Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[h20skibum]

17 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

Wow, that looks good!  

[Momof3gurlz]

I’ve been avidly reading all the comments about knee and hip replacements. Andy’s had problems with his right knee and hip for a few years, to the point that he walks with a noticeable gimp and has great difficulty putting on a sock and tying a shoe on the right foot. His primary told him it’s likely arthritis and referred him to ortho, which of course he’s ignored.  He finally went Thursday (nagging works!) and was told he has severe arthritis in his hip and mild arthritis in the knee. His knee pain is most likely a result of the hip issues. So hip replacement scheduled for Nov 5th. He was given a shot of cortisone with the disclaimer he might only see 10-30% improvement, he says the 10% is about right.  I think he put it off out of fear of the surgery, but so many people have told him hip replacement isn’t bad these days, much easier than the knee. 
Anyone here had this done? 

[bobmacliberty]

We went to Key West a couple of years ago and enjoyed it.  Although we're glad we went, it was probably one and done.  We stayed at a nice hotel on the quieter end of Duval called the Orchid Key Inn, which I'd recommend.  We did the Hemingway House, the Little White House, a walking history tour, and a sunset cruise.  All very worth doing.  We also had a couple of good meals (especially the Red Shoe Island Bistro...outstanding) and did a mini bar crawl from the top of Duval back to our hotel.  Now that I type this, I'm sort of talking myself into going back. 😁 

 

We drove from Amelia Island and broke up the trip with a stay in Key Largo.  Driving was fine and again I'm glad I did it, but if we were to go back it would either be flying or taking the high speed ferry from Fort Myers.  It's a long drive from Northern Florida just to get to the Keys, and then another long drive all the way to Key West.  Flying into Miami and renting a car could be a good way to check out various places in the Keys.

[bobmacliberty]

11 hours ago, Keksie said:

On the other site where Bella is Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge has a page with a picture. You can find it by searching for the Refuge.  The staff can post patient pictures.  The picture is from a couple of weeks ago.  I think there will be more as they grow.  

 

Found it.  They definitely are cute, especially all balled up together in their pen. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/3247879512173030

 

[bobmacliberty]

15 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

He finally went Thursday (nagging works!)

 

When a man says he is going to do something, he is going to do it.  There's no need to nag him every year. 😜

[Arzeena]

11 hours ago, Keksie said:

On the other site where Bella is Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge has a page with a picture. You can find it by searching for the Refuge.  The staff can post patient pictures.  The picture is from a couple of weeks ago.  I think there will be more as they grow.  

I googled the name and it popped up.
You guys do a great service.

[h20skibum]

26 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

We drove from Amelia Island and broke up the trip with a stay in Key Largo.  Driving was fine and again I'm glad I did it, but if we were to go back it would either be flying or taking the high speed ferry from Fort Myers.  It's a long drive from Northern Florida just to get to the Keys, and then another long drive all the way to Key West.  Flying into Miami and renting a car could be a good way to check out various places in the Keys.

We only made the drive to Key West once, and that drive was from the Ft. Myers area.  It was even a long drive from there, and even longer when you consider we were driving back to Pennsylvania after that trip. 
 

All our other visits to Key West have been on cruise port stops.  One other unusual place to see is where they keep Robert the Doll.  It is a little hike from the cruise port, but we did that on one trip when we had a lot of time. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

 

[grapau27]

32 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I’ve been avidly reading all the comments about knee and hip replacements. Andy’s had problems with his right knee and hip for a few years, to the point that he walks with a noticeable gimp and has great difficulty putting on a sock and tying a shoe on the right foot. His primary told him it’s likely arthritis and referred him to ortho, which of course he’s ignored.  He finally went Thursday (nagging works!) and was told he has severe arthritis in his hip and mild arthritis in the knee. His knee pain is most likely a result of the hip issues. So hip replacement scheduled for Nov 5th. He was given a shot of cortisone with the disclaimer he might only see 10-30% improvement, he says the 10% is about right.  I think he put it off out of fear of the surgery, but so many people have told him hip replacement isn’t bad these days, much easier than the knee. 
Anyone here had this done? 

I was told they don't use a general anaesthetic now rather a numbing injection near the hip which eased my worries of having to stop my heart medication pre-op when I decide I need to get it done.

High dose Ibuprofen or naproxen helps arthritis a lot if you can take antiinflammatory tablets.

A regular on P&O forums in his mid 70s had hip replacement surgery done recently and said he is walking several miles a day now and was walking up stairs the day after the op.

