Movie Review - The Lucky One

Yes, it's another Nicholas Sparks book.  Yes, it's another chick-flick.

I had read this book a least a year ago, so I wasn't as clear on the details as I was on the previous Sparks book/movie combo that I reported on.  I pulled my book off the shelf and did a quick review.

The book is set in North Carolina, as are most of Spark's books.  The movie was set in Louisiana.  I have read online that Louisiana offers huge tax incentives to film companies to do their movies there.  The article I read speculated that was why the change was made.

As with Safe Haven, my previous review, the book version of The Lucky One is much more complex and offers some plot elements that are not included in the movie.  The more I thought about it, the more similarities I found between these two movies:

• They are both primarily love stories with happy endings.  
• In both cases one of the people in the romance also has a child or children, and at some point in the story, that child is put in danger and is rescued by the other person in the romance.  
• In both stories, one of the people has traveled a long distance to a new area where the love interest lives.  
• Both stories are set in quaint small towns, and there is some sort of water and boat involvement.  
• Most noticeably, however, is the fact that both stories involve the woman in the relationship coming from a previous relationship that was abusive. 
•  In both cases the woman was strong enough to flee the abusive relationship and/or stand up to the bully-husband.  
• In both cases, it is that abusive husband who causes the big crisis (the climax of the story) that the child has to be rescued from.  
• In both cases, the abusive husband dies as a result of the crisis. 
• In both cases, the couple and child/children live happily together after the crisis is over.

Sounds like 2 versions of the same story, doesn't it?!

I do enjoy reading Nicholas Sparks books.  I like his writing style.  However, I hope that the next one I read will have a new and unique plot.  

Thanks for reading!

:)Amy

 

New Exercises Added

My loyal readers will remember my rant about my new shoes reducing my swelling.  I just wanted to report that I expressed that same revelation to my PT on Thurs.  She implied that yes, she had known by saying, "I'm Sorry," when I said I didn't know why no one told me.  However, that was all she said, and then we moved on to other topics.  But I knew and she knew I knew and I knew she knew I knew!!

Kristen also gave me 2 new exercises that were extremely difficult!  Ok - now you try them as I describe them:

1 - Stand on one foot.  It's ok, you can hold on to something if you need to.  Now, bend the knee you are standing on - as far as you can - and straighten back up again.  Easy?  Ha!  For you, maybe!  But it wasn't easy for Bessie.  Let me tell you, she did NOT like this one at all! Let's do that 20 times, please!

2 - Stand with both feet up on a step (we use a 6" box at therapy).  Put one foot forward down onto the floor - pick the leg that is your strongest to put down.  Notice your weaker leg/foot is still on the box.  Now back yourself up so both feet are back up on the box.  Uh huh - yeah!  Not quite easy-peasy is it?!  Try doing THAT when the weaker leg has a 7" zipper down the front!  Bessie was like, "WHAT? SERIOUSLY?"  Yeah, then do that 20 times!!!  ARE YOU KIDDING???  Luckily I was standing next to a counter, and I could use my arms to pull myself up.  This time it was 95% arm strength that got me through, but I know there will come a time when she'll make me do that one out in the middle of the room with nothing to hold on to!!!  AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Ok - enough whining about exercise.  Now I will crow about what I did.  Yesterday, Hubs and I got a bee in our collective bonnet to rearrange the living room.  Not really a hard task since we only have a sofa, a chair, a coffee table and a side table.  We have been frustrated by the lack of seating in there, and wondered if moving things around would make space for another chair.  Indeed it did.  So... today, we went shopping for a new chair.

We started at Pier One where we had seen a chair advertised that we liked.  We walked that store quite a bit.  Not ready to buy what we saw there, we decided to go to Value City Furniture.  Anyone living in the Columbus area will know how large that store it (at Sawmill).  I walked that whole store.  Then we went to Ashley Furniture.  We got half way around that one and I had to sit.  I told Hubs to come and get me if he saw anything he liked.  But just think of this...  Pier One, Value City and Ashley in one shopping trip - just 71/2 weeks after surgery.  I was very proud of Bessie!!!  Then she came home, took an Ibu and a nap!  She is sort of achy now, just 4 hours after the outing, but that's ok.  She'll be fine and ready to exercise again later this evening.  Oh, and by the way, we did not find the perfect chair yet, but we did see some possible candidates.

That's it for now.  I'll have another movie review for you later today, so stay tuned!

