New Swing

When I lived in Iowa City on Court Street, I put up a single-rope swing with a round seat for the kids to play on. It hung from an American Chestnut tree in the back yard. I have old Super-8 home movies of Will, Rob, and Betsy swinging back and forth. They developed some daredevil methods involving jumping off the top of a picnic table and swinging far and high.

When we moved to the country, I brought that old swing with me, and it has been hanging in one of our Pin Oak trees for a long time. That round seat, made of pine or fir, lasted nearly 40 years. Recently, though, it finally cracked and broke. Also, the rope had gotten too tight on the limb of the tree and was constricting the bark, so I took it down.

Yesterday, I put up a new swing using two ropes this time and a traditional rectangular seat. The round-seat swing was always fun, but especially for the youngest grandkids, it was hard to keep from slipping off (it tilted), and the single rope wasn't as secure a handhold. For the new one, I used the thickest rope I could find at my local hardware store (3/4"), and I also put a nice round-over on every edge of the seat as well as thoroughly sanding the board. (Thanks to my friend David for the 2x6 scrap of wood. I didn't happen to have any of that available.)

Rob and his family came out last night to have dinner with us, to see how Kathie was coming along, and to look at some photos from our recent trip. I told Penny and Eleanor that there was something new in the back yard that I wanted them to test out for me to see if it worked properly. Eleanor ran out, came back, and excitedly said it was a new swing and that her Pop should get out there ASAP for a test drive. You will see the results below. Penny was first to try. I love the way her hair blew in the breeze. Pop always did go in for "the big swing." Eleanor liked this swing better than the old one. With a single rope, there was always a chance for swinging toward the tree trunk, and she had gotten a knee scrape one time when Pop attempted another "big swing." With two ropes, the swing tends to stay in a straight line. I expect the ropes will stretch a bit yet, and I may need to nudge the ropes a little closer to the trunk, as the branch tends to dip quite a lot when largish folks (i.e. Rob) try to use the swing. Overall, though, I think this was a success. Grandparents need lures for their grandkids.

Later, I fixed some nice steaks (and hot dogs!?), baked potatoes, broccoli, and cut-up fruit for dinner. You can't find evenings more enjoyable than ones like this! Sunshine, a swing, dinner, and the best kind of company.

Bilateral Patella Femoral Anthroplasty

Maybe you already know that Kathie had surgery on both knees on April 8th. The title of this post is the name of the surgery--bilateral (both knees), arthroplasty (procedure to restore the integrity and function of a joint), patella femoral (involving both the femur and the patella).

Since birth, Kathie has had unusual knee caps (patellae). They have never tracked properly, instead having a somewhat circular motion to the outside of each leg with each step she took. Over time, the patellae have ground down, especially on the outside edges, and were bone on bone with the femur. This led not so much to pain, although there was certainly some of that, but to weakness, as her muscles (especially thighs) tended to hold back.

Gory details: The surgery was done by Dr. Amendola in the UI Sports Medicine department. After the surgery was completed, he came to meet with me for an interesting, illustrated discussion of the actual procedure. He first emphasized that the regular joints between each femur and tibia were in excellent condition--great news. Expecting some arthritis where each femur had been rubbing its patella, he found none, though the patellae were quite worn away. Each knee cap was reshaped on its back side. Some kind of plastic piece was then glued to the back to bring the knee cap to its more usual 18mm thickness. Three small holes in the back of the patella were mated with three pegs in the plastic piece to anchor the component. Next, the front of the femur was shaped to accommodate a metal piece, which was also pegged and glued to the femur. Also, this was all done so that the outside edge of the femur would be slightly high to help keep the patella from pushing out. This means that Kathie should enjoy proper tracking of her patella in the future. Now, aren't you glad I shared all of this?

After the three hour surgery, she was wiped out, though before the night was through, she had a serious bout with pain. Fortunately, that has only occurred this one time. Since then, her pain has been managed quite well, although her at-home nurse (that would be yours truly) didn't do a proper job of keeping her knees elevated above her heart when she went to bed last night, and that resulted in some swelling and more pain than should have occurred. We got that under control after a phone call to a nurse and a doctor at the hospital.

She stayed two nights at UIHC, where the care was outstanding. I asked her to smile for me for this picture, but you can see she is maybe still not quite her usual cheery self. All in all, I think she has done an amazing job of preparing herself for this procedure and working through the process. I know she is looking forward to having much improved leg strength once the rehabilitation is behind us.

UIHC staff have been great throughout her surgery and stay. They are cheerful and encouraging. Her physical therapist really helped with an exercise regimen and had Kathie up and moving pretty quickly. I was amazed yesterday morning with how mobile she already was. She did a long walk in the hospital corridor.

We are home now (came home yesterday afternoon), and except for the one slip-up on my part last night with elevating the legs, things are going well. Her pain is under control, she is doing her exercises, and she is getting lots of naps. Tighe is very happy to have her home. Thanks to everyone for their expressions of sympathy and concern!

Spring Weekend

Jessica, Leo, and Maia came to visit us this past weekend. On Saturday, some egg coloring occurred. Leo was quite fascinated with the process. He may have colored his hands as well as the eggs.

Maia liked using all the accessories, such as writing her name on the eggs and using stickers. She was very proud of the fact that she knew how to color an egg with two different colors.

I spent quite a bit of good outdoor time working on our trees. I planted two new White Pines. One I planted a couple years ago was doing very well until the deer decided to eat it and to strip it to a spindly twig this past winter. So this time, I have enclosed the new ones inside fences. I also decided to go back and improve the fences on the row of Norway Spruce on our western lot line. Several of these three-year-old trees had grown to crowd their fences. So, I made the enclosures larger and left a space of about 8" below the fencing to ease the mowing and trimming around the trees. I also added mulch to help keep grass and weeds from competing with the trees.

The grandkids were quite fascinated with my tractor. There were several rides, and Maia liked steering around the back yard.

Nana did her best to control the direction of travel.