In a surprise move this morning, Apria Healthcare, Inc., called to say they’d be by this afternoon to pick up the CPM. We both cheered. Cleveland just left with the dreaded machine. Now Mrs. Major is almost independent.

Bonnie asked what is Mrs. Major going to do while Son Major and I go to the U.S. Open. She can pretty much take care of herself, but we’ve got neighbors and friends lined up to do things like move the newspaper from the driveway to the front door each morning, hang around while Mrs. Major takes a shower, bring meals, and be on call in case she needs someone.

We live in a pretty incredible community. We had several neighbors volunteer to help. Charlene also has some women who play cards together and exercise at the pool together who are all over this. In fact, I think they’re kind of glad to see me go so they can spend more time with Mrs. Major. Read more

As posted earlier, Mrs. Major has a constant physical motion (CPM) machine that flexes and extends her legs. She is supposed to spend six to eight hours a day per knee in the machine. That’s next to impossible.

We call it dreaded because she can’t get in and out of it by herself. Well, actually, she can get out of it if her right leg is in it because she can roll to the left out of the bed lifting her right leg as she rolls. When her left leg is in the machine, she can’t roll to the left ¹Her side of the bed is the left side when she’s laying on her back. It’s hard to get into because there’s a furry extension that she must lay on with her butt and it’s nearly impossible to get flat. The wrinkles make her sore: the princess and the pea sort of thing. The photo is an early one (bandages still on) of her leg in the dreaded machine.

She was a little down this morning. She’s getting very tired of not being able to go at it full steam ahead. She’s tired of the achy knees. And she’s tired of not ever being able to get comfortable. 

The great news is that her flexion is 103º in her right leg and 105º in her left. I think she has the dreaded machine cranked up to 109º. I heard great cheering from the other room when the therapist did the measurements.