Just a short one for a start.
First, let me wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Second, I just want to thank you all for your prayers (felt them all btw - never believed you could, but I KNOW NOW that you can feel prayer), phone calls, get well cards and Christmas cards. They meant the world to me and I looked forward each day to mail call when Em came to visit.
Gord also kindly brought me copies of some of the posts which I truly appreciated.
Sorry I wasn't able to send out cards this year, but I promise - I will be around to send them next year
Thirdly, I want to thank you all for the most wonderful Christmas in many a year. I am not ashamed to say that it brought tears to my eyes as my daughters opened up that box from Arizona. Mike and to everyone on the board, thank you for your kindness and generosity. It truly was a surprise. The muffler will be put to good use, it will grace Ellie or Granny only at tractor shows and will never experience heat. The http://www.farmallcub.com decal on the stack will be there forever
Thank you all so much. I just cannot get over what this board is all about, and I know I never will be able to amply express what you all mean to me, except to proudly call you all FRIEND
Rick, the step has not come yet, but I expect is shortly. I will let you know as soon as it comes in the post. (Holiday delays I expect). Thank you so much as well, it was totally unexpected. You should have seen Gord's face when he told me - he was just beaming
A quick update:
I am finally on my last day of fluid restriction - 1500ml/cc or about 6-7 cups of fluid/24 for the first 2 weeks. My family doc upped me to 2000ml/cc's and I have consistently been under that for the last 2 weeks. It will be nice to be able to have a tall cool glass of water whenever I want instead of having to ration it.
Still can only do minor things. Cannot lift more than 5 lbs - which means I cannot open a door, a refrigerator door, a jug of milk -- the list goes on. Surprises one as to what you cannot do exactly after this type of surgery and takes a lot of concentration, as habits are hard to break. Em and the girls sure give me what for ifn I go to do stuff I shouldn't.
Stairs still are almost verbotten - Em is terrified that I will slip and fall which would break all the wires - that would mean probably 3-4 more months confined to hospital, so I limit the stair climbing. That is the primary reason I have not been on much earlier. Also, typing uses muscles in my chest that still need to heal and can be painful after an amazingly short time.
Jim happened to be online one afternoon when Em brought me down. Was coming to check in, but got pretty pooped after just a very short chat with him. Sorry for not checking in. Oh, Em's computer upstairs has a bad case of something - keeps freezing - not sure it if is the harddrive or the motherboard, eitherway I am looking at a few pesos to fix it. Then I can stay upstairs and use hers
Going to be at least another 6 to 8 weeks before I will be able to get some seat time, but if I am lucky maybe in 4 weeks I will be able to go to the shop and tinker some.
Looks like I have a lot of reading to do! Should keep me busy for quite a while.
Mike, I do hope you recover from you spill and resulting breakage.... ouch
However, just think, it will give you time to catch up on some important reading -- Red Power, Manuals, catalogs of stuff to get for your Cubs and that sort of thing...
Will check in as often as I can.
Again, thank you all from the bottom of my heart, and I know Em and the girls join me in saying that this board has the greatest people in the world as members. I am proud to be one of you!
Rudi
