Follow-up Friday

From oldest to newest, are updates on various topics.

My frozen shoulder and bum knee: I don't even notice my shoulder any more (unless I try to reach up my back with my left arm), and my knee is good for everything but jogging or extended standing. The road to recovery for both started with a good physical therapist, who not only treated both but gave me exercises to do at home and showed me how to tape them for support. Doing things that abruptly challenged my shoulder's limited range of motion hurt like the dickens but always resulted in improvement. I also took naproxen sodium preemptively as well as remedially. For the last month or so, our family has been playing volleyball or basketball every Saturday night, and it feels great to be that active again!

Horse health (even though I keep most of my horsey news on my horse blog): After two different ligament injuries, I am back to riding my mustang Lance several times a week at all three gaits. Our show season was a wash, but as long as he's sound and we can still school dressage, I'm happy. The news about Brian's old pony Breezy (above) is not so positive. As I mentioned on my horse blog, she has been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. The first chemotherapy Rick tried made things worse instead of better; this week he injected the tumors with a different drug. If treatment #2 isn't effective, there probably isn't anything more we can do for her.

Fencing: Brian continues to learn – and love – fencing. He started with four weeks of "Learning to Fence;" now he's taking four weeks of Beginning Foil and Beginning Epeé. We picked up a used underarm protector, his first piece of fencing gear, at the urging of the salle; Brian was so excited I think he wore it to bed.  ;-)

Vienna's lameness: She is still a little off on that left hind leg, but it's much improved. I think I must have strained it in putting on her coat.  :-/

Artesian: I didn't get far before I realized I'd really messed up the set-up row. Unfortunately, I had to throw it in the frog pond; fortunately there wasn't much to rip out. I hope to cast on again tonight.

That's it for today from . . .