Gleaton and Dr. Bice flanking us and I think we had one classmate absent.

Here is the pin.

It has been a little over three years since I lost my job of 25 years and went back to school with this goal in mind. I can't believe those three years are over, but at the same time those 25 years seem as if they are some kind of pre history, an evolving, a crawling from the muck to live in a different place kind of experience.

I can't begin to thank all the folks that have helped me along the way. There have been so many, teachers at Kilgore and Angelina College, co workers that guided me and gave me a chance to learn new things, folks that I know prayed for me and most of all my wife, Cathy. She has put aside many things she wanted to do while I studied and drove these years. Looks like there will be some pay back involved, but the payments I must make are not going to be a strain on the account at all.

Durn, I am all sensitive this morning. I think I am turning emo, talking all about feelings and relationships and stuff like that. I still got to walk across the stage tonight. I'll be bawling like a baby by then.