by Judy Handley | May 16, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 137: Another Rainy, Dreary Day
Date: Thursday, May 16, 2024
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High Temp 59, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Since I am spending almost 100% of my time inside for a few days, I guess I shouldn’t care that is rainy and dreary. But dreary outside means dreary inside, and I don’t like dreary. So to brighten our world, Detta was my indoor gardener for the day, transplanting indoor plants from one pot to another. One plant was given to me by a friend dear to Detta and to me, Leslie Kole. She brought it to me on the day of Mark’s celebration of life and, within a year, it had outgrown the pot it was in. For the past seven years, every time I have looked at that plant, I have thought about buying a bigger pot and replanting. Today that finally happened. Two more plants that came into my life this winter and were just left in their pots from the nursery also got a permanent home today. And Detta dug up some of the many lilies of the valley to take home. She also ran errands twice during the day. I just alternated doing my exercises with putting my feet up with ice on my knee. That is certainly not exciting, but it is what needs to be done to heal.
by Judy Handley | May 15, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 136: Dreary Day
Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High Temp 64, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
What a dreary day. But despite the weather, Detta and I managed to have a good day. We did some indoor gardening and not much else except work on my recovery. Detta did all the work of keeping me on schedule and I did the walking and the exercises prescribed at yesterday’s physical therapy evaluation. Things are still going along with no problems, and I am able to move around with minimal pain. I can only hope recovery keeps going smoothly.
by Judy Handley | May 14, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 135: Wonderful Friends
Date: Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 63, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Heather left to go to work this morning after making me promise not to get up until my friend Karen Baranowski arrived to be Nurse Karen for the day. I didn’t sleep much last night as I was high as kite from the steroids I was given in a knee surgery cocktail, so taking an hour-log nap was great. When Karen arrived, we got to work on a campaign ‘get out the vote’ project for Heather. We put a stamp and an address label on 1,000 post cards. We worked all morning , me with my leg propped up on a chair with an ice pack strapped on to my knee. At noon, we stopped to make lunch, and just before we sat down to eat, Olivia White arrived to help with the postcard project. Then later in the afternoon, Claudia Needham stopped by to help. By 3 o’clock we had completed our project. Hooray for wonderful friends!
I had a visit from a visiting nurse today to check on my progress after the knee surgery, plus I got a call from two different nurses from Cape Cod Hospital checking up on me. Then I had my first in-home PT session. I am doing really well so far, and I have now been given my marching orders for a daily exercise program. Hope I can keep up with the program.
Karen left around 4 pm and Detta arrived by 5 pm. As always, we have talked away the night. She is a great nurse and will be with me until Friday. Then I’m on my own.
by Judy Handley | May 13, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 134: At Home and Feeling Great
Date: Monday, May 13, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 59, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Fast, efficient, and so far, successful. That is my description of my knee replacement surgery at Cape Cod Hospital today. Heather picked me up at 8 am and we were home by 4:30 pm. I was in pre-op by 8:55, in the operating room one hour later, out of the operating room at 12:06 pm, and alert about an hour after that. Heather received texts every step of the way. I had a spinal, not general anesthesia, with some other drug that kept me just enough under that I don’t remember anything. The anesthesiologist said it was a cocktail that has the effect of drinking too many glasses of wine. Thankfully, there are no after-effects. Heather received texts every step of the way. I think it was just before 3 pm when the physical therapist came in to work with me. I was amazed that there was almost no pain when she got me up. She had me walk to the bathroom, made sure I could get down and back up, had me walk up some stairs, and then back to post-op. The magic that allowed this to happen pain-free was a nerve block drug, Exparel, that suppresses pain for three or four days after surgery. I have no pain except a little discomfort when raising my leg to get it up on the sofa and back down. Walking is pain free. I am taking Tylenol for pain and Aspirin as a blood thinner to prevent blood clots. When I begin to get pain on day three or four, I have the option of taking an opioid. It would be wonderful if I do not have to do that. I realize that when this wears off, the pain free party is over. But I am going to enjoy it while it lasts!
