Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Bad Knees & Diabetes


My Mom and the girls
(it's almost impossible to find a good picture of my mom- don't know why... She just always looks like she's been caught, even if she's smiling. oh, well.)
My mom had a total knee replacement surgery today. I just heard from the doctor that it went very well. YAY! Thank you, God!

We've all been very nervous about the whole thing, as you can imagine. So many complications for her- diabetes, pacemaker, nerve damage from her diabetes, arthritis... We're all hoping that at least some of her problems will be minimized with this surgery- She'll be walking along or standing in the line at the grocery store and her legs just go totally numb. Then she can barely just get somewhere to sit down without falling. So far, she hasn't fallen anywhere outside, but she has fallen at home. She avoids going anywhere in the winter 'cuz the ground gets so slippery here and we're all worried about her having a really bad fall on the ice... Scarey.

We couldn't figure out what on earth was going on at first. I was absolutely convinced something was pushing on her spinal cord, and they couldn't do an MRI 'cuz of her pacemaker. Anyway, I've had it repeatedly confirmed that yes, that kind of numbness and weird nerve pain can be caused by diabetes. So, if you've got diabetes, keep it under control! If you let it get out of control it can get BAD. You might die, yes, but sometimes the ramifications of living with diabetes damage are almost worse than dying...

Anyway, almost all of Mom's pain is related to her bad knees, so this surgery should help with most of her pain. At least, that's the hope... We'll see. The recovery time for this kind of surgery is crazy... A LONG time... You have to completely learn how to walk again.

I am reminded that it's been a little more than a year since my mom had her stroke, which is amazing to me... Her recovery has been shockingly good. The only long term effects she's had to deal with are a loss of strength in her arms & some difficulty in reaching the very top shelves in the kitchen. Amazing. It could have been much worse. Thank you, God, for a mild stroke!

God, thank you for my mom. She is my friend and a good mom, and a wonderful grammy. God, please let the recovery process be smooth. Please help her with the pain. She's been in so much pain, and has had a lot of difficulty getting around. Please let this make her life easier and less complicated. Please let this give her more freedom. Bless her, God. She has been such an amazing gift from you. Thank you that the surgery part is over!

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