Physical Therapy

I mentioned before that I was going to try a new physical therapist. I met with Conforti today and I have nothing but good to say so far. He has his PhD. and what a different appointment this was. This wasn't like my other PT sessions where I wamred it all up and the therapist bent the hell out of me. He spent a lot of time checking out the biomechanics of my legs and explaining how things work. I've known for a long time that my legs are funky and that things don't necessarily work the way they should. He just confirmed it and while technically the new knee and all the muscles and everyhing line up, the way they really work doesn't. When he twisted my thigh out and my calf in, amazingly everything bent without pain. I don't completely extend my left leg when I walk. Undoing 56 years of walking a certain way is going to take a lot of concentration.

We talked about how I walk and how I sit and I will be trying to make adjustments. I don't know what kind of bike he had me on today. It wasn't a spin bike and it wasn't a recumbent. Regardless, we worked on form and making my hamstrings stronger. I know that when I'm on the bike my right leg does the work and I compensate on the left because it doesn't want to bend correctly.

I had first appointment on Tuesday, October 12 and will go every day this week and Monday and Tuesday next week. We'll see how I'm doing and more importantly what insurance will pay for. Crazy world where the right thing is determined by an insurance company and not the condition of the patient or the recommendations of the professionals. This will only get worse under Obamacare and was one good reason for doing this now.

Manipulation Under Anesthesia

I was scheduled for this procedure at the Surgical Center in Allentown at 6:15 AM on Monday, October 11. I love it when holdiays like Columbus day come at such a convenient time. We arrived home from Disney, went to GAWT in the Finger Lakes, then home again home just in time for this procedure. The surgeon assures me that this will break down the adhesions (scar tissue) and will give me 120 degrees flexion. I hope he's right.

I think the procedure itself took less than 5 minutes to perform. It took longer to do the IV and knock me out! I do know that he shot the anesthesia stuff into the IV, I kissed Brent good bye, and I don't remember going out the doors from the holding area. That's some powerful shit!

It was a long trip home. I had the ice bags from the surgical center, and Brent brought others so we switched them out on the way home. All day it was 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. I know I cried for about 2 hours straight because my right leg hurt from the ankle to my hip. About an hour into it I took 2 darvocet which knocked me out and took care of the pain. I wasn't in any pain really for the rest of the night. I took one pill before bed just to insure a good night and really, I had the best night's sleep in a week.

All I can say is that I really hope this does the trick.

GAWT VIII

There is just nothing to a year, and with the Lost Summer, it seems like time is rolling along very quickly. It's gonna be Christmas before I blink. 2010 marks the eighth year for our family's Great American Wine Tour (GAWT). It is the best time to touch base with my cousins and keep those connections alive. This year we're doing Cayuga lake...you know...the one made famous in Cornell's song.

Here Bent, Rick, Dad and Mom contemplate their selections.
Memory and Marta were talking and comparing wines until I went to snap a pic and then I couldn't get them to face forward. Grrrr.
The guy doing the pouring was kind of funny until he slopped the wine all over my hand. Maureen, Paul, and Memory were intent on their next selection.

Only mine brither remembered to wear his GAWT shirt. Two years ago we had them made for everyone at Daily Screen Printing (a little plug).

We all gathered at the Cobblestone in Geneva for dinner. My cousins Jaqui, Paula and her husband Bill, and my Aunt Carolyn were unable to join us on the tour this year, but they did come for dinner.

Jaqui, or should I address her now as Dr. Brooks?, just finished her PhD. in physical therapy. Was this good timing or what? She made me feel much better about the upcoming manipulation procedure. She assured me that this was not the result of anything I did or did not do. She finds that the adhesions occur more with young patients who don't get the flexion due to scarring but regain their strength quickly. Unlike older people who regain flexion but take much longer to regain strength. She made me feel better about what was to come, telling me I would be very sore, but nothing like coming out of the surgery with the knee replacements. I pray she's right.

Disney's Wine and Food Festival

I attended this several years ago with Renee when we went to do the Everest Challenge. We had a total blast. We started on the Mexico side of the World Showcase and ate/drank our way to the American Pavillion. Thank goodness we wanted to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy play because we were definitely feeling the effects of drinking our way 'round the world.

Brent and I began out day attending one of the Lafitte tastings. It was very interesting...and the price was right! Most of the wine/food pairing meals were out of our price range but we thoroughly enjoyed this lecture/tasting.

We began with beer. Strange, I know. 15 Beers 15 Years had samplers of 3 beers, so we were able to try 6 different ones. I'm not much of a beer drinker and honestly, I only liked one of them. Which meant Brent, my poor beleaguered husband, had to drink the other 5. Poor guy.

