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.

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 5^th—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!

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.

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.

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.

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 18^th when she suggests I make my first appointment for therapy out-of-home.  When she first arrived, she suggested Monday the 25^th 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.

2019 Life Logs, Day 58:  Home from the Hospital
Date:  Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Weather:  Mostly Cloudy, Cold, Evening Snow; High 26, Low 20 degrees F
Location:  Back Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA 02536

Hurray!  I am home from the hospital and Justin is here with me.  Fantastic.  I had a rough night as the nerve block wore off and pain took over and somehow ended up with chills and a fever over 100.  But the nurse said this is not unusual, just my body reacting to the surgery and pain.  She gave me an extra blanket and I sweated it out and was fine this morning.  I have had a really good day.  Justin arrived on time, caught a bus an hour earlier than I thought he would, and we were out of the hospital by 1:30.  He was starving, so we headed to Whole Foods to get lunch.  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.

2019 Life Logs, Day 57:  Knee Surgery Recovery, Day 1
Date:  Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Weather:  Sunny and Cold; High 33, Low 14 degrees F
Location:  Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis, MA

Amazing, even with all the interruptions by nurses and aides checking on me, I had a great night’s sleep and awoke to a beautiful pastel sunrise over the Vineyard Sound.  What a view I have out of my window.  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.

2019 Life Logs, Day 56:  Post-Surgery Report
Date:  Monday, February 25, 2019
Weather:  High 44, Low 23 degrees F
Location:  Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis, MA

So far, very good!  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!

Now, here’s the ‘but’ in tonight’s report.  In the past hour, nurses have started coming in with different drugs.  I’m sure the drugs will fight the pain when it comes, but I fear the side-effects.  I could decline them, but friend Christina Brodie, who had a knee replacement just two weeks ago, strongly recommended the strong pain killers for the first few days and I am going to follow her advice and constantly evaluate as things progress.  I have not talked to the doctor and surgery took longer than expected, but I feel all is well.  The pre-surgery drug routine of a trio of drugs (Tylenol, Celebrex, and Gabapentin which relieves nerve pain) and the pain block that they injected in the nerves above the knee worked great for me.  I still have absolutely no pain and can walk and sit in a chair with no problem.  But I know that will become much more difficult when the block and pre-surgery drugs wear off.  Be prepared for tomorrow’s night report to sound entirely different.  Stay tuned.  And thanks again to all who went well wishes.  In last night’s log, I failed to mention my wonderful friend Detta from New Hampshire as she had texted me on the previous day to confirm that on Thursday she is driving to the Cape to see me and bring a favorite meal.  She is a friend who always goes the extra mile.  I really feel blessed to have such caring family and friends. I’ll count on you to continue sending mental messages focusing on ‘manageable pain with no heavy duty drugs!’