by Judy Handley | Mar 7, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 66: Over the First Hump
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2019
Weather: Still Sunny and Cold; High 28, Low 15 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I wish I thought knee replacement recovery would be a one “hump” affair, but I’m not sure that will be the case. Today is day ten after the surgery and I did feel like I made it over the first hump. I’m down to taking Tylenol three times a day or every 8 hours and any pain or tightness I have is manageable with exercise and ice. I feel like I am getting my energy level back and it is much easier to get around and to do the prescribed exercises. The visiting nurse that came today was the ‘real’ nurse who has been on vacation in Florida. Evidently, I have had substitutes. Today’s nurse said if things continue as they are now, I will be released next Wednesday—ready for outpatient physical therapy. She said I could start driving as soon as I feel up to it, just as long I don’t have to revert to taking stronger pain medication. She said as soon as the snow and ice is completely melted, I can start taking walks outside. And she said I can reduce the time that I have my feet elevated to a couple of hours during the day. She also talked to me about nutrition and recommended that I keep track of how much protein I am taking in each day. She says as long as the body is healing from a wound, it needs 75 grams of protein daily. If you don’t eat that much, your body will ‘steal’ it from somewhere and that robbery can lead to tiredness. According to her, protein during the wound healing process equals energy. I had Heather go to the store to buy some Kefir, cottage cheese, and yogurt for me. Heather added protein powder to that list. I don’t normally eat dairy, but I will add it for now. The nurse also said to eat eggs daily as the albumin in eggs aids in wound healing. Her suggestions check out with what the National Institutes for Health say about wound healing, so my focus tomorrow will be figuring out how to get those 75 grams of protein while eating boiled eggs for snacks!
by Judy Handley | Mar 6, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 65: The Day After
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 29, Low 13 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was like having a hangover after having a bit too much fun the previous night. Yesterday was such a wonderful celebration of my birthday with friends and family, so spending today alone paled by comparison. I did have a visit from the physical therapist, and she gave my knee another thorough workout that my leg didn’t forget about easily. I am having a little muscle pain still tonight, but exercise and ice will take care of that. I spent the rest of the day either exercising or propping my leg up and reading or resting. I am very pleased with how things are progressing, and I know I need to keep following the prescribed plan, but the part I find the hardest is keeping my leg above heart level for part of each day in order to reduce the internal swelling. In that position, I even find it even hard to read, but hopefully I have only a few more days of this. Today I talked on the phone with friend Christina Brodie who had the same surgery three weeks ago. She said she views her exercise and rest routine as her job right now, and I’m going to adopt that thinking. Going through the prescribed exercise routine four times during the day only takes two to three hours, but when you add the leg-up rest in-between exercises, it takes a great deal of the day. And as the swelling subsides, I’ll be able to sit up at the table and work on my long list of computer projects. So, no lack of things to do . . . just hard for someone who is used to being on the go much of the time to sit still for so long. But that’s my job.
by Judy Handley | Mar 4, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 63: Exercise, Rest, Exercise, Rest
Date: Monday, March 4, 2019
Weather: Some Snow Overnight, Then Rain; Overcast; High 41, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My day was all about exercise, then rest, exercise some more, rest some more. Rest includes getting my left leg elevated and iced, so all I can do is either read or sleep. And since I didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night, I did a lot of sleeping. For some reason, I had pain, more like muscle cramping, in my left leg which I had not had before. It was not bad, but just enough that I could only sleep for about two hours before having to get up and walk around a bit before going back to bed. Finally, at 5 am I got up and did the whole set of exercises and a lot of walking. That did the trick and I was able to sleep for another two hours, get up and take the last pain killer, then sleep for another three hours. I didn’t get up until 10 am! But then I had to get up to get ready for the physical therapist to come. We shall see how I do with only Tylenol for pain control from here on out. Tonight and tomorrow will be the big test. Tomorrow is my birthday and the women friends from my Newcomers Dining-in group are bringing lunch and planning to take me to Woods Hole to see a movie at the library. I just have to make sure that I keep my leg up and iced during the afternoon. I’m hoping I will be able to do this. Late this afternoon, I started getting birthday greetings from friends where it is already March 5th—Lynne Kirwin in New Zealand, Linda Stuart in Australia, and sailing friends Chris and Geoff in Australia. And a few family greetings have started arriving. My mother’s birthday would have been today, as well as my brother-in-law Joe’s, so it has always been confusing as to which day was which person’s birthday. Happy 85th to you, Joe!
