Author: Eric Celeste

Noelle reports that Dagmar is back safe and sound at home. Josephine will be spending some time with her over her winter break. Stephen is also back in town after his trip to Turkey. Sorting through the mail may take a while.

Dagmar was discharged from the rehab center today and is on her way back up to Cleveland. Christopher accompanied her as she signed out of New Albany Gardens and went to an appointment with her surgeon’s assistant. Her bend is still measured at 90 degrees, but she promises to stay on top of the PT and keep working the knee. She also had what she expects to be her last dose of oxy this morning. The report from the surgery follow up is that everything looks good and what Dagmar is experiencing is all within the normal range of symptoms for this stage post-surgery. She is welcome to have surgery on her right knee whenever she feels up for it. Meanwhile, no swimming or sauna until the end of January.

Christopher reports that Dagmar is now at the point where here new left knee feels better than her still-original right knee. Of course, she is still on some oxy, so that may have something to do with it, but she expects to be done with that in a day or two as well. She told Christopher she is definitely interested in doing the other knee too. She looks forward to seeing Dick and Mary Jo while still in rehab, on Thursday she will meet with her surgeon and then head back home to Cleveland.

On Friday in Cleveland she will start her new no-swimming, no-sauna, yes-workout and PT routine at the Winton place. Here is some of the equipment she will have available there, in case her rehab PT staff want to give her any advice on how to use it.

Dagmar joined us in Minnesota via FaceTime for our Joy Sunday Advent Celebration. She was in good spirits and sang along as we caroled for an hour around our candle-lit Christmas tree. I am very thankful that she is feeling so much better.

Christopher visited and Dagmar reveals she has reached a milestone, bending her knee 90 degrees! Well, actually, she says “percent” but the measure is actually “degrees.” Among other things, this means that her goal is actually higher than she thinks, more like 110 degrees so she can get out of all that low furniture in her house!

I was back in Dagmar’s apartment overnight while waiting for my morning flight. I spent some time prepping a bit. Moved the cat litter and food to her guest bathroom to free up the master bathroom for the raised toilet seat to come. Cleared some pathways so that Dagmar could get down her hall and into her study area. We will have to do something about the rocking chair blocking the route to the bathroom. Sasha is lying in wait to trip up her mistress with joy.

Measured the bed as 20 to 21 inches off the floor, but the black living room furniture is only 14 inches off the floor and the red couch (which I had to move over a bit to make a clear path) is only 12 inches off the floor. Clearly Dagmar will have to continue to work on bending that new knee in order to comfortably stand up from such low furniture.

And she will certainly want to make the walk down to Natalie’s place, the view this morning was spectacular.

On Wednesday Noelle and I left Dagmar. Fina checked in on her again later in the evening, and Christopher gets back to town on Friday, but all in all Dagmar will have much more time on her own. PT and OT continue and Dagmar is working on her own exercises. Still, this leaves plenty of time to text or answer the phone, so please feel free to call her and encourage her to keep on working. Bending that new knee is all important. As Dagmar says, “I’ve learned that when it hurts, I am not hurting it.”

The rehab center always schedules a “care conference” for families of new patients to help them plan for discharge and the care needs at home. Dagmar wanted hers to be held before I left, so we had it today.

The team here including Polly, Jeremy, and Shari will work toward a discharge date of Thursday 12/21.

Noelle, Fina, and Cam visited Dagmar today.

We learned that Mary would be preaching at Luther this morning and were able to catch the live stream as she preached about Our Lady of Guadalupe. Of course, Dagmar kept up her own running commentary about how holy the mountaintop had been for Juan Diego’s people before the conquistadors and how important it was that Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego with dark skin. She told me that she had seen the cloak he wore when she once visited Mexico, and found herself weeping without reason or end in its presence, watering the garden of the soul. She loved a phrase Mary used repeatedly in her preaching, that often we only see what we know to see. Mary asked us to be open to seeing what will change us.