it won’t be long before she’s walking along the sandy beaches… or maybe even running a race with us…

As you probably remember, my mom had a total knee replacement last Monday. I was surprised to learn how involved the major surgery would be. I am even more shocked to report how well she is doing. The recovery period for a knee replacement is usually 2 to 6 months. The patient is typically hospitalized for four days. Most people walk with a walker for at least a month afterwards and it's often six months before they can put all their weight on the new leg. Physical therapy is required for a minimum of two weeks after the surgery.

My mom's surgery went really, really well. Her doctor was great and he (or a member of his team) called us almost every half hour in the waiting room to let us know the progress. It was great to be surrounded by family and a few friends during the wait too. Her time in the hospital was rough. The pain medicine and anesthesia made her quite sick and the nausea made it hard for her to eat and keep food down. She's made tons of progress though with her physical therapy. I'm so proud of how hard she's worked with it and how quickly she's become so mobile. She's already said on more than one occasion that she has pain now, but that it's a different kind of pain than what she had before the surgery.

Today, a week after the surgery, she is growing tired of the support hose she has to wear and she is running out of the pain pills they've prescribed her. Even so, she's hanging in there. She's had lots of family and friends bring her dinners and I've told her that she'd better keep sitting down when they come because if they saw how well she was walking they might think she made the whole surgery thing up! She's been walking with just a cane through the weekend and I'm confident that she'll be fully mobile in no time.

Thanks for being such a strong inspiration to us all, Nanna! Way to go! We're proud of you!