:)Amy

Seven Weeks - More Changes

All along this process, every time I've not been able to do something, I've thought, "When will I be able to do this?"  or more commonly,  "Will I EVER be able to do this??"   First, it was lifting my foot off the floor or the bed.  Then, it was lifting my whole leg in the air.  Most recently, it has been about being able to step onto a step without pulling myself up with my arms.  (Which I can now do, by the way!)

The most long-term, lingering issue has always been the stiffness in my leg which everyone attributes to internal swelling.  The Doc and the PTs have all said it will go down with time.  Well, I have never been a particularly patient person.  As this swelling and stiffness has persisted, I've often asked myself, "WHEN will this be gone?"  My PT told me that I should be able to do whatever I want to do at 3 months.  Does that mean all the stiffness will be gone then?  Not necessarily.

Well, today, at 7 weeks, I am here to report that there has been progress in the category of stiffness and swelling !!!

First, as I reported the other day, I bought school shoes.  On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I tried a pair on each day, and wore them around the house for about 2-3 hours.  I wanted to make sure they were going to be comfortable enough for a school day.   On Saturday, after wearing pair #1, when I took them off, I noticed that the sausage was significantly smaller.  It was still bigger than the other foot, but most (90%?) of the puffiness was gone.  WHAT?  Can this be?  All it took to get rid of most of the swelling in my foot was to put on a shoe??  Seriously???

Now, I have to say that for the last 7 weeks, NO ONE - let me say that again - NO ONE has suggested that I could reduce the swelling in my foot by wearing a shoe that comes up over the top of my foot.  Did you hear what I said?  NO ONE!  When I asked the PTs about my sausage, they would tell me to do ankle pumps.  Ok - so I diligently did ankle pumps for the first 3 weeks, and it made NO difference.  I put ice packs on my foot and ankle, and it made NO difference.  When I asked my Doc about the swelling in my sausage, he told me it would go down over time.

So, all summer, I've been barefoot.  Sometimes I wear ankle socks.  When I need to go out with shoes, I wear my sandals with the stretchy straps.  No regular shoes for 7 weeks.  Let's imagine for just a minute how different things would have been if I'd been wearing shoes maybe 4-5 weeks ago?  All those times when I thought my skin was stretched so tight it was going to explode????  Ha!  SHOES!

Well, you have to know that I am going to share this revelation with my PT on Thursday!  I hope she doesn't give me that, "well of course you need to wear shoes - everyone knows that!" response, because she will get an ear full if she does!

For my faithful readers who are headed for this surgery, let me add this to the "Learn from Amy" list: You already know you need to do your exercises faithfully if you want to see progress.  Now you also know you need to wear SHOES!

My second revelation for today is a little more subtle and a little harder to quantify and to put into words.

Background:  Sunday, when I got up, I felt even more stiff than usual, and it seemed to take longer during the day for the morning stiffness to wear off.  Just doing my usual exercises didn't seem to help as much as usual.  I wrote it off to cooler weather.  Yesterday, I was much better - more "normal" or typical.  I did my usual morning exercises, and then in the afternoon, we went to our local park and walked again.  This is the second time I've done this.  We took a different path in the park, but I think I probably walked about as much - about a mile (of course with frequent sitting).  When I got home, I put ice on my leg for about 30 minutes, and generally felt very good.

Last night, I sat a lot.  Ok, The Bachelorette was on - it's my guilty pleasure, what can I say!  I sat glued to the TV for that 2 hour period.  At 10:00, I got a bee in my bonnet to do some school work.  I decided to work on creating a new website for one of my classes.  So, I proceeded to sit at my computer for the next 2 hours... with no break.  Not good.  Usually, when I get up from sitting, I have to give my leg time to acclimate to standing, and it usually takes walking about 10 steps before it is "working" again.

Well, here is my second revelation:  Last night, when I got up from sitting at my computer, the usual stiffness was almost gone!  I just started walking - normally - without limping at all.  There was no need to stand for a minute, or stretch or hobble around until my knee decided to work.  It just worked!

Then, when I went to bed, I started out lying on my back with Bessie out straight - when I bent her, she didn't feel stiff at all.  It was almost like - dare I say it - like 10 years ago?!  During the night, I was very conscious of a difference.  There was a new ease of movement, and a significant decrease in stiffness when I changed positions.  Likewise, this morning - I got up and just started walking without having to stand by the bed and wait to be ready to take the first step.

