Yesterday was a turning point day for my dad.  He finally had double knee replacement surgery.  He is 58 years old.  He has needed new knees for at least the last 5 years.  His knees have been bad for more like 20. 

Every doctor that my dad has seen about his knees told him that it was “just” arthritis and that they recommended waiting until a person is 60 before doing a knee replacement.  This recommendation is based on the length of time the artificial joints will generally last (10-15 years).  This recommendation, however, does not adequately account for the level of pain a person is in.

My dad has, for years, just about lived on OTC pain medications.  He limps around instead of walks.  He cannot walk up or down stairs without supporting nearly his full weight on the railings.  He finally had to buy a cane.  He did all the “necessary” prerequisite treatments that his orthopedic doctors required: cortisone shots in the knees, a gel made of rooster combs (I’m not kidding) shot into the knees, anti-inflammatory drugs.  And he just suffered through.

It was hard for us to watch, and it was hard not to be annoyed at all these doctors who didn’t seem to listen to my dad’s complaints with appropriate concern.  And, had I been at the hospital, I would have had to fight the “I-told-you-so” reaction when his doctor hinted to my mom after the surgery that the x-rays had not given an adequate indication of how bad his knees really were.   But now, finally, after all the time and pain and waiting, he has new knees.  And we are very glad.

We are glad that even though he’s got a long, painful recovery ahead of him, one day soon he’ll be able to walk the entire mall again.  He’ll be able to golf all he wants to without having to sit for the rest of the day because of the pain.  He’ll be able to get down on the floor to play with his grandkids.  He’ll be able to walk up and down stairs and pivot to open doors.  He’ll be able to sleep through the night without pain.  He’ll get to live like a 58 year old man, instead of an 85 year old one.

Yes, we are very, very glad

By this time, last month, my babies were 3 hours old.  It’s too bad I only vaguely remember most of the intervening days!  Oh well…that’s what pictures are for, right?

And speaking of pictures, here’s a pretty recent pic of the two little cuties that I get to snuggle with and feed and stay up with all night and be burped on by and generally love on. 

I was going to do Marla’s procrastination list, but it turns out I’ve led a very boring life.  I need to do more stuff.

We’ve had some rougher nights recently, but we’re hanging in there.  The Little Miss, it appears, is a night owl of sorts.  Crazy girl…  Also, the Little Man is almost sleeping through the night sometimes.  It weirds me out when he doesn’t wake up to eat when I guessed he would.  Gotta love those middle-of-the-night-new-mom panic attacks!

Okay, someone is starting to fuss…gotta run!

Happy Thursday!

Today was our first day without any help.  Just me and the twins.  Thankfully, they went pretty easy on me.  I won’t expect it to always be so good. 

And as I started to write this post about 8 hours ago, and I’m just now getting to finish it, I will be brief!

So, after one day, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Good nights make for good days.
• I shouldn’t expect to get much done other than what the twins require for a while.
• My to-do list for any given day should only have 1-2 things on it.  More than that, and I’ll just be setting myself up for feeling overwhelmed!
• Taking naps is much easier when there’s no one else here.  Both of our mothers kept saying I should nap, but I couldn’t seem to do it.  Today, I just laid down and slept, too, when it was nap time.  Lovely!
• Laundry is going to be my highest priority in household chores.  I washed half our sheet savers in yesterday’s load.  I washed every single sheet saver (again) today, along with other stuff.  Sheesh!

That’s the important stuff…hope you all have a marvelous week!