I had another orthopedist appointment yesterday. All is continuing to progress as expected. The problems left from the meniscus injury have been recovered from. The arthritis issues are another story.

I finally remembered to ask about the pics that were taken during the surgery, which are in my chart. Yeowza. No wonder the darn knee hurts. Even my entirely untrained eye can pick out the places where there's cartilage that's frayed or worn away -- it's that obvious. I won't go into more detail than that, because I'd be heading into "involuntary cringing and being grossed out" territory.

No darn wonder I was so sore after the surgery, too -- that little camera had to go looking around in a whole bunch of places inside the knee, plus the doc did his best to smooth out areas that needed it. Evidently, there was no shortage of areas that could've used some attention. All that looking around and the subsequent repair work must have sent a whole lot of the surfaces in there into "inflamed and sore" mode for a while.

Dang. Well, you know my motto: DON'T FALL. Darn force of gravity. ;)

In other news, on Saturday, Mark and I went out with my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday. We went to a restaurant that we haven't been to in a while, The Pub in south NJ. Great food, great salad bar -- I highly recommend it. :)

While we were there, we were seated next to a HUGE table that was obviously set up for a very large group of people. I wondered what family or company was going to be having their annual holiday get-together there.

Turns out it was both, in a lot of ways. When they arrived and their leader gave the blessing, it was obvious that this was a large group of firefighters. God bless them.

On the way out, I felt compelled to stop by their table to thank them for their service and wish them all the best. I approached the person who said the blessing -- as he was at the head of the table, I figured he was the most senior member of the group. He thanked me for the well-wishes and said that they were the Camden City Fire Department. He also noticed, and got a kick out of, my baseball-bat cane. :) He held it up to show the rest of them, and said, "This has a dual purpose -- she speaks softly AND carries a big stick!" :D

Anyway, God bless those firefighters, and all other first responders, and may God keep them safe and sound. I can't say enough good things about them and what they do to help people in times of crisis.

Beyond that, there's not a whole lot going on these days. I have one more Christmas gift to purchase, and then I'll consider myself all done for the holiday season. Thank goodness for online shopping.