This year they have passports which include all the different kiosks and their offerings. You can then get your passport stamped at each stop. Disney makes it very easy for you to spend vast quantities of money without really realizing it with their gift card deal. Just load the card up with $$ charged to your credit card then you can swipe their handy-dandy gift card through the reader making your food/wine transactions much quicker. Add that to the allure of having each kiosk stamp your passport with their unique stamp, and it's the recipe for a very expensive afternoon.

Everyone is so very happy to serve you the food and beverages of their country.

I had no idea that there was a drawbridge and that they brought the Illuminations globe out into the lagoon early in the afternoon.

Hey, ya gotta take a little break from the food and wine or you'll never get around the world!

Wednesday in the Magic Kingdom

Brent and Loren went to the Space Center giving Deb and I a free day to indulge ourselves in the Magic Kingdom. Deb is a huge Tigger fan so she was quite thrilled to find Tigger and Pooh hanging out. And that Tigger was in quite a playful mood. He took Deb's ears and put them on Pooh's nose! Silly tiger.

We couldn't pass over a little shoot 'em up at Buzz Lightyear.

We had dinner at the Wave and out plan was to go back to the Magic Kingdom for the electric parade and Wishes. But honestly, we were just too tired so we opted to head back to our hotel for some champagne and a little hot tub time instead. Yup. Disney has something for eveyone!

I'm Sorry Mickey!

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a Walt Disney World junkie. I love it there. There is just so much to experience for everyone at any age. I like the different parks, the attractions, the hotels, pools, and great restaurants. This one time, I allowed myself to be seduced into going to Universal with the promise of the Harry Potter attractions. I'm sorry Mickey. I tried not to spend much (although the $121/per person fee for both sides of Universal and Islands of Adventure for one day was gasp-worthy), I tried not to enjoy it. Really. I. Did. But, Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey is just the most incredible ride I have ever been on. Ever. I'm sorry Mickey, really I am!

We arrived bright and early and Matt graciously sprang for the valet parking. Hey anything that helped save my knees even a little was most welcome. We started on the Universal side with a few pictures with some characters.

Although I'm not much of a Simpsons fan, this ride was very cool and definitely began the technology that would be used in the Forbidden Journey. Definitely worth doing this one.

ET wasn't open yet when we started, so we did Jaws and Twister. They're okay, a little dated perhaps, but hey, we walked onto every ride in these parks except for the Forbidden Journey. That definitely works for me. Since Jaws is one of Brent's favorite movies we couldn't resist this pic.

Over in Islands of Adventure you find the water rides, the roller coasters (okay, the Hulk was really a great coaster), and the kiddie stuff.

At Matt's suggestion, we had a wonderful lunch at Mithros. It was like eating in a cave. Very cool! Then it was on to Harry Potter. While I absolutely loved the Forbidden Journey, it seems to me that this area wasn't thought out very well. Although I loved Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms, they didn't take into account the high powered hand dryers that would drown out everything in that cavernous echo chamber and poor Myrtle's moaning sounded like just another kid screeching. Many of the "shops" are just store fronts, not real shops and the real shops are waaaay waaaaay too small for the crowd. Olivanders had a huge line and even the main gift shop was tiny. What were they thinking? You can see from one of the pics below that this area was quite crowded.

We couldn't resist a butter beer even though it wasn't really beer. It had a head, and it tasted like a butterscotchy birch beer. Very sweet.

Regardless, when Kera asked what was the one highlight of our trip, I would have to say it was most definitely Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey. I'm soooo sorry Mickey!

Keys to the Kingdom

I have no pictures from this tour as much of it was behind the scenes where photography is a no-n0. This 5-hour tour was really interesting and included headsets that enabled us to hear our tour guide at all times, two rides, lunch, and tours of behind the scenes stuff.

Disney just pays so much attention to detail, and sometimes they are small things that you might not notice without someone pointing it out to you. Just walking down Main Street puts you on sensory overload so you really do miss many of the finer details such as the names of people and businesses written in the upper story windows. For example when the decision was made to build the theme park in Orlando, many dummy corporations were formed to purchase the swampland properties. Obviously Disney wanted to purchase the land as cheaply as possible and for most of it they were able to purchase the land under $80 an acre. When the word leaked out however, prices skyrocketed to $85,000/acre. Those dummy corp names are written in one of the windows.

There was a lot of talk about everything at Disney just being larger than life. In order to create that illusion, they used forced perspective in the architecture. For example, the spires on the castle are smaller than they really would be to create the illusion of the castle itself being much larger than it really is. They use different architecture and differnt colored pavement to delineate the different "lands" as you go through the park. When there are maintenance buildings behind the storefronts and attractions, they are painted "go away green" and "bye bye blue" so that they disappear into the landscape and sky and you really never notice that they are there. Disney wants you to be totally immersed in the fantasy.

This was a great tour if you have been to Disney before. Using your Disney visa gets you a 20% discount too!