So, to what do I owe this change?  Could it be the influence of shoes?  Could it be the walk at the park? Could it be the diligence of exercising?  (Have I mentioned how important exercising is, kids?)  Could it just be a matter of time?

Right now, I'm going to go with "a combination of all of the above" as the explanation.  Whatever the explanation is, the result is that I'm VERY excited!!

That's all for now... I'm going to get back to my school website.  Thanks for reading and hanging in here with me!

:)Amy

Reading Aloud

 My family is a tennis family.  Both my mother and my aunt were active tennis players in their youth, and even had success as winners of local tournaments.  Once my father and uncle joined the family, they also played tennis with their wives.  My aunt and uncle pursued this interest a bit longer and more actively than my mother and father did and made names for themselves in the tennis community around Dayton, Ohio back in the day.  Eventually, they turned their attention more to the golf course and played less tennis, but my aunt always enjoyed watching tennis on TV even when she no longer played.

When I learned that tennis legend Jimmy Connors had a written a new memoir, The Outsider,  it occurred to me that my aunt might enjoy the book.  At the time I learned of the book, my cousin was going to be coming to stay with me during my post-surgery convalescence, and I thought it might be fun for her and I to read the book aloud and record it, and then share that with my aunt. It would be sort of like the 3 of us would be reading it together.  It would give Cousin and I something to do with all my down-time, and something that we could all share.

As it turned out, my cousin wasn't able to come, but I decided to read the book aloud myself.  My goal was to read a chapter a day, and I managed to keep up with that schedule for the most part.  I read each chapter into a digital recorder and then emailed it to my cousins in New Hampshire, who then played each installment for my aunt.

I finally finished the book a few days ago.  It had 24 chapters.  I enjoyed the reading process because I knew my aunt was enjoying listening, and I generally enjoy reading aloud.   Jimmy's very large ego certainly comes through loud and clear in his writing.  The technical aspect of the book bothered me a bit as an English teacher because the first person narration flipped back and forth between present and past tense frequently for no apparent reason.  At various times I found myself wondering if anyone had actually edited the writing beyond checking spelling.  Even the basic printing was annoying as there were places where the periods at the ends of paragraphs were missing.  The book was also very heavy in statistics of various matches.  While some of that is necessary, there was a bit much of it for my taste.

Overall, I'm glad I did the reading project.  My reading certainly wouldn't win any awards because I didn't edit out my mis-reads and redos, nor my sneezes!  :)   But if my aunt enjoyed it, then that is my reward!

If you love the tennis era of the 1970s, then you might enjoy this book, but just prepare to be annoyed by some of its idiosyncrasies.

:)Amy

The Shopping Expedition or Dressing the Sausage!

Those of you who know me, know that I am not what some people would call particularly "fashion conscious".  While I do like to look decent, and I like to dress professionally for school, I don't spend too much time worrying about whether I am wearing the latest trends.  I am also not a fancy dresser (although I can dress up for the right occasion).  I am  not the type of person to get rid of perfectly good clothes that I like just because they are out of season (or even out of decade!).  Because of my size and shape, I've always had trouble finding clothes that fit me well, so when I find things that do fit, I tend to keep them until they wear out or until I can't stand them anymore.  (Much to the chagrin of one of my colleagues who has remarked on my "80s" wardrobe - yes, you know who you are!)  Also, for the last 9 years or so, as I've suffered with worsening knees, I've had increasing trouble shopping for clothes, which is another reason I tend to hang on to the past.

My current situation has presented a bit of a problem - not with clothes, but with shoes.  Bessie is quite clearly larger than my right leg.  All the way from above my knee to my foot which is puffed out like a sausage casing with too much meat shoved into it! When I look in the mirror at my legs side-by-side, they look like they belong on 2 different bodies!   I'm told by my doc and my PT that this situation of swelling is likely to last for months yet.  This presents a problem with school shoes.

All summer I've been wearing 1 pair of sandals with stretchy straps that easily accommodate my sausage foot, but I can't (or rather won't) wear them to school.  Yesterday, with a very dedicated friend who has been with me through this whole process, I set out to the shoe store to find school shoes.  I thought I might have to buy 2 pairs of different sizes - one for the right and one for the left.  However, it turned out that I was able to find shoes where the same pair fit both feet.  The good news is that I found 3 pair that fit, and I didn't feel like I had to settle for the only shoes in the store that would fit.  I'm actually happy with what I got.

