This is Dave in rehab....for his knee...

Hi all, Survived the "big" surgery, which turned out not to be so bad after all. I never got sick, only a bit nauseated and worn out. The worst part about yesterday was the pain and then the fact that I couldn't sleep last night. I did discover a TV show called "The Jury," where they have pseudo (quasi?) Celebrities deciding the fate of the people in the courtroom. So it's like Wapner with Paula Poundstone guest starring.
I also got to watch an old episode of "Mad About You," which is still cute, charming and funny, although some of the "POP CULTURE" references were just a tad dated.

So today, the worst part of the after surgery was getting the drain pulled from my knee. While it wasn't exactly painful, it was a bit uncomfortable having them pull 6 inches of straw-like tubing out from under your kneecap. But hey, no swelling because of that. It's just nasty walking around with a bloody fluid bag attached to your clothes. Today when they removed it, it popped open and shot some blood up into my shorts I didn't dream they had all of that tubing shoved up in there...it was weird.

The diagnosis after surgery was that I didn't have any tears in the cartilage, but I did have a lot of floating debris and some rough, jagged looking parts that they had to smooth down so that the leg will now move better and not catch so much...(Thank goodness!)

So, I'm including some pictures to show you all some of the good stuff without grossing you out. The inside shots of my knee look like underwater or outer space pictures...so don't be grossed out, because if you didn't know what you were looking at, it probably wouldn't bother you at all...

Here goes,

Dave

And so it goes

And so I missed my High School Reunion this weekend... We were kind of busy here on the home front... Kid's activities, Church, getting ready for my surgery... life... you know the drill... But still, I wanted to go.

I helped out with some of the planning and stuff, like I always do, and had hoped that we'd be able to get out of some of our prior commitments and go, but alas...it was not to be.

I have so much here to do before my surgery this week and I'm in the middle of a bunch of landscaping, so that was one of my big priorities this weekend. I finished the rock gardens and then the boys and I worked on rearranging a rock pathway in Jared's garden in back of the house and put down some fresh mulch. (which looks really nice, by the way). We've kind of let Jared's garden go this year, so it was nice to have it looking a bit spruced up.

It was hot here this week! 90's all the way, and we had some pretty good storms again, but amazingly enough NO LIMBS CAME CRASHING DOWN!!!
We're supposed to get more storms tonight, but at least we finally got some rain. The weird storm this past week was on Tuesday while we were at the ROYALS baseball game. It poured about an inch of rain in just about a half hour and was flooding out the parking lots and stadium, but by the time we drove the 10 mins home, it had stopped and the streets around our neighborhood were dry! We were soaked, but not our yard!

So, that was my week with achy knees and all. The kids went to Omaha with Sherry and her folks for a couple of days and went to the zoo. We've always loved the zoo there, but Sherry said that this time it was looking a bit run-down. Disappointing to hear since I've always thought it was the best zoo I've been to around these parts.

It was quiet around here for a bit without the boys running around.

Jared is pitching now for the Bulldogs, so this will be interesting to watch...
I'm hoping for the best, cause as you know (since I've said it a million times) he's pretty good! Keep your fingers crossed for lots of strikeouts and no hit batters!

Have a good week and I'll try to blog again soon!

Dave

Restaurant Review etc.

So,

Last night was our anniversary. We decided to do something we RARELY ever do...try out a new restaurant! I asked Sherry where she wanted to go and she said she didn't care, so I thought since it was a special occasion we would try out the World Famous Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant in the Bass Pro Store in Independence, MO.

I had the fish and chips, and at first glance I thought that they had shorted me on fish, fries and cole slaw. It didn't seem like that much food for the price I was paying. Sherry's Cheeseburger, on the other hand, was ENORMOUS and barely fit on her plate.

The fish was very good and I thought the fries weren't bad. The cole slaw, however, could not have had less flavor. The dressing to the cole slaw had the taste and consistency of milk, while the cabbage and carrots were of good size and flavor.

I tasted some of Sherry's burger and thought it was very tasty, however, do to the size and lack of seasoning, Sherry quickly grew bored with her food. If she had been a bit more adventurous, I would have ordered the buffalo or the alligator for her to try instead.

We skipped dessert and instead went shopping in the store and then continued on to other stores nearby. We ended the evening by watching the final 8 innings (out of 15.5) of the All Star Game, which the American League once again won!

Not a bad night really....

David

Stuff, stuff and more stuff

Creative title, huh? I never know what to title these things... maybe next time I'll call it "Untitled" out of frustration or just to add a dash of mediocrity. So, I've been worried about my upcoming surgery a bit...have you?

Not so much the surgery or recovery part of it, which is what I should really be worried about, but mostly because of the anesthesia...

What? You ask... why are you worried about that? Well, given the fact that during and/or after my four previous surgeries, I have had, shall we say "adverse" reactions to the meds I've been given.

Adverse??? You ask. Why, yes...adverse! As in, barfing non-stop...shaking...numbness...fever...barfing non-stop. (I mention this twice to get across the point that it really was NON-STOP!!!) In fact, after my first shoulder surgery, I was kept under observation for several hours because they could not find a reason for or a cure for my NON-STOP BARFING!!!

Enough of that...that is my only worry other than the price of gas, which passed $4.00 today here in Kansas City. My Reaction? YIKES!

On the good news front, I got to go to yet another Royals game this past weekend, and although they played pretty well for the most part, they lost. It was still a fun day. I went with my baseball-lovin' Son, Jared and my In-Laws. We had GREAT seats and I still had a bunch of free food coupons and souvenir coupons, so we snacked a bit and Jared got an Alex Gordon Penant to go in his room.

On the other good news front... Sherry and I have now been married for 19 years as of today! Whooo Hooo! And a pretty good nineteen years it has been! I still love her madly and think she's the most stunning creature on this planet. Why does she still love me? You ask??? She has a thing for chubby bald guys who have a strange sense of humor, a deep love of God and family and really bad knees. THAT'S WHY!

So, have yourself a nice little evening. I'm taking my Wife out to dinner!

-Dave

I'm not getting older...I'm getting...... shoot! I am getting older!

So yesterday was fun... Spent half the day cleaning up from the big storm. (It was only two months ago to the day that we got hit before!!!) So now we have one big tree that really isn't much of a tree anymore. (Cause without a top, it's just a big stump with twigs and bare branches on it!!!) And we have another tree that if it wasn't for the power lines holding it up, it would be embedded in my deck!

Spending half my day cleaning that up with help from Sherry's Dad and our Neighbor, really wore me out. So then, to add to the fun, I went to the orthopedic surgeon and he gave me the wonderful news that I need surgery on my right knee. (I knew that's what he was going to say, but until he said it, it wasn't "real.")

Today I called a couple of friends that I went to high school with to follow up with them on the reunion...since it's a holiday no one is home I got to do the leave a message thing. Of course, in Klauspeter's case...it isn't a holiday since he lives in Oldenburg, Germany. (there's my plug for Oldenburg in case someone googles it)

Oldenburg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oldenburg (Low German: Ollnborg) is an Independent City in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldenburg

And the above is the entry for it on Wikipedia. (I'm really on the ball about this stuff, aren't I?)

I've been to all of our previous reunions, but have to miss this one due to prior plans...(BASEBALL), but would really like to go. I think Debbie will give me grief over missing. For some reason, the two of us always end up working on this stuff, even though I don't do near as much, being the only one on the committee who lives "out of town."

Just for fun...here are some storm pics that make me ill for some reason...

Have a Happy 4th of July! Okay?

David