Dr. Repine Said...

I'm settled down at Alexy's until Tuesday evening - Cloudy is wandering on the rear patio, keeping an eye out for squirrels, while Shady just disappeared into the juniper bushes along the north side of the yard. Lovey and Banichi were not happy to see me pack up my meds and alarm clock this morning, and both had an "Awwww, Mom, we love you!" spell in my lap, trying to convince me not to leave them. And so I am once again at Alexy's computer and am surrounded by her magical water colors on the wall.

I met and spoke with Dr. Michael Repine yesterday - and we looked at all the views of my left knee from the three MRI series. As usual, it's a good news/bad news thing. The good news (which made me want to jump for joy) is that the PA was wrong; my MCL is torn, but not "gone"; and I will not need any surgery! (Yahoo!) The bad news part of it is that it will continue to hurt for the next 4 to 6 months, by which time it will have repaired itself. I told him about house-sitting and walking the dogs, and he said, "Good! The best thing you can do is walk!" I was then fitted with a smaller knee brace - black neoprene with a bright blue interior, a knee cap hole, and metal braces with hinges on both sides of the knee (it also has two velcro straps at top and bottom for good measure). This brace actually fits under my two favorite pairs of jeans, and I can move my knee when I walk. I'm still a little clumsy in the new brace, and Dr. Repine suggested I wait until Monday, when I'm more accustomed to it, before I walk the Rs again. So I'm practicing walking with this new mechanical knee, and am reading like mad, and I'll try to get my PC in to the repair shop within the next few days. I am now booked for pet- and house-sitting up until June 1st. I have a couple of open weekends, but that's about all that's left; and the Rs parents were just asking about a couple of weeks in June and/or July...

The National Western Stock Show ends this Sunday, and I regret having missed all of it this year - but there's always 2011 to look forward to. Gimpy and his buddies came by yesterday and ate all of the nuts that I had placed out for them, and they were back again early this morning. The kits had a ball running around outside at home yesterday and this morning - I'll let them out in the afternoon the rest of this job. And I'll be back out in Brighton with Kohlbi, Nikki, Abbie, Shadow, and Boris and Natasha in both February and April - and with the Prius to drive, too! More than half of Alexy's yard is still covered with snow, and the weather folks are forecasting more snow this weekend - we'll see! Take care of yourselves!