2019 Life Logs, Day 62: Justin Heads Home to Puerto Rico
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.
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.
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.
