Lingering Leg Pains

On a 1 to 10 scale for pain, Karen's pain remains at an "8". It's really tough for her to do anything requiring leg dexterity. I'm giving her dilaudid as needed, and tylenol between her dilaudid pain pills. It's not what we like, but keeping her out of pain is a priority. Both of her doctors stated as pain-free as possible should be our direction.

The leg pains inhibit her physical therapy, not occupational therapy. Although the PT therapists understand the nature and severity of her pain, they continue to press her to do as much as possible. We both wish she could do more, but it's next to impossible given her pain level. Again, it will take a total of 6-9 months to fully rid her legs of the clots. The coumadin, along with PT and time, are the only means we have to reduce the blood clots as far as we know.

Tomorrow, we make our final visit to Karen's opthamologist in follow-up to her earlier cataract removal surgery on both eyes. Unfortunately, we never did get to make the final follow-up visit as her seven week hospital stay occurred before we could see that doctor. The surgery seems to have worked, except for her continued difficulty reading or anything in print. She will see her her internist on Wednesday, and we'll try to find out if anything additional can be done to combat her severe leg pains.

Megan is with us just about every day since her return from her two week stay with Kevin, Karrie, and the kids. She had a wonderful time and is now looking forward to her trip to Seattle to be with Pat and Mike and their families. Megan has a hard time understanding what is going on with Karen, but I've now got her at the point now where she no longer breaks down when with Karen.

We're still planning our late September/early October time in Aruba. After spending these two weeks in Aruba, we'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary here in Sun City Grand. Again, we're hoping and praying that Karen is OK for these two very special times in our lives together. Please join us in praying that she is capable of enjoying both events.

Love, Bill