by Judy Handley | Mar 9, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 68: On the Road Again
Date: Saturday, March 9, 2019
Weather: Warming Up a Bit; High 45, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My little Honda Fit is on the road again with me behind the wheel. I have many miles to go to get this left knee fully rehabilitated, but since it is my left leg, driving is fine. I didn’t go far today, just to Heather’s to do laundry, but it felt freeing to be able to drive on my own again. And it was a good day to be out and about as the weather was mild. The high today was in the mid 40’s allowing the boys to play outside in shorts and light jackets. Maybe spring is just around the corner. At least we are going to spring forward tonight as we move our clocks an hour forward.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 67: Reading
Date: Friday, March 8, 2019
Weather: Still Sunny and Cold; High 35, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Reading has filled my days since the knee surgery. I immersed myself into the world of Inspector Gamache in Louise Penny’s mystery novels until today. I still have five books in that series to finish, but today I decided to read one of the books Heather gave me for my birthday, ‘Educated’, a memoir written by Tara Westover. Tara, the youngest of seven children in a survivalist family, was born in 1986 in Idaho. She had no schooling, not even homeschooling, but at age seventeen she managed to self-teach herself enough to pass the ACT. That got her admitted to Brigham Young University where she stepped into a classroom for the first time in her life. It is quite a story and I managed to read almost half the book today. I could get used to this lifestyle of exercising a little, reading a little, and repeating that all day long. But it is time for me to start getting out and about a bit more. I still need to keep my leg elevated for periods of each day and I need to keep it iced as much as possible. But slowly, very slowly, I will begin reentrey into the real world. In the morning, Jed leaves town for six days, so I’m sure I can find a way to help Heather by doing afterschool pick-up this week. I’ll try driving for the first tomorrow and see how that goes. It has been chilly ever since my surgery making it a good time to be homebound. But it looks like the coldest days are behind us, at least for the next few days. Sunday looks rainy, but most days look partly sunny with daytime temps in the upper 30’s and 40’s, rather than in the low 20’s. Most accommodating.
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 5, 2019 | Cape Cod, USA |
2019 Life Logs, Day 64: Amazing Birthday
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Weather: Glorious Sunshine; High 29, Low 17 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
As I left Heather and Jed’s tonight after a fabulous birthday dinner, I thanked the boys for a perfect birthday celebration.
Jonah stopped me right there and said, “Oma, nothing is perfect. How about saying it was an amazing celebration?” Okay. I’ll buy that. It was an amazing birthday. Despite being only one-week into the recovery from knee surgery, with the help of friends and family, I really did have an amazing day. Friends brought lunch here to the cottage
and then we drove to the Woods Hole Library to see a viewing of the independent film, “Tea with the Dames.” This was a delightful visit with Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright where the audience is invited to ease drop as they reminisce and discuss their acting careers. It was a perfect birthday film as these four British Dames truly show what it means to age gracefully. Together, they are 342 years old, still going strong with lots of wit and wisdom to share. On the way home, I was dropped off at Heather and Jed’s where the boys were busy preparing for Oma’s birthday dinner.
Artichokes, of course! With gluten-free cupcakes decorated deliciously and beautifully by Heather
and so many presents to open.
Homemade cards by Sam, Jonah, and Ollie, a couple of books, one by a favorite author, the other called “Educated” which looks very interesting, lighthouse earrings, a strawberry topper, kitchen scissors, and even a small ammonite fossil refrigerator magnet from Jed’s mother, Marti. Thanks, Marti! But my favorite gift is one that any mother would want to frame. It is a dish towel from Heather that says, “OMG–My Mother was Right About Everything!”
Now I have proof! I also got a birthday phone call from Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco and a photo from my 60th birthday dinner with the Kanegsberg’s in New Zealand. I do believe I’ve aged a bit since then.
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!
