2019 Life Logs, Day 59: The Having of Wonderful Friends
2019 Life Logs, Day 59: The Having of Wonderful Friends
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2019
Weather: Snow Overnight; High 32, Low 12 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Justin and I enjoyed sleeping in this morning and as a result of a good night’s rest, his cold symptoms are much better and my knee continues to get stronger. Then things got busy. We got an inch or two of snow overnight, so Justin had to do a little shoveling just in time for the visiting nurse’s arrival where she gathered baseline information. When she left, Justin and I had lunch and then friend Detta Porat from New Hampshire arrived bearing gifts.
She brought a complete dinner with dessert, and now that Justin and I have had that dinner, I can attest to its deliciousness. Flounder Almondine, green beans, boiled potatoes with parsley, and ice cream with chocolate caramel sauce for dessert. Yummy. While Detta was here, Justin went out to run an errand and the physical therapist, Annie, arrived. She spent a complete hour doing an initial assessment and going through the litany of exercises that I need to do at least three times a day. She reports that I am doing fine and have good range of motion for this point after the joint replacement. She will return each day for five days and then probably three times a week until Monday the 18th when she suggests I make my first appointment for therapy out-of-home. When she first arrived, she suggested Monday the 25th for that date, but after working with me, she backed it up a week. Hopefully I will continue to progress as I have to date. While Annie was here, Karen Baranowski dropped by to say hello and while she was here, Midge Frieswyk came by to drop off onion soup for lunch tomorrow. Midge and Karen stayed only minutes as I continued to exercise, but hopefully they will return next week when we can have a longer visit. Detta left around 4 pm to continue her trek to Connecticut and I then took a nap. I really am trying to balance activity with lots of rest to help with the recovery process. After dinner tonight, Justin I watched a film that highlights real life stories of how adopting an organic, non-GMO diet is reversing chronic disease for many people. Justin is promoting this film as part of his work right now, so I was anxious to watch it with him.
I was able to walk in with the assistance of my walker and even followed along we shopped in the fresh fruit and veggie department. Justin arrived with a cold, so we came home and both took a nap. Then this evening Heather, Jed, and boys came over for a visit. I am balancing rest with movement, but I am also following my surgeon’s recommendation of getting out and about as much as feels right. We are supposed to get some snow tonight, so I’ll probably spend tomorrow tucked away at home. I have a visiting nurse coming to visit, a physical therapist, and good friend Detta Porat coming from New Hampshire unless the weather circumvents that visit. Life is good.
It was dark when I got to the room yesterday, so this morning’s view was such a delight. And this morning I still had no pain, so I was able to walk, climb stairs, and do all of the exercises presented by the physical therapist. I had lots of visits today with hospital administrators checking on my satisfaction with service, with representatives from the home health service that will be sending a nurse to my home to check on me during recovery, from the physical therapists and from their administrative staff, from yesterdays’ anesthesiologist to make sure all was well, from the surgeon’s assistant, and finally from the surgeon. He explained that my knee was even more degraded than he expected based on the x-rays, so he had to do some rebuilding before putting in the new knee. That made the surgery a little longer than expected, but he seemed very pleased with the results. And then later in the afternoon Heather came to visit. She brought me some goodies—nuts and dark chocolate that I requested—and some granola for breakfast. Yummy num! By mid-afternoon, the knee block given yesterday started wearing off and it became harder to move my knee. It just feels stiff, a little painful, but manageable with the drug regimen. The only negative side effect of the drugs given in this pain management system is slightly blurry vision. The nurse tonight did some research and thinks it is the drug called gabapentin which acts as a nerve block. I will talk to the doctor tomorrow to see if he thinks I really need it. The blurry vision only affects reading, but even that is manageable as I finished another book today. So, life here at the Cape Cod Hospital has been much more pleasant that I imagined. My huge room has glossy wooden floors, a window wall with a great view, and fantastic service. But I will be very happy to get home tomorrow afternoon. Justin should arrive around 2 pm and hopefully we will be on our way home no later than 4 pm. They say they will start the check-out process as soon as he arrives—very accommodating.
I had a wonderful beginning as I was greeted by pre-post op nurse Melissa Keefe as soon as I started the pre-op procedures. Melissa lives next door to Heather and Jed, so I know her well. She spoke to all the people working with me telling them that I am the adopted grandmother of her children. They do call me Oma and Melissa used that to encourage that I be treated with special care. It was great to have her as an advocate but I got the feeling I would have had great care no matter what. Everyone in pre-op was friendly, thorough, and efficient. The anesthesiologist was fantastic and gave me a great comparison of general anesthesia versus a spinal. There are pros and cons of both, still couldn’t decide. The deciding factor came when he said that going with the surgeon’s recommendation is important and that the block allows them to use much less anesthesia . . . so I went with the flow. And it seems to have worked. When I woke up after surgery, I felt great and still do. One thing that made me feel great was that Heather was there to check on things and just spend time with me. I know how busy she is, but she insisted on being there for me and I reaally appreciated it. Thank you, Heather!
And then today, I turned the living room into a seed planting operation, bringing the garden soil and seed starter potting mix inside and turning my coffee table into a work table. I started filling each of the cells in the planting trays with the just right mix of soil and waited for Heather to arrive to do the planting. She figured out which things needed to be started today and which ones we will plant later. I wanted her to do the planting because last year I noticed that the seed trays she planted had a much better germination rate than the ones I planted. She is meticulous and seeds must like that. It is a bit unconventional to have a greenhouse in your living room, but I think it looks great. 
The shelves are located in front of the two large windows on the front wall of the living room so the plants will get natural light as well as the light from the grow lights. Some seed trays were not planted today, but they are ready to plant when the time is right. Other than this project, the rest of my day was in preparation of my knee surgery. I got the call yesterday telling me to be at the hospital at 9:15 am on Monday and that the surgery is set for 10:45. Heather and I will both drive to Hyannis so I will have a car there for Justin to drive when he arrives on Wednesday. Heather will work in the waiting room during my surgery and make sure I’m all settled in a room before she heads home. The hope is that I will be released on Wednesday so that when Justin arrives from Puerto Rico, he can drive me home. He’ll take the bus from the airport in Boston to Hyannis and then walk or get a taxi to the hospital. At least this is the plan. Now I just have to make sure I am a good patient and can get out of the hospital as soon as possible.
