Biltmore House trip

We celebrated our anniversary today since it's aholiday and our anniversary falls on Thursday. We took the kids on their first trip to the Biltmore Estate. They LOVED it. We walked all over the house which took us about 2 hours, then had a snack before heading to the gardens. It sprinkled a little, but it was a light rain, so no problems. The roses were blooming but we had missed the tulips (my favorites). We upgraded to yearly passes so I can come anytime and see the festival of flowers next year :)

We walked to the Bass Pond (LONG walk) and the waterfall. We then walkedthrough the Italian garden with the Koi ponds and there were lots of tadpoles. THe kidssaw lots of lizards too. After the gardens we headed to the Winery. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff for the kids there, so we headed over to the RiverBend Farm to the petting area. There was butter churning, blue grass, potters, woodworking, blacksmith and old fashioned games. The kids really enjoyed it. We were pretty tired and hungry after 7 and a half hours of walking and exploring. We headed to Papas and Beer for dinner then home to watch a movie.

It was a very nice day and memorable anniversary.

I have 2 more weeks of recovery left. I did pretty good with my knee at the Biltmore House. Unfortunately my knee brace broke this morning, so I have to get a new one tomorrow at PT. That brace is 5 years old, so it is probably time for a new one. PT is going well. I should be release June 10th from PT.

I'm off to watch a new show called Obsessed about OCD. Should be interesting since I can relate :)

More knee adventures

Yesterday I had a PT appointment and my therapist said my knee was way too swollen. She asked me if I had any numbness and I told her my foot had been numb off and on. Apparently this means either fluid is being moved to my foot or I have nerve damage (the fact that that foot's shoes have been tighter leads me to the fluid theory). She told me that she thought I would need to have my knee asperated. This involves a needle. UGH! She had the PA look at my knee (same PA that has been dealing with me the whole time) and he said definately needed to be aperated. So, after an hour wait, he gave me a shot of lidacaine (OUCH) and then sprayed this freezing spray on. He then SHOVED the needle in and drew out 66cc's of fluid. (ALOT) They are testing it to make sure there's no problem. He said there is a chance I could swell up again. If I do, they may have to go back in and see what the problem is. I was over 3 cm larger on the right knee that the left. THis apparently is not good. Now my knee looks and feels much better. They have me wrapped tight in an ace bandage to help keep the swelling down. So far so good. My CPM machine goes back today or tomorrow so I won't be doing that any more.

I've been getting out and running errands and so far I have done well. I still have to elevate and ice quite a bit and exercises 4x a day. I can't be on my feet for more than 45 min to an hour or the swelling starts. I am off work until June 8th, so I have some time to get completely recovered.

:)