 

[Arzeena]

@brillohead

Good to see you back here. We missed you.

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

@brillohead

Good to see you back here. We missed you.

+1 @brillohead

[aussielozzie18]

4 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

 

Bonnie, you are so sweet to ask after me!

I got behind on posts, then felt bad about it (because I like to read ALL the posts so I know what's going on with all my friends here), so I kept putting off coming back until I had time to read ALLLLLLL the pages I had missed and then it snowballed to the point that it would be physically impossible to catch up.  (I have a tiny bit of OCD about certain things, and this is one of them.)

So I finally told myself to suck it up, and I came back today and only read back about the last fifteen pages. (Yes, my OCD is kinda twitching right now, but I'm powering through!  I know I have missed so much!!!!!) 

So to anyone who posted something sad, I'm sending you positive juju, and anyone who posted something happy, I'm sending you congrats.  

I'm glad to be back amongst you all again, and I'll try not to let my OCDish tendencies get in the way of posting here again in the future!

So pleased see you posting again

[aussielozzie18]

59 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

I googled the name and it popped up.
You guys do a great service.

+ 1 @Keksie

[aussielozzie18]

3 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

In addition to clear margins, which has already been mentioned, a lot of it has to do with how they're going to close the hole.  

 

Think of it like sewing....

You have a hole that is 1.25 inches in diameter that you need to sew together.  You want to sew the edges together, not just covering the gap with thread, like you'd do when darning a sock.

If you just sew all the edges together, you'd end up with a puckering in the fabric all the way around the hole (like a drawstring purse), with additional stress on the fabric in all directions.  On skin, this would make an UGLY bumpy scar, plus increase the risk of the stitches getting ripped out because of the excess pressure/stretching on the skin as your body moves.

Instead, you would want to make the incision longer on each side of the circle -- basically, it's going to look like a drawing of an eye (apologies, I am not artistic, and even less so with a mouse!):

 

So now when you sew the purple edges together, the fabric won't all bunch up and pucker in the middle, because the loss of fabric will be spread out along a greater amount of fabric.  Similarly, the stress that is put on the sewn edges is shared along the entire length of the incision instead of all focused in one area, so the stitches are less likely to rip out, and with less stress on the area, scarring will also be minimized.  

 

I hope this makes sense... I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I said it.

 

 

Okay, I wasn't happy with my drawing, so I found an actual lesion excision on YouTube and took some screenshots (no gory pics, in case some have a weak stomach). 

To remove this mole, you can see that the surgeon drew the "eyeball" elliptical edges extending beyond the mole on both sides:




Then when it was stitched back together, it made for a smoother incision without the puckering:

 

 

The larger the area that needs to be removed, the farther out the incision needs to go in both directions in order to prevent puckering.  

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Edited to add:  I absolutely LOVE Aquaphor for scar prevention.  It's basically Vaseline with a few additional skin-friendly ingredients.  If you want to reduce scarring, try to prevent the area from forming a scab -- you should keep it moisturized at all times to prevent the tissues from drying into a scab,
 

 

Great info.  Seen that drawing often - my surgeon usually just draws it in pen on paper

[aussielozzie18]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

Lovely photo of you Graham and that food all looks delish.

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I’ve been avidly reading all the comments about knee and hip replacements. Andy’s had problems with his right knee and hip for a few years, to the point that he walks with a noticeable gimp and has great difficulty putting on a sock and tying a shoe on the right foot. His primary told him it’s likely arthritis and referred him to ortho, which of course he’s ignored.  He finally went Thursday (nagging works!) and was told he has severe arthritis in his hip and mild arthritis in the knee. His knee pain is most likely a result of the hip issues. So hip replacement scheduled for Nov 5th. He was given a shot of cortisone with the disclaimer he might only see 10-30% improvement, he says the 10% is about right.  I think he put it off out of fear of the surgery, but so many people have told him hip replacement isn’t bad these days, much easier than the knee. 
Anyone here had this done? 

 

Hips are MUCH less complex than knees.  We rarely have a hip replacement patient spend the night at our hospital (same for knees, but we do see more knees than hips overnight).  I can actually only remember one hip replacement in the last year, and that was because she was an elderly woman who lived alone, so it wasn't safe for her to go home (she discharged the next day to our rehab facility for a couple weeks before returning home).

My left hip has gone bad because of how long I've been walking around on my wonky left knee... if they'd replaced the knee when I asked them to, I wouldn't also need the hip replaced.



