Good Outing Good Report and Disappointing Report

Hello from Linda,
We did get to go to the Little Red River board retreat Sat. and Sun., as you can see by the picture posted. I was watching the beautiful clouds, praying sometimes and day dreaming sometimes. I saw so many birds. a lone heron honked a couple of times and flew up river right in front of me. I've only seen them standing with their great dignity and patience on one leg before. Flocks of ducks and geese came and went. Several other large birds came by. I enjoyed watching many circling and floating on the wind currents. My time out there was the last hour up to and including dusk, so I felt privileged to see the birds' bedtime activities.
And I did have fun and surprised myself how I kept up with the work (going over mailing list, etc.) and not having to take naps. Just rested on sofa now and then. I rested all day Monday!
All the board members were so sweet to look after me, serve my plates, etc.

Tuesday, March 10 was a great visit with Dr. Yuen. He said since the graft wound is closed so well, I can get it wet in the shower now! Not only that, but when I asked how long before I can try water aerobics, he said "Now!." I can hardly believe this since we were using totally sterile techniques changing the dressings just last week. I love the water and hope it will help me with overcoming stiffness. His next big surprise was he said instead of waiting two months for the orthopaedic surgery, now I can have it as soon as in one month. I don't return to him now for one month.

The appointment today with orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Gruenwald was informative and helpful in that way, but disappointing due to how limited the outcome can be.
First, he wants to wait a couple of months before surgery to see how much additional use I can
gain from the scrambled bones, nerves, veins, ligaments and tendons, etc. Much of what he'll have to cut through will be the skin grafts, which cover over half of my forearm. That's a tender or numb area that is just starting to rejuvenate all the tissue I mentioned above. He described the surgery he'd need to do like filleting the whole arm to do the repairs. He said he can place everything where it will look great in an x-ray, but that's a long way from making it work right.

I'm faced with how badly injured this arm really is. I will have a cat-scan in 3 weeks and return to Dr. Gruenwald in 4 weeks. Then he will present me with his plan. He encouraged me to get a 2nd opinion. Well, right now I want someone to say there's no problem fixing it up like new. Dr. Gruenwald doesn't want to promise it will be much better than it is now, but he's being conservative because we can't know how much it can improve now that I'm allowed to move it freely, in the limited way I can. It was immobilized for weeks. Now I can only reach a foot from my head. The splintered bones at both ends of the radius bone prevent me from bending my wrist inward and from bending my arm in at the elbow. He described them as floating around in there. I just feel sure removing them in surgery will help, surly! Please pray for me to trust God for the right decisions and the right help. Dr. Gruenwald has a very good reputation.
More to come as I can make sense out of it.
Love, Linda