March

March is my favorite month. Any guesses as to why? That's right it's my birthday month!!!! :) Even though I have to wait til the end of the month, I still love the whole month. My kids are excited because my birthday starts off the birthdays in our family. (Mine in March, Karen in May, Neils and Michael in June. We get very busy in June.) Plus we also get to plan something fun to do as a family that we normally don't do like go to a movie in the theater or out to some fun activity. This year we will be doing a movie since Neils had knee surgery on Friday and might not be up to bowling or mini golf.

Speaking of which, I get to tell the story of Neils and his knee. When he was 15 he dislocated his knee when playing basketball. He had surgery and never did anything else about it. About 3 years ago he fell out of bed when turning over in his sleep and dislocated it again. We had to call an ambulance and go to the emergency room for them to put it back in. Despite my concerns, he never went to the doctor after the trip to the ER. About a month or two ago, Neils had a prompting that he should get his knee checked out. He finally went to the doctor and had a cat scan of his knee. They found out that his knee cap was floating freely in his knee with nothing to connect it to anything else. The doctor said he needed surgery. Well, Friday was the day. They had to take a ligament from a donor and place it in his knee and then screw this ligament to the knee cap and the bones of his legs. Quite a surgery. We were both nervous, but trusted in the Lord to bless him and direct the doctor. Everything went well with the surgery and was home that afternoon. Thankfully we had wonderful people to watch the kids during all this.

They put a cast type splint on his leg from his ankle to the top of his leg and wrapped it from top to bottom as you can see in the picture. He's been on the couch most of the weekend with short trips to the bathroom or around the room to exercise it a little. He's actually feeling much better now and excited to get to the doctor on Tuesday to get into a hinged brace rather than this full leg cast. Then he will start physical therapy to speed the healing. He'll be off work for a week and then hopefully back to as normal as he can be. Neils says he feels like a pirate as he limps around like a peg leg, just needs the eye patch.