Update on my arm

It’s been seven weeks since the first surgery on my left arm.Here's a photo of what it looks like now. notice how swollen my arm is. (i assure you, that's not muscle ;-))
I guess that I didn’t fully appreciate the severity of my injury as I thought that by now I would be much further along in my recovery.
The mobility in my elbow is very limited. I can only move the joint a few degrees between about 65 to 90 degrees which is not enough to even reach my face. To complicate things further the tendons in my hand are screwed up to the extent that I cannot close my hand and movement in my shoulder is extremely painful. My arm and hand are still quite swollen and my therapist thinks that when we get the swelling down my hand mobility will improve. The therapist started this week and is coming to the trailer three times a week. For now he is leaving the elbow joint alone and is concentrating on the hand and shoulder. To tell the truth, it is beginning to wear on me and I have to fight mentally to keep from going into depression. Sleeping at night is especially hard. I don’t know what I would have done without Teddy. She has been my rock through all this but I can tell that it is hard on her too.
We both look forward to returning to Havasu this fall and will be there come hell or high water no matter what the cost of diesel is. Our arrival reservation at Havasu Falls is for Oct.14 and we also have a one month reservation at Terribles Lakeside in Pahrump prior to that from Sept. 13 to Oct. 13. and are looking forward to that as well. Hopefully I’ll be much improved by then.
I apologize for the negative feeling that this blog conveys but am trying to tell it as it is. I also know that there are many people much worse off than me and am thankful that my injuries were not more severe than they are.
Thanks to all of you for the cards, letters and phone calls. Encouragement from friends goes a long way in my mental well being and helps tremendously in the healing process.
Larry
920-716-7246
Summer address: 3842 Townline Road, Cedar, MI 49621

Annual Morel Hunt

Teddy went Morel hunting yesterday and found a couple of dozen and then our nephew, Freddy Lawrence and his collage chum, Jimmy went out and found another nice batch this afternoon. Teddy will cook them up tomorrow evening and the four of us will enjoy a gourmet dinner. Freddy & Jimmy are Junior college students, home for the summer and are living in the cottage while they work as wait staff in a Leland restaurant. They will also be working for Teddy's brother, John in the cherry harvest in July & August.

3rd Year Fulltiming Anniversary

As of May 1 we have now completed our third year of RV Fulltiming.Here is a map of our travels since May 1, 2005 with year one outlined in blue, year two in green and year three in red.
We again spent the winter at "The Havasu Falls RV Resort" in Lake Havasu City, AZ. We still love our semi-nomadic lifestyle and are amazed at the things that we have seen and done over the past three years.
Highlights of the year have to include my total knee replacement surgery last June, Gall bladder surgery in January and my recent broken arm in April. Thankfully none of these should be permanent issues and we are determined to put them behind us. Teddy remains in good health and walks from three to five mikes daily. On the bright side of the coin, my knee surgery was a wake-up signal to me and through a self imposed diet I have lost over 80 lbs. in the past eleven months. HURRAH FOR ME!
in February we spent a glorious week in Puerto Penasco, Mexico with friends from Havasu Falls and we intend to repeat next winter possibly for a longer stay.
We are eagerly looking forward to our fourth year of fulltiming to see what new adventures await us.

In the words of Charlie Brown, "AARRRGGGG!"

Well…it turned out that my optimism on the speed of my recovery was unfounded. I thought that I was progressing nicely, my pain level had leveled off to a tolerable level and I was looking forward to my appointment with my Ortho Doc in TC on May 8. But unbeknownst to me things weren’t going so good inside my arm. It had continued to bleed out internally and again formed a large hematoma inside the wound resulting with me suddenly waking with excruciating pain on Monday morning May 5th and a 4am trip to Munson emergency in Traverse City. It held till we arrived but while sitting in an examining room it suddenly started spewing blood. They stemmed the blood flow w/a tourniquet, hopped me up on silly drugs and called in an Ortho Doc. So on Tuesday, May 6th, I went under the knife for the third time in less than a month.
In evaluating my condition the doctors now agreed that the culprit was the Coumadin that I take for my a-fib. So with me agreeing to accept the slightly higher risk of stroke I was taken off the Coumadin for a while. I was discharged from the hospital on Friday the 9th. Today is Tuesday and I feel pretty good so far. I saw yet another doctor yesterday in order to establish a local family physician and she wants me to go back on the Coumadin which we refused. I think that it is just a CYA move on her part in case I should have a stroke. So now they have set me up with an appointment with a cardiologist for tomorrow. And I have an appointment on May 19 with the orthopedic doctor that did my third arm surgery.
It appears that I am single handedly supporting half the medical community from here to Utah.
I am, however assured that my bones are knitting, it’s just the flesh that doesn’t want to heal. In other words, "The flesh is weak but the bones are strong."

Annual Snowbird Migration (part three)

Well...things didn't get all that better. Sunday morning at about 1 am I woke with my bandages wet with blood and excruciating pain in my arm. Teddy changed the dressing and rewrapped the arm. I tried to stick it out but it soon became apparent that we were going to have to go in to emergency at Theda Care's Appleton Medical Center. The emergency physician immediately called in an Ortho Doc. and in no time I was again in surgery. They found that the wound had hemorrhaged internally and I had lost a considerable amount of blood. So they stopped up the bleeding, put a drain tube in and sewed me back up again. Then after spending two more days in the hospital getting blood transfusions etc., I got discharged on Tuesday, April 29th and we finished the last leg of our trip on Wednesday traveling from Appleton to Traverse City.
We are again parked behind Teddy's sister & brother-in-law's cottage here in Leelanau County, Michigan, about 15 miles NW of Traverse City. We got settled in today, Thursday, May 1 and drove to Traverse to our Traverse City Doctor for a blood draw to check my Cumiden level and blood count and also visited My brother Lyle and his wife Kathy.
I have an appointment with Doctor Peters, my Orthopedic Doctor, on Wednesday, May 8th. and we'll see what happens then.
It's been a rough month for Larry but I hope to be all mended soon.