 

[Sunshine3601]

13 hours ago, Coralc said:

The trailer looks really good, but also very sad. I don't really like sad movies, especially involving animals. Because I cry so much. 

We will probably watch a few more episodes of FALLOUT tonight. 

There are definitely moments that I was in tears.  The bond they formed and what he did to help the dog is beautiful.   At one point the dog saved their lives.   I cannot say much more without giving away the ending other than I highly recommend, worth the tears😊

Edited April 28 by Sunshine3601

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Lovely photo of you Graham and that food all looks delish.

Thank you for your nice words @aussielozzie18

[cruiselvr04]

2 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I’ve been avidly reading all the comments about knee and hip replacements. Andy’s had problems with his right knee and hip for a few years, to the point that he walks with a noticeable gimp and has great difficulty putting on a sock and tying a shoe on the right foot. His primary told him it’s likely arthritis and referred him to ortho, which of course he’s ignored.  He finally went Thursday (nagging works!) and was told he has severe arthritis in his hip and mild arthritis in the knee. His knee pain is most likely a result of the hip issues. So hip replacement scheduled for Nov 5th. He was given a shot of cortisone with the disclaimer he might only see 10-30% improvement, he says the 10% is about right.  I think he put it off out of fear of the surgery, but so many people have told him hip replacement isn’t bad these days, much easier than the knee. 
Anyone here had this done? 

DH had his done several years ago.  I highly suggest a surgeon who does a lot of them and does them through an anterior incision.  Do your research.  DH had no issues at all. We went on a cruise 3 months later pain free, no limp, you’d never know he had it done. 

[Luckynana]

3 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

Looking good there, Graham!😉  Have a great day (well,evening in England now)

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

 

 

That red velvet cake looks incredible. Looks like a splendid lunch.

 

 

2 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I’ve been avidly reading all the comments about knee and hip replacements. Andy’s had problems with his right knee and hip for a few years, to the point that he walks with a noticeable gimp and has great difficulty putting on a sock and tying a shoe on the right foot. His primary told him it’s likely arthritis and referred him to ortho, which of course he’s ignored.  He finally went Thursday (nagging works!) and was told he has severe arthritis in his hip and mild arthritis in the knee. His knee pain is most likely a result of the hip issues. So hip replacement scheduled for Nov 5th. He was given a shot of cortisone with the disclaimer he might only see 10-30% improvement, he says the 10% is about right.  I think he put it off out of fear of the surgery, but so many people have told him hip replacement isn’t bad these days, much easier than the knee. 
Anyone here had this done? 

 

Tell Andy I am thinking of him. As Deb @brillohead says hips are easier to rehab than knees. I had several hip replacement patients in rehab with me. I talked to them about their experience and they all said it was not bad at all. If Andy has mild arthritis of the knee he should be able to get by for a while with Hyaluronic Acid Injections such as Synvisc or Duralane. They could give him relief for at least 6 months to a year. Will his hip replacement in November interfere with going on Bella 2.0?

[Sea Dog]

@brillohead Welcome back! I know it's tough when you get behind on reading posts. It happens to me. I know I have missed things from people here. For that I am sorry. Glad you are doing ok.

[Luckynana]

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

We only made the drive to Key West once, and that drive was from the Ft. Myers area.  It was even a long drive from there, and even longer when you consider we were driving back to Pennsylvania after that trip. 
 

All our other visits to Key West have been on cruise port stops.  One other unusual place to see is where they keep Robert the Doll.  It is a little hike from the cruise port, but we did that on one trip when we had a lot of time. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

 

You seem to be a bit of a risk-taker, Mark!  Any misfortunes after visiting Otto's Robert the Doll?  I sure hope not!  When we were in New Orleans years ago, one of our daughters asked us to pick up a "mojo bag" for her, which we did!

[Luckynana]

@brillohead  Welcome back, Debbie!  You've been missed!!🥰

[helen haywood]

@brillohead I understand feeling like you want to be all caught up on the thread before posting but sometimes that’s not feasible.  I am cursed with an overly active imagination so I was afraid something catastrophic had happened to you or a family member…so don’t stay away so long in the future!!  Besides, we need you to explain medical issues to us!!  😊

[Ocean Boy]

On 4/26/2024 at 4:45 PM, Sea Dog said:

I bought her new album. I like it. I also have a vested interest in her now.

Is there a song that stands out to you? The only song I've heard on it is "Ioml". I can't get past it as I find it a bit haunting. I've never before heard a song of her's that I've wanted to learn to play and sing.😲