A Grateful Update

Shame on me for not updating sooner.  I have written an update on the Facebook page "For the Love of Keith Longmore" set up by my kids.  I'm on here because Jayne showed me how.

God has been very merciful to me and my family.  Surgery on my hip a month ago has been very successful.  My range of motion is almost back.  I have a series of stretching exercises I do each day, and now have begun using some of the leg strengthening machines at the gym as well the stationary bicycles.  I ride about an hour a day for the equivalent of eight miles.  That is eight miles an hour.  My normal is  fifteen to twenty miles an hour.  So I have some work to do.

I can get in and out of my own bed and can shower on my own.  My walking gait is normalizing.  All the hospital equipment we had in our home is gone.  No hospital bed, no wheelchair, no walker.  To top all of that off, I have been cleared to go back to work on the 15th of January. I will have a slightly reduced teaching load to see where my stamina is, but I'm pretty excited to be back in the classroom.  I'll be teaching the Gospel and World Religions and the second half of the New Testament.

My orthopedic surgeon told me to walk, walk, walk.  He is an avid bicyclist himself and he said to ride to my heart's content on the stationary bike, but no pavement riding until March when he said, "There better not be a speck of snow or ice on the road."  He also encouraged me to ride bike paths, of which we have a great one nearby.  Then when I have my bearings down, I can do more riding where ever.

I'm even driving again and Karen made me get a second car.  Her reasoning is that if we had had a second car, I wouldn't have felt the need to take a motorcycle last summer.  I didn't argue with her.  We bought a second Honda Element.

My home health nurse has discharged me.  My awesome physical therapist has his last session with me today and then he will discharge me.  I still have a lot of work ahead of me in continuing to get full range of motion back and to overcome the stiffness that comes along with my injuries.  But the prognosis is full recovery.  I am six months ahead of schedule.  The initial schedule would have still had me in the hospital.  Many thought I would be in a wheelchair the rest of my life.

Again, and I'll never be able to say it enough, thank you for all your prayers and expressions of continued prayers.  One of the greatest things I learned from all of this is the very real power of prayer, and of love and friendship.  I'm not quite done so your continued prayers will make good things great.

I am grateful to be alive to see the birth of our first grandchildren, twins.  They are still in the NCU, but are doing well.  They should come home around the first of the year.  Names:  Adaline and Everly.

May the New Year to come be full of blessings for all of us.  When the world seems so dark and ominous, don't forget we are in the last days.  But we have had many assurances that as we live the gospel, we can still enjoy a great measure of happiness and contentment.  I know that to be true.  Even when things are hard, God can bless us with happiness.  I love all of you.