2024 Life Logs, