Spring Break for Mahoneys (2009)

Can’t tell you how badly we needed a break and God was so good to supply through some wonderful friends of ours this get away to Crested Butte, Colorado. So here are some pictures for you. Wanted you to see what we are being amazed by everyday and to catch up with what we are doing between naps up here. Crested Butte’s weather is like late spring, beautiful blue skies, still air, and glistening white snow everywhere, piled 2-6 feet deep looking like the rich icing lavishly slathered on the roofs, sliding off the edges and piled roof high between buildings. What a contrast to Denver?

 

Knee Surgery Recovery Wrap Up

This journey started last summer at the end of June (2008) when my husband and I went hiking at Crested Butte Ski area (above). Like a few other times of straining an elbow or back muscles, I thought it would pass after a few days of rest, though it definitely was more painful and visibly swollen more than anything I had experienced before. So it was a couple weeks of nursing it and not getting any results that finally made me go to the ER on the weekend. What a mistake. They were useless and it was foolish of me to go there. They told me to go to my regular doctor and charged me hundreds of dollars for a tylenol prescription.

The next week I got into my doctor which by then was mid July. She sent me for a x-ray which told her I needed to go in for a MRI.  Another week and half later I had an MRI, a very expensive diagnostic. Just glad we have good insurance. From the results of the MRI, my doctor referred me to a orthopedic surgeon. She also referred me to a physical therapist which, next to the actual surgery, was the most important ingredient to my recovery. His manipulation of the knee immediately helped relieve some of the pain and the stretches and exercises he had me do started getting me ready for surgery. I learned the muscles that connect in the knee have to be strengthened before and after surgery to recover well. The PT started me on daily stretches and exercises for this.

Once in the surgeon hands, things clarified. From the MRI, he showed me  that I had several things going on in my knee (meniscus tears and cartilage injury)  that would need arthroscopic surgery to clean up. August was spent preparing for the surgery which was scheduled for the first of September.  As you can read on my other posts, the surgery went perfectly. I elected to stay awake during it which was great. I didn’t have the possible after effects of going under full anethesia but had a longer wait in post op, about 3 hours for the feeling to come back into my legs, which was absolutely worth it. And I got to observe what the surgeon did in my knee on a monitor over my head. It was a little strange because the spinal block disconnected me from any feeling in my legs so it was more like watching TV and seeing him work on someone else’s knee. After surgery, I spent the afternoon in the recovery area and was released around 4pm to go home. The worst pain of the whole ordeal was later that night which was to be expected. I took the prescription pain killers that night but am glad to say I didn’t have to take anymore of those after that one night. I did have to keep taking tylenol or motrin for sometime for some pain and to help reduce the swelling.

The surgeon told me the following for a recovery timeline:  a few days to a week back walking on my own; 3 months well into recovery; 6 months back to normal with full motion, no pain, as good as new.  I’ve covered the importance of physical therapy for recovery as essential in my other posts on this topic, so I’ll finish up here with the following. It’s been over six months now since the surgery. About a month ago, I started going to the Rec Center to start getting some aerobic exercise, stationary upright bike and a little time on an eliptical trainer and doing circuit weight training.  After a few weeks, the only tightness and pain in the knee which I felt when walking down stair steps stopped. It was like everything finally got back into place and all pain and other affects vanished just as the surgeon’s time table predicted. The knee is as good as new.

So we’re back here at Crested Butte for an early spring vacation in Colorado’s beautiful high country and I thought a perfect time to wrap up of the knee ordeal. Hope it helps others facing this experience. There’s just one more thing.

Pray. 

This healing appears to have come through surgery and  physical therapy, but I know  that the final outcome would not have been possible without healing prayer. After all, “He bore away all my infirmities and carried away all my diseases and by His stripes I was healed.” 

Jesus is the real Healer and I thank Him for mine!

Foreclosure Results in Colorado: Licensing of Mortgage Brokers

I’ve finally returned to the work force!  The first panic “stimulus” package seems to be finally having an affect on the lending industry, (or it’s what would have happened without the panic) so that mortgage brokers like me are getting back to work, that is if they are licensed. You see, for Colorado, the housing and mortgage business began to go in the drink a few years ago and one big reason was the lack of regulation of the lending industry. Fraud contributed to a great many of the foreclosures and preditory lending to the majority of the rest. So two years ago, under a new director, the Colorado legislature and the Colorado Real Estate Commission began passing new laws and regulations for our industry for mortgage brokers. CREC defines a mortgage broker as an individual who negotiates, originates, or offers or attempts to negotiate or originate for a borrower, and for a commission or other thing of value, a residential mortgage loan to be consummated and funded by a mortgage lender…directly or indirectly acting as a mortgage broker.  At present you must submit your fingerprints to the CBI, not have any convictions of fraud or dishonest dealing in your history, not have had a license revoked in another state, take 40 hours of approved education and pass an extensive 4 hr exam to be licensed. And of course there are the licensing fees, a bond and E&O insurance required.  Anyone not licensed found offering, originating, negotiating loans with lenders for a borrower can face some really steep fines and penalties.  (http://www.dora.state.co.us/real-estate/index.htm) and the director is on the hunt for those not in compliance. 

How much has this affected our industry? 2 years ago there were over 10,000 persons originating loans in Colorado. Today there are only 1500 licensed mortgage brokers. That is serious cleanup. I, for one, am glad for it. I have often spoken to people, obvious victims of preditory lending, who are faced with ridiculously high house payments and have had the equity in their house eaten up with outrageously expensive loan costs. So often I’ve wished I could have given them some insight before they signed those mortgage papers. When I’ve asked how they got into these situations, they often tell me how the loan originator was recommended by their trusted real estate agent, or was a friend or even a cousin. Little did they know these people did not have their best interest at heart. Many did not know how to compare one loan package with another. 

Do you know how?  I’ll get into the details later here so you’ll have to check back later, but the easiest way is to know what the APR is on the loan being offered. What is an APR? That’s the best question you can ask and the most important information you can know about your loan.

Let’s look at an example:

One broker offers a  $100,000  30 year fixed loan at 6% interest rate. The payment with taxes and insurance is $728. When you ask what the APR (annual precentage rate) is, the answer is 6.165%.

A second broker offers a $100,000 30 year fixed loan at 5.875% interest rate. The payment is $720. When you ask what the APR is, the broker must disclose it at the quote, it is 6.331%.

So surely the second loan is the better loan, you say, with its lower interest rate and lower payment.  BUZZZZZ wrong.

The first loan would cost you $4500 in addition to the monthly interest charge.  (.00165 x $100000 x 30 years) while the second loan costs $9930 (.00331 x $100000 x 30 years). Twice as much of your equity eaten up in loan costs that you could be oblivious to being rolled into your loan until you check your loan balance a month later when the payment statement shows up in the mail.

So the next time you hear those Ditech ads or any other ads promising no closing costs, low interest rates, etc. see what the APR is and you will find out what the real cost of the loan is. Loans always cost something because no one works for free. And (something I just found out in my training and will be correcting from now on) we must post the APR along with any interest rates we offer.  That’s really the only number you can truly compare one loan with another.

If you need someone to talk to about your mortgage situation, I’d be glad to help, just post your questions and I’ll answer the best I can.

Knee Recovery Stretches and Exercises

As I promised before, the following are the stretches and exercises I was given for my routine by my PT’s at ProActive Physical Therapy. Please check with your doctor or physical therapist before using these:
1) Hamstring stretch – Sit on a flat surface with legs stretched out in front of you, like the side of bed. Leave the surgery knee stretched out in front of you and let the other leg hang off the side. Bend your body as close to your knee as possible, keep foot relaxed and knee flat as possible. You should feel the stretch in the back side of your thigh and into the upper part of the knee.  Hold for 30 count. Do 3 x
2) Calf stretch – Stand arm’s length from wall or chair back leaning or holding on it, while stretching recovering leg by stepping it back about 18 inches behind the good leg, with straightline from foot to neck and holding for a 30 count. 3x’s
3) Quad strengthening. Sit on a flat surface with legs stretched out in front of you. Tighten the quad (muscle on top of thigh running up from the knee) as much as possible and hold for 3-5 count. Do 20 tightenings. Rest it, then do 20 more.
4) Leg Raises: Lay on your back on a flat surface. Bend the knee of your uninvolved leg (the one that wasn’t operated on) to a 90-degree angle with your foot flat on the surface. Keep your involved leg straight without the knee bent. Slowly lift the involved leg six inches off the floor. (by contracting the front thigh muscles). Hold for five seconds. Slowly lower your leg to the floor. Relax and repeat 10 more times. (The knee of the raised leg should remain straight throughout this exercise. Focus on lifting by using the muscles on the front of your hip joint.)
5) Side Leg Raises: Lay on your side on a flat surface with uninvolved leg bent on bottom and recovering leg straight on top. Lift recovering leg about a foot and lower but to about 3 inches above the other leg. Lift slowly and lower 10x’s  do 3 sets.
6)Floor Slides: sitting on the floor – tile or smooth surface is better – with back against a wall or stationary furniture. Starting with both legs lying flat out in front of you, slide the foot of the recovering knee back toward your seat, bending the knee as much as is comfortable. May need to grab ankle to move knee back. Then straighten it back out again flat. Do 20 then rest a minute and do another set of 20.
7) Crab Walk – Using an elastic band around ankles tied so it is taut with about a shoulder width between feet. Bend knees slightly and if feet pointed straight, slide step 15 paces to one side and back again. Do three sets.
Medicine Ball Wall Slides – place the ball between you and the wall, leaning against the ball, move feet out a few inches in front of you. Bend knees only as far as is comfortable and not so low that you can’t see your toes or the knees are out in front of your toes, (not to 45 degree angle). Do 30 times.

Knee: 3 Month Post OP Update

It’s been awhile since I gave an update on how the knee is coming along. My six weeks check up with my surgeon was mid October and he was very happy with my progress. I give lots of credit for that to all the prayer support I’ve had. In addition, I have to give the rest of the credit to my physical therapists at ProActive, Dennis and Wes. They prepared me before I went to surgery by doing what they do and making me do the stretch exercises twice a day at home to get the muscles as ready as possible. I think one of the things many people going through this surgery misunderstand is that even though the knee is what gets worked on, it is the muscles connected to it that must recover from the surgery and gain back their strength. So it’s very important to be on a good physical therapy program that strengths your quad, ham string and calf muscles. There were days between the 6-8 week mark that the knee felt almost normal again. After my doctor’s good report he told me I didn’t have to keep going to physical therapy if I didn’t want to. So I stopped regular appointments. I made the mistake of beginning to slack off, doing the exercise once a day instead of twice and sometimes not doing them at all. Then a few of weeks ago, when I had started to walk a half hour a day a few times a week, my husband and I spent a Saturday cleaning house for Thanksgiving and hauling boxes of Christmas decorations up and down the stairs. WOW! I could hardly walk the next day. The knee swelled up. The muscles tightened up, especially in the back. There is one exercise where you sit with your legs straight out in front of you then slide the recovering leg’s foot up toward you as far as you can, then slide it back out straight and flat again. Some people do these “sliders” on their back sliding the foot up a wall. This exercise was one I had easily done with good range of motion but after that weekend I could hardly bring it up halfway. I thought I had injured it all over again. It was clicking every time a bent or straightened it and tightened up like I had a rubber band around it. I got back into my PT (physical therapist) that Monday morning. Wes did his magic and assured me all that was wrong was I needed to get back on the program and stay with it. It was better when I left but not back like it had been. I started heating the knee before I worked it each time twice a day. It was about the same for several days. One night I tripped over our cat in the dark and twisted it even more and it really started giving me a fit. My husband and I prayed over it again. A friend, who had been through 2 knee surgeries told me that all this was pretty common and it would get better. He also told me to start taking ibuprofan for the swelling. The next day, I woke up and got out of bed and the knee was back to normal. I continue to do the exercises twice a day, heating the knee beforehand, taking ibuprofan at night and am back starting to get out and walk again. I’ve come to realize the most important thing for me to do is to keep working the muscles daily to build them up again. There are days when I’m on it more than usual and it feels sore at night but is okay the next day. I’m told this goes on but eventually the muscles finish recovery and it’s all normal again. I think I might be doing these exercises for the rest of my life. If you need the exercises let me know. I can post them. Just ask.

