Thursday, September 22, 2011

Aerie Report, September 22, 2011

Terry drove me up to the Guthrie Medical Group in Corning to have my staples pulled out and the healing process examined.

BP 172/72 and pulse rate of 49. Not bad for an old fart.

The staples came out easily enough and the surgical wound didn't gape open and spout any blood or gore so that's good. Actually, the amount of healing that's taken place in a week is amazing. The Doc said I could start using my leg normally any time I desired. The only precaution she gave me was to not go swimming or laze around in the tub for a week or so until the wound is completely sealed up. Showers are okay but try to remember to pat the area dry and not rub down with a coarse towel. No problemo!

She told me that the object the surgeon took out of my thigh was disc shaped, about 5 cm (that's 2 inches in English) across and 1 to 1.5 cm thick in the middle. (Think of the shape of a flying saucer.) The THING was merely a calcified lump of stuff that was between my quad muscles. It was not a cyst or a tumor just a calcified BLOB. It should not return.

On the negative side, the Doc said that while the surgeon was poking around in my knee joint removing debris and whatnot, he noticed there was no cartilage in the rear portion of the joint and pretty little in the front. He scores joint arthritic conditions on a sliding scale from 1 to 4; with 1 being plenty of cartilage and no arthritis and 4 being bone-on-bone and knee replacement right around the corner. My right knee is a 3 in front and 4 in the back. Should I experience pain in a month or so (after full healing has taken place) then shots may be required. After that, should I not find relief from the shots, the surgeon recommends knee replacement. So it looks like titanium and plastic knees may be in my future. *sigh*

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After our visit to the Medical Group, Terry and I drove over to Horseheads and had lunch at Chili's. As part of their 2 for $20 promotion, we split a half order of Texas Cheese Fries as a appetizer before Terry had a Quesadilla Explosion Salad (half of which came home for her dinner) and I had the Margarita Grilled Chicken on beans and rice. Tall mugs of iced tea helped wash the food down.

Then it was off to Barnes and Noble to walk a little and browse the shelves. Terry picked out a romance novel. (I was surprised she could find one she hadn't read yet, but those things seem to propagate when they turn the store lights off.) I found a Jim Butcher Dresden Files book in paperback that I hadn't read yet (Changes), the newest Larry Correia (Monster Hunter Alpha) also in paperback and a Neil Gaimen I hadn't read (American Gods). Guess I'm set for a couple of weeks...well, maybe one week if I stop doing crosswords and surfing the net 8 hours a day.

Still, there's a new Terry Pratchett Disc World novel (Snuff) coming out soon (October 23rd?) so I better get reading.

On the way back to the Aerie, we stopped at Kuntry Kruller in Elmira. THis is the closest thing to a real bakery we have around here. It's not large but it's got some delectable goodies in the form of scones, fritters, danish, turnovers, real bagels and, yes, even "krullers"--but they only have those on Friday. We stocked up for the weekend anyway and headed on down the road. There we stopped at Bohlayer’s Orchards in Troy to purchase a half bushel of Cortland apples. Guess I'll be making some apple sauce over the weekend.

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Tonight I'll be kicking back in the recliner and watching some college football on ESPN. The Cincinnati Bearcats (2-1) got beat up by Tennessee (3-0) a couple of weeks ago by a score of 45-23. That loss was sandwiched between routs of Austin Peay 72-10 and a fairly decent Akron team 59-14. Tonight they host North Carolina State (2-1).

The Wolfpack have wins over Liberty (43-21) and South Alabama (35-13) and a loss to Wake Forest (27-34) on their record. This will be a good test of each teams ability and an indication of their prospects for the year.

As a little added incentive, Cincinnati is celebrating Homecoming this weekend and just saw the Big East get dissed by Pitt and Syracuse moving to the ACC. NC State is part of that ACC. Could be some harsh feelings here.

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