Guess Who Has a "Man Bag"?

Yep, it is John, my old fashioned-straight laced fella. But he is also pragmatic. Walking the streets of Manhattan is so very different from jumping in a car and driving where you need to go. He was using a fanny pack and trying to use a scientific method of packing it with his current paperback novel, Ipod, emergency rain poncho, etc. So I suggested (frequently) a man bag for him. He has resisted for a number of months but we saw this one at a street fair yesterday and he relented. It is Army green - maybe that is what did the trick. I am certain that once we leave the Big Apple and move somewhere we need a car, the bag will have a new life in the back of a closet.

Presidential Politics

I try to keep this journal strictly as a vehicle for sharing our family activities. But . . . .

This morning we sat and watched a hero of mine General Colin Powell (USA ret.) on Meet The Press. We are a married couple of official senior citizen age as well as retired military. I have been a registered Republican for many years in the past. My hope has always been that the Republican party would have an umbrella under which people of many views could find hope for the future.

After much thought, exploration and now having our thoughts reaffirmed by General Powell we MUST support Sen. Barak Obama in his campaign for the presidency. I am of the age to remember life before Roe v Wade. I knew of classmates who went to back alley dirty motel rooms to have a pregnancy terminated. Some lived, some died, some became infected to the point that they could no longer have children. We did not have 12 and 14 year old children giving birth (or 15 year olds please note Ms. Palin). That was because they did not become pregnant in the massive numbers that we see now. With credit to a religious fundamentalist mindset we now see teenagers who consider having a baby as a status symbol. Adoption no longer seems a popular option.

Obama is not perfect. However, his campaign is not based on division. His base is the American people. Not a particular class, income, age, profession or faith, just people. I am proud to say that I am one of those small contributors to the Obama campaign. Hope is what we need for our future. Not more years of Bush programs, laws etc. that attempt to regulate our life style, medical decisions and beliefs.

Enough said.

Knee Surgery

Here is Dr. Ron Noy. Six days ago he performed surgery on my left knee. We saw him this morning for a follow up visit. He held still long enough for me to snap this picture. Dr. Noy is an orthopaedist. He is a very unusual orthopaedist. You wonder "Why?" That is because when you have an appointment with him he doesn't take a look and then say "surgery". Yes, he is indeed a surgeon and a very good one at that (in my opinion). That pesky knee was worked with in physical therapy for 10 weeks before we talked surgery. John and I would walk in this wonderful city and at the end of the day my left knee looked like a cantaloupe.

Back at work but at least holding still long enough for this snapshot. Ever met a physician, a board certified specialist, who gives his patients his cell phone number? Well here he is.

This sweet lady works with Dr. Noy. She greets, makes appointments and adds a smile to the office.

Here is the patient 24 hours after surgery. Dr. Noy said I would be using something called a cold machine. Never heard of one of those before. It is actually a replacement for the traditional ice bag. It consists of a motorized box (it is gray and sitting on a table next to the bed) with an insulated set of tubing that leads to a sealed pad. The pad is placed on the surgical site - in this case my knee. When operating, a stream of water chilled by the motor to 38 degrees F, is delivered to the pad and then circulated back to the motor unit. The temperature is selected with a sliding button. You keep the cold on the site 24/7 for the first week. Luckily my laptop is handy and I can keep up with some special friends in Thailand.
Tomorrow the physical therapy starts, again.

Iron "Man" ? Nope. Woman of steel!

Here is Marisa. We met when she became my physical therapist. Is she good? Wow, yes. As you can probably tell . . . she is one fit lady. These photos are from last Sunday. One of Marisa's patients talked her into participating in her very first half-Iron man competition.

I asked - What exactly does this entail? It seems as though there is swimming, biking and running. And on Sunday it poured down buckets of rain. The swim was in a reservoir somewhere in the hinterlands of New Jersey. YUK! Marisa's goal was just to finish all three legs of the competition. And she did! Although she thinks she was the slowest -- 20 competitors dropped out and did not complete the challenge. So Marisa not only made her goal, she beat 20 other people (probably men).
CONGRATULATIONS MARISA!