None of these shoes were purchased for fashion, but they aren't "ugly" by any means.  They are all black, and my hope is that they will disappear below my pants and will not stand out and draw attention to my sausage.

My store of choice was DSW because of its huge selection.  I had only shopped there once before, and didn't find what I wanted then.  I look forward to a time when I can buy "cute" shoes that are fashionable once again, but for now I will dress my sausage and get on with life!

:) Amy

Movie Review - Moonrise Kingdom

Today's movie review is very unusual.  It involves a movie I didn't even bother to finish!

I had heard good things about Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - mainly that it was "quirky", so I put it on my list. I started watching it on Sunday, but I only got about half way through it when I had to stop.  Somehow I never felt any pressing need to keep watching it, and after about 3 days, I just decided to send it back without finishing it.

The movie is quirky, but it is also incredibly slow.  I almost fell asleep during the part I watched.  As you know from some of the movies I've already reviewed, I'm not a big "action" fan, so I'm not opposed to movies that don't have car chases and gun-shootouts.  (After all, I liked Quartet !) However, this movie was painfully slow, and sadly there wasn't enough quirkiness to carry it.  I really wanted to like it!  Obviously, I can't recommend this to my readers.

Stay tuned - I will try to give you some GOOD recommendations in the near future!

:)Amy

6 Weeks and Counting

This is a big week for Bessie!  Tuesday was her 6 week anniversary, and Monday was her Doc appointment.

The doctor was very impressed!  He took an x-ray. It must have been ok because he didn't tell me there were any loose parts inside!.  He liked how much I could straighten her, and he was impressed by my 100 degree bend.  He was also impressed by how well I was walking, and how quickly, with no cane or other assistance.  The nurse also complimented me, as did the secretary!  Doc wants to see me again in 2 months.  He said to keep working on my bend - he wants me to get to 110-115.

Doc cleared me to get back in the pool.  He said my incision looks very well healed.  He also encouraged me to go back to Water Aerobics, which I am anxious to do and will start in Sept.

Doc also said that I can expect the stiffness from swelling for months.  He said it really takes a year before the whole healing and strengthening process is over.

In the waiting room with me was a woman who still had her TED hose, her leg pumps and her walker.  I thought to myself how glad I am that I am past that stage of the process!

Shortly after my doc appointment, was my PT session.  Kristen put a 4" step-box in the middle of the floor and had me step up on it without anything to hold on to!  That was scary, but I was able to do it.  (20 times from the front and 20 times to the side.)  She said I need to learn to trust myself more!

We discussed my PT schedule.  I will have 6 more sessions after this week.  She agreed with me that it would be better to go once a week for 6 weeks rather than 2x for 3 weeks, especially since I am good about doing my own exercising at home.  So I will be going every Thursday through Sept 5.

I think I have mentioned this before, but I am going to repeat it.  Both of my physical therapists have mentioned having patients who don't do their own exercises outside of PT sessions, and then they wonder why they don't get better faster.  Really?  DUH!!!  The biggest advice I can give to anyone out there who is considering surgery like this is that you HAVE to be diligent about exercising if you want to see progress.  You can't rely on a therapist to do all the work for you.  They give guidance, but YOU have to do the work yourself if you want results!  3 times a day for 3-4 weeks, and then 2 times a day after that.  You have to keep moving and walking.  You can't just sit in the chair or lie in the bed and expect to be able to walk well. If you don't keep moving and stretching and squeezing early in the process, your joint will stiffen up, and it will be even harder to move.  Also, when you do exercise, you see daily progress and that is a great motivator!!

To sum up my 6 weeks status:  I am totally off my cane now.  I still limp at times, but not all the time.  My leg feels stiff most of the time, but it doesn't really "hurt".  There are times when I actually forget I had surgery.   I am very cautious walking outside on uneven ground or in public places, but I'm very confident in the house.  I do fine getting in and out of the car.  I have not tried stairs, but I suspect I could do them with a sturdy railing to hold on to.  I can sleep in any position in bed, but my leg does get stiff when kept in one position for very long, so I still have to move around a lot in bed, and often have to get up and walk in the wee hours (today I made it until 6 am!).  Overall, I am very excited about my progress!

Ok, that's it for today.  Thanks for reading and supporting my efforts!  I'll talk to you again soon!

:)Amy

Photos for your viewing pleasure...

