"You Boys Are Going to College!"

When our sons were younger, Ted would come home from work, more often than not, sore. His knees hurt. His legs hurt. His arms and back hurt. Occasionally, depending on what he'd done at work, he'd have a headache too.

Don't get me wrong...he really enjoys plumbing. Anymore, very little of what he does involves working on toilets, so the "gross" factor barely exists these days. He repairs and changes various gas lines and water lines. Sometimes, when the economy was better, he would work on new houses. He works on remodeling projects, changes water heaters, replaces gas and water services. The job is quite varied.

There isn't a thing wrong with being a plumber, trust me. He's extremely handy to have around. When we built our new home, he saved us thousands of dollars by doing all the plumbing himself. When something went wrong with the pipes in our old house, he was always able to fix them. He's been a real help to my parents with their various plumbing needs. In fact, sometime this weekend, he'll be going there to change a laundry tub faucet.

However, it can take a toll on a person's body, and he's had his shares of cuts, bruises, a trip to the E.R., time at the local orthopaedic office, and of course, many trips to the chiropractor.

He used to come home, occasionally moaning from the pain, and would look at the boys and say, "This is why you boys are going to COLLEGE."

They both heeded his advice.

One of his latest plumbing related issues was a fluid filled area below his left knee cap. The doctor entered the exam room, glanced at Ted's leg and said, "Holy sh*t, Ted, what did you do?"

It almost looks like an extra knee cap. His "real" knee cap is at the top, and the bursa is down a little bit. The doctor said it was "baseball sized."

The x-rays came out fine, thank goodness.

After checking it all out and having some x-rays taken, the doctor said that this came from kneeling so much with his job. Then he said he wanted to try an anti-inflammatory medication before anything else. That didn't help. In fact, the bursa was a little larger, so we went back to the doctor several days later.

It was a little larger by this time.

On the second visit, the doctor came in, and said it was indeed larger and that he was going to drain it.

Ted was laughing because I was taking pictures of the doctor's tools.

All cleaned up and ready to be STABBED and drained.

I thought it was quite interesting to see how the doctor inserted the needle into the bursa along the side, and sucked all that gunk out. He got out a fair amount.

After we left the office, we had to stop over at the hospital because Ted had to drop off the fluid that was drained, so it could be checked by the lab.

Fortunately, it was all okay.

This was the FOURTH time he's had a bursa drained near a knee.

And the boys are looking forward to returning to college in the fall.