We drove 11 hours yesterday to spend 3 hours in Iowa City. Jack had a follow-up appointment at the University of Iowa orthopedic clinic for his ankle replacement. We left here at 6 am, arrived at the hospital at 11:30, ate a quick bite, took x-rays, saw the docs, left the hospital at 2:30 pm and arrived home at 8:20 pm. We had planned to stay in Des Moines on the way home but changed our minds. I think the trip back from Des Moines was a record: exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes door to door from the Waterfront Restaurant on University Avenue (highly recommended by the way).
I tend to get sleepy when I drive at high speeds for a long time. If I snack I stay awake better so I brought some trail mix and graham cracker sticks, thinking that should be enough for a trip where we’d be sharing the driving.
When we returned, here’s what I unloaded from the car.
- two empty water bottles
- two empty soda cans
- most of a bagel
- a bear claw pastry
- 7 Abdallah caramels (yum)
- 3 empty caramel wrappers
- one cookie (the other was eaten between Iowa City and Des Moines)
- an apple
- 2 chocolate bars
- an empty Mounds bar wrapper
- half a Rice Krispie bar
- 6 mustard packets (WTF?)
- half of the trail mix
- all the graham cracker sticks
- 3 newspapers
If I were a long-distance truck driver, I’d be hauling snacks instead of loads of produce across the country.
We drove up in heavy rain and the cold front kept the temps in the 70’s all day which was a great relief from the 90’s at home. The ride back was overcast but dry. An hour after we arrived home we were under a tornado watch and the storms hit an hour later. Perfect timing.
Jack’s new ankle is healing fine. Four moths post-op, it’s still swollen but getting better. Because the component is larger than most human ankles (do animals have ankles?), it will always be enlarged but there is some edema that should eventually go away. His range of motion is about 20 degrees up and 10 degrees down and not much side to side. He still has problems with stairs and uneven ground but hopefully that will improve. And he’s off pain meds for the first time in more than two years. Fingers crossed that the other ankle stays stable for several more years. By then, the components should be smaller and lighter.
Another check up in 3 months and I’m looking forward to the junk food we’ll bring home from that trip.