Just sharing some photos from here.  First is the Swallowtail that was in the front yard at New House on Friday.  This one posed for me:

Next is a Turkey Vulture that Hubs photographed from the backyard at Old House:

Last, but not least, a Cicada in our little maple tree at Old House:

Talk to you again soon!

:)Amy

Pain Meds

I am pretty much off the hard-core pain meds now, so I did some analysis of how much I took.  Starting with the day I came home from the hospital, I kept a log of all the meds I took so I would know what time each dose was.

I came home on a Thursday around 2 pm.  That day after I got home, I took 1 Vicodin and 4 doses of Percocet.  Friday and Saturday, I took 7 doses each day.  On Friday, I started with Perc, but then after the Home Health Care nurse came and told me it was ok to switch to my preferred Vic, I did so.  So I was basically taking something every 2-3 hours.

By Sunday (which would be 5 days from surgery) I dropped down to 3 doses/day and did that through Thursday.  I would take 1 early in the day, usually around my morning PT, then 1 mid afternoon around my 2nd PT, and then another in the evening with my 3rd PT.

On Friday, June 21, I dropped to 1 dose/day.  For the next 3 weeks - until Friday, July 12, I took 1-2 doses of pain meds/day, sometimes adding in an Ibuprofen.  Last Sat and Sun, I didn't take any pain meds, just Ibu.  The last Vic I took was Monday, July 15.  Since then I've been taking just Ibu - 1 or 2/day.

For the last couple weeks of the Vic, I found it most helpful to take it at bedtime to keep my leg from aching during the night.

For the last week, I would say that I really don't have "pain" anymore.  It is more an issue of stiffness from the swelling.  My PT said that I could experience swelling for months.  She said that for a knee it typically takes 3 months before you can do what you want to do, and 6 months to forget you had it done.  So I'm looking forward to Sept and December as key points in my recovery.

During the night, usually by around 4 or 5 am, Bessie is getting grumpy.  By that time it is hard to find a comfortable position for longer than about 20-30 min. because of stiffness.  I usually have to get up to go to the bathroom anyway, so I either walk around a bit, or sit up in the chair for 30 min or so, and that seems to help.  Then I can get back in bed and go back to sleep.

Also, as I side note, I have been totally off my cane - even outside - since Tuesday, July 16 which was the 5 week mark.

I'm sharing this partly for my own record keeping, but also for those of you who are headed for surgery yourselves in the future.  I urge you all to record your experiences because it is very helpful to be able to see the progress in quantifiable terms.

Thanks for reading!  It is a rainy day here in Central Ohio today, but this front coming through should break the humidity which has been horrid for the past week!

Talk to you again soon!

:)Amy

Book Review - The Silver Star

My most recent book was The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls.  She is most well known for The Glass Castle which was about her life growing up in a very dysfunctional family.  She followed that by a pre-quel called Half Broke Horses, which was about her grandmother's childhood.

This book is fiction and is not related to the other two.  It is set in the 1970s  in a small town in Virginia.  The main characters are the narrator Jean "Bean" and her older sister Liz.  They are about 12 and 15 when their crazy mother leaves them alone in their house in California to follow her dream of being an entertainer.  When they realize she isn't coming back, and the creditors start knocking on the door, they use the last remaining funds they have to buy bus tickets to visit their mother's brother across the country in Virginia.

Once they arrive in Virginia they find a very different world than the one they've been raised in.  They also come to understand their mother's early life a little better.  Bean gets to meet her father's family - he had died before she was born, and it is from them that she is given the Silver Star that he was awarded in Vietnam.

The book raises issues of race.  Bean's English class is reading To Kill A Mockingbird and discussing it at the same time that the school the girls are going to has been integrated.  There are some situations that happen to the girls that are sort of reminiscent of some of the events of TKAM (at least thematically if not literally).

When the book was released earlier this summer, there was a review of it in the local paper.  The review was not totally complimentary, but I had already purchased the book and was determined to read  it because I had enjoyed Walls' other books.  I did like this book overall, and I looked forward to my reading time to see what was going to happen next.  I don't agree with the criticisms of the reviewer;  however, I will say I was very disappointed in the ending.  I'm not going to give it away in case some of you are going to read it.  If you do, let me know, and we'll discuss the ending.  I just sort of felt it was a cop-out and an easy way to end the book.

Yes, I would recommend it, but I would not call it an "intense" read.

:) Amy