Here’s a good website to visit too: http://www.arthroscopy.com/sp05005.htm

Follow Up on the Knee!

Thank you all for praying for me and thinking of me yesterday. I went in to the outpatient surgery unit yesterday morning. The docs were running late. Before they showed up the very nice surgery nurses started working on me. First they had me change into one of those famous hospital gowns but surprise, surprise, they’ve actually discovered the science of wrap around gowns! Whew, just in time for me. Then they asked me the same questions several times, poked me with needles and hooked me up to tubes, took some blood, put some cute slipper socks on me and some other things I’ve forgotten getting me all ready. One interesting item was the nurse pointing to the knee that was to be worked on and asking me, “Is this the knee to be repaired?” “Yes” I replied. Then she handed me a felt pen and told me to write my answer just above that knee. So in bright green ink, I wrote my Yes. Finally the docs showed up and the first thing my surgeon did was look at that ”yes” and signed his initials under it. Then away we went, but not before this very sweet nurse gave me a shot in my IV to take the edge off, ”happy” something she called it. I chose to be awake during the arthroscopey, so after about 15 minutes I was feeling nothing below my ribs, but definitely happy. A blue paper sheet was put up directly in front of me and a monitor was turned on to the left of my head. In a couple of minutes, I saw in front of me my doctor propping up what looked like someone’s bare left leg and scrubbing it with that ugly orange stuff…oh that’s my leg…wow, that’s strange. The leg was let down and disappeared behind the blue paper sheet. I looked up at the monitor and the camera began making its way through my knee like a scuba dive through a watery cave, with fuzzies hanging off the walls. Soon it came to the ugly culprit, a clear rip in my meniscus! That pain maker was going down! Next came this tool that I swear looked like a barricuda. Its whirling sharp teeth chomped at the walls chewing up and sucking away the fuzzies, making its way to that nasty rip. Attacking over and over, it went to work chomping away and sucking it up. When all was clean and tidy, the ‘cuda’ made its retreat, and for a second I saw Dr. McNair’s face on the monitor. What kind of grin was that? Just kidding. He soon came around to my side of the blue sheet and said he was finished; it all went perfect. They wrapped up my leg in some gauze and a very big ace bandage. Soon I was being wheeled into the recovery room and watched over closely by a very nice nurse who patiently stayed with me for the next 4 hours. The down side of staying awake for the surgery was having to stay in recovery until all the feeling comes back and I could stand up on my own. Finally, all was back to normal and Pat came to get me, a beautiful bunch of fall flowers in one hand, and my very own set of prints of the surgery that my doc had left off with him in the other. He got me home, propped up in a recliner with an ice pack on the knee.  My sweet daughter, Mary, came to sit with me too for a while. I’m so blessed. Then it began, the pain, of course and hit #9 for a few hours. By midnight it subsided and I was able to get to sleep. This morning was very encouraging. I’m able to put some weight on it, walk with a crutch to go up and down stairs and feeling good otherwise with very little pain. Tomorrow I go for my first physical therapy session…then the work begins, I bet! I’ll let you know later. Thanks again for caring.

knee surgery finally scheduled – 17 days to go

On late Friday afternoon, my surgeon’s scheduling assistant finally called to work on a date for the arthroscopic surgery of my left knee. Due to vacations and surgeries already scheduled, the earliest date was Sept. 3rd. That wasn’t what I was wanting but I’ll take it. I’m really wanting to get this taken care of and get on to recovery and back up to speed. We have so much scheduled to start up in September. At least I know I’ll be somewhat back on my feet by the following week. I’ll go into a hospital nearby that morning. Surgery will be about an hour long. I have the option of being awake during it which I’m going to choose because I don’t want to deal with the after affects of being put under. Will I watch? That’s another issue. I don’t usually like that kind of thing but again it could be fascinating. After surgery, I’ll have a little time in recovery, then can home probably by early afternoon. I have to schedule an EKG with my family doctor beforehard and ask whether I should stop a inconsequential prescription I take before surgery. No aspirin or anything that has it in it, advil, aleve, etc. a week before. No eating after midnight. Who eats after midnight?

So count down begins.

Do doppler and knee pain have something in common?