Heather is with me tonight and Ollie came over for the evening. He and I watch Kung Fu Panda 3 while we ate dinner. When Jed came over to get Ollie, we all had another piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. I am elated to report that it was a good day from start to finish.
by Judy Handley | May 12, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 133: 12 Hours to Go … Ready or Not
Date: Sunday, May 12, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 55, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Happy Mother’s Day! Last night I got a delivery of strawberries, raspberries, and Haagan Daz vanilla ice cream from Justin and family for Mother’s Day. They just put in an online order at a local grocery store for delivery. Justin let the delivery people know when I was home, and they brought it right over. What a simple, but great idea. But seeing all those strawberries made me want a strawberry-rhubarb pie (one of my favorite things) for Mother’s Day, so I made that happen. Then this morning, Heather and Jed drove over to surprise me with a new outdoor table. Heather and Ollie rode their bikes over later and put it together. And while they were here, they did a few other things for me. I got a chuckle out of Ollie’s comment. He worked hard assembling the table. When he was finished, I asked him to get my outdoor chairs out of the basement. When he put them around the table he said, “Oma, I don’t really think these chairs look great with this table. They don’t match.” He is right. The glass top of the old table broke into a zillion pieces last fall. Replacing the glass in an oval-shaped table was just too expensive. I saw this table at Job Lot last week. It doesn’t match, but the price was right, and it was here in Falmouth. I really wanted a table for when Justin and family arrive in less than 3 weeks, so getting it prior to my knee surgery was a priority. So, thank you, Heather, Jed, and Ollie for making that happen.
I only got half of what I planned to do today done. So, surgery is now 12 hours away and all of the food preparation I planned for the next few days is just not done. Who needs to eat anyway?
by Judy Handley | May 11, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 132: 36 Hours and Counting
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny with a Wind Chill; High Temp 53, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Just thinking about today makes me tired. I could have stayed home and done nothing, or I could have stayed home and done all of the things that I need to do to get ready for the next few weeks. But I did neither. Instead, I made choices to do the things I wanted to do, and it made for a busy, busy day.
It started with an appointment at 8 am to get the oil changed in my car and have the tires rotated. Then from 9 am to noon, I participated in the standout for Heather which meant standing on the main intersection in Falmouth holding a campaign sign and waving to every car that came my way. Standing for that long is a challenge for me, but with my brace on I was able to do it. I have to keep walking the whole time because if I just stand still for a few minutes, the pain in my knee is truly excruciating when I try to take a step. When the standout was over I walked across the street to get a photo of Heather with the others who participated today.
Then I went to Heather’s to find out the afternoon soccer schedule. Jed and Sam were in Connecticut today, so Heather needed to leave immediately to get Ollie to Somerset, about an hour away, for his 2 pm game. Jonah mentioned that he needed a ride to meet up with a friend who had offered to take him to his game in Lakeview in about 40 minutes. So, I offered to deliver Jonah to his ride and decided to then drive to Ollie’s game to see the last half and then on to Jonah’s game, again to see the second half. I really had not planned to do this, but since I won’t be going to soccer games for at least a couple of weeks, I just couldn’t help myself. I left Heather’s with the promise to Jonah of returning in 40 minutes to get him to his ride. I hurried downtown to vote as early voting began today. Since I am having surgery on Monday, I wanted to get this done. I drove home to take Shadow for a short walk, went back to take Jonah to meet his ride, and then headed about an hour north and west to Somerset to Ollie’s game. His team is undefeated this season and they play with such joy that it is truly fun to watch.
When that game was over, I drove about 30 minutes to Jonah’s game. Even though it was partly sunny, I was doing all of this wearing a down vest and a jacket and I was still chilly. The wind today made it feel downright cold, especially when the sun went behind the clouds. Heather needed to borrow my gloves as her hands were freezing. Where is the warm spring weather?
By the time I drove the 45 minutes back to Falmouth and ran one errand, it was almost 6 pm when I drove into my driveway. I took Shadow for a walk and played ball with him in the driveway as I still don’t want him walking on the lawn sprinkled with herbicide. Shortly after that, Bruce and Jane Woodin stopped by to pick up some bottles of bubbly I am donating as prizes at Encore’s Margaritaville evening next Saturday. I will not be attending as that is too soon after my surgery. We had a wonderful visit, but when they left at 8 pm, I realized I had not eaten lunch and it was way past dinner time.
