This is the first time I've posted here, I've been a bit of a lurker so far.

My mother was told last year that she needed a new knee, but it wasn't bothering her too much and she pushed it off a bit because she helps look after my kids. Then just before Christmas she started having bad hip pain, and back and forth to the doctor and various diagnostic imaging over Christmas and on New Years Eve was told she needed emergency hip replacement. We waited for a call, wondered how long it would take, then the day the kids went back to school she broke her hip when she twisted to push a door open button. They replaced her hip the next day and she had an amazing recovery.

As she got more mobile she started having pain in both knees. They would swell up, and make it difficult to move. The surgeons offices are all still closed, and the pain has become so bad that she is considering going to the ER, though we don't know what help that will give.

She is a stubborn, highly active woman, who is feeling pretty down. Even her hip replacement recovery was difficult, she is a sewer and a knitter and had no desire to do any of. She has forced herself to do some gardening, but by the end of the day she can't move.

I think some random cards of kind words would cheer her up.