by Judy Handley | Mar 3, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 62: Justin Heads Home to Puerto Rico
Date: Sunday, March 3, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny Today, More Snow Tonight; High 41, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was my last day with Justin. I am doing fine on my own now, so it was time for him to head home to Puerto Rico. We had brunch at Heather and Jed’s and then at 3:30 pm Heather picked him up and took him to the bus station for the ride back to Boston Logan.
He had a 7:20 pm flight to Ft. Lauderdale and an 11:30 pm flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Aguadilla. He will land there at 2:30 am and then take a taxi home to Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. The kids really miss him when he is gone, so I know they will be elated when they get up in the morning and daddy is home. It was so wonderful to have him here for those first days after surgery and I really appreciate the effort he made to be here. So, thanks to Justin and thanks to Jo, Ziggy, and Coco for sharing him with me. And thanks in advance to Heather who will take over the care. She checked at least three times today to make sure I could take care of getting my own dinner. So far, so good in terms of taking care of all personal needs. I can even get in and out of the shower with no assistance. After Justin left, friends Karen Baranowski and Christina Brodie came over for a visit. Christina is almost three weeks post-knee surgery and she is doing great. Gives me hope that I’ll do the same. The physical therapist moved me from a walker to a cane today and gave me quite a workout. She is pleased with the range of motion, but that does come at the cost of a little pain. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” Hopefully the pain will remain manageable. March has evidently decided to keep roaring in like a lion as we are expecting snow again tonight. I have nothing I have to do tomorrow, so let it snow.
by Judy Handley | Mar 2, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 61: Taking It Nice and Easy
Date: Saturday, March 2, 2019
Weather: Early Morning Snow; High 36, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’m still taking it nice and easy, letting my body recover from the knee replacement. Everything continues to progress and every day gets just a little better. This is Justin’s last night here and we are both sitting here on the couch working on our computers. He spent his afternoon driving to Hyannis to do some shopping for things to take home with him and I laid on the couch with my knee propped up doing a lot of reading. The physical therapist wants my knee higher than my heart for parts of each day, so that means head down and knee propped way up. This is an awkward position which is not much good for anything other than sleeping or reading. But I’m doing everything I am directed to do in hopes that I will be walking without the walker in a couple of days and possibly driving by this time next week. Karen and Peter Baranowski stopped by while Justin was out and Peter brought me an early birthday present—Elderberry lozenges. Not that I need them. Just that I am ‘elder.’ Justin leaves mid-afternoon tomorrow. I am going to miss him, but I am now able to negotiate without someone helping . . . so it is time for him to get back to Jo and the kids. After Justin leaves, Karen is going to bring Christina Brodie over for a visit. Christina is the friend that had knee surgery recently and now we will be able to compare our progress.
by Judy Handley | Mar 1, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 60: Sushi Dinner at the Goldstones
Date: Friday, March 1, 2019
Weather: Cold; High 33, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This was day 5 of recovery from my knee replacement surgery and things continue to go well. I’m sleeping during the day more than I anticipated, but doing the physical therapy exercises is taxing and rest is good. 
I felt good enough to go to Heather and Jed’s for a special sushi dinner tonight and enjoyed the entertainment provided by the Ollie and Jonah and Justin. Ollie and Jonah were curling when we arrived. Well, not with big curling stones, but with small brooms and cork coasters. Ollie and Justin played violin
and then the everyone but me went downstairs for a little rock concert. So, it was another good day. We are expecting snow overnight again and the district-wide science fair has already been cancelled for tomorrow morning. It the snow comes as expected, we will be homebound tomorrow morning, but I imagine the roads will be cleared by late afternoon.
