April 13th: The Wait is Over, Success!

The day for Linda's left hand knuckles replacements surgery finally arrived. We drove to Miami Sunday to make certain we would be at the Cleveland Clinic in plenty of time. We enjoyed the afternoon with the new King Kong movie at the theater with the reclining seats. We thought the movie was fun. Then we had a great dinner at a very good Chinese Restaurant we found close to the Clinic.

The surgery started at 1:00 PM. We were hoping Linda would be finished early enough to make the 3 hour drive back to the boat instead of staying in a motel. The surgery was very successful and took less time than her right hand, so we were able to return to the boat about 9:00 PM.  She has a new big foam block that makes it easy, when sitting around, travelling or sleeping, to keep her hand above her heart.






When we arrived back to the boat we found these flowers on our table. Compliments once again of our friend Sharon.




















After a day of rest Linda was feeling good so we went out to breakfast Wednesday. Really fun to see her wiggle her left hand fingertips. I told her perhaps she could now do the dishes with her right hand. She's pretty sure her doctor said "No".

Notice, even without the foam block, Linda is conscientiously keeping her hand above her heart as directed. That keeps the swelling down. Seems to be working well so far.





We'll return to the Clinic April 21st when they'll take the cast off and replace it with a splint. The rehab will basically be the same as for the left hand; cast off  and replaced by a firm splint after 11 days, final stitches out after 18 days, and a dynamic splint to replace the firm splint for about another 6 weeks.



We're looking forward to Linda having two fully functional hands when we get to Guppy in June.

Linda driving Guppy shortly after we bought the boat. Notice no name yet.

Added "Guppy" to the Transom.

Added Guppy to the Flybridge

Can you tell we're anxious to get to New York and on Guppy? It has been a lot of waiting this winter because we discovered it takes a long time to rebuild the muscles and tissues in the hand, but the results are fantastic. We are very grateful for Linda's surgeon, Dr. Friedman, and his team. The work they do is truly amazing. The end is in sight!