When my doctor said I’d need to get a Doppler ultrasound, a picture of Mike Nelson’s Doppler radar scanning my body flashed across my mind. Had I heard him wrong? No, because he repeated it and said someone would be calling me to set up the appointment. Would that be at Channel 7? It took a few days but sure enough I did have a Doppler ultrasound. No, it didn’t confirm the old belief that knee aches and pains can accurately predict the weather by signaling a low moving into the area. But it is one more amazing innovation in the medical field. I have to say I was disappointed to not meet our weatherman Mike. Instead Anna ushered me into an exam room at a local imaging clinic.

I have to digress to help you understand why my doctor ordered this test. As he was asking about my health history I mentioned that years ago I had suffered a blood clot in my left leg, same leg as knee problem. This was at least 30+ years ago when birth control pills were relatively new and prescribed in much higher dosage than they are today. I was one of those rare women who developed DVT (deep vein thrombosis) or a blood clot in my lower leg after only being on the pill for a few months. Taken off the pill and put on strict bed rest for almost a month, it cleared up and I’ve not had any problem since. At the mention of this, my doc ordered this doppler ultrasound to make sure there wasn’t any blood clots lurking in these veins. A friend of my daughter’s had knee surgery a few months ago and had a blood clot which caused her more problems than the arthroscopy. Knowing about this, I was glad my doctor was taking this precaution.  

So Anna had me lay flat and squeezed out some warm goo up and down my leg. Then she placed the handheld ultrasound device that was hooked up to a computer and screen on my thigh and began probing for those deep veins. At one point I heard this loud gushing sound which was the blood flowing through the vein. She had me flex my foot and the sound changed to a higher swish. God has created our bodies so wondrously. One flex of the foot acts like a pump to move the blood along.  Something we do many times a day without thought of its effect. It was wierd to hear my blood rushing up and down my leg. After about a half hour, she finished telling me she would send the test results over to my doctor. Of course, I asked her to tell me what she had found. All was clear.

So now I’m waiting for the doctor’s scheduling assistant to finish getting the insurance okays and to call me for scheduling. Hopefully I’ll hear from her today. I start facilitating classes on Wednesday night Sept. 3, teaching in the new bible school the following Friday and heading up our first women’s ministry “girls’ night out” on the 12th. I want to get this outpatient surgery done early enough to be back on my feet by the first of September. We’re praying and trust the Lord will make it work out for the best.

By the way, thanks for your prayers too.

Phlebology Biosound Esaote MyLab 25 Proximal GSV with Reflux

For your enjoyment…

more about "Phlebology Biosound Esaote MyLab 25 P…", posted with vodpod

August 8th – Knee Update

I finally got in to see the orthopedic doctor for my knee. The physical therapy for the past couple weeks has done wonders but I noticed it brought it to a certain point and as I was faithful to do the stretches and ice treatment at home, for the most part, I could maintain it. But I still felt a dull pressure on the knee when I’d walk and once in awhile, that stabbing pain shot into the back of my knee and I’d be reminded clearly it wasn’t fixed. The doctor confirmed all this saying I could go on using that means to get along and maybe some other treatments but in the end they are only band aides. My pain level would continue to fluctuate up and down without any real rhyme or reason. The only real cure is arthroscopic surgery which involves a couple of small incisions, a clear exam of my knee inside, and cleaning up the meniscus’ all done on an outpatient basis, so I’d be home that day. Recovery involves a couple days completely off it, but by third day starting physical therapy again, walking normal by 10 days, back to old activity level in 6 weeks and not knowing which knee was worked on in 12. I can live with that. I admit to a little anxiety but I’m ready to go through with it. I’m waiting now to have one more test, a doppler ultrasound. Sounds like Mike the weatherman doesn’t it. I had bloodclotting in my leg in my very early 20’s so this is a precaution concerning that. The scheduling assistant is supposed to call me soon to get the surgery date set up. My life begins to get very busy starting Sept 3rd when I begin facilitating our DivorceCare group. Two days later I teach at Marilyn’s new bible school, and the next friday we kickoff our ‘girls night out’ . I’ll need to be able to get around be then, so I’m really praying we can get this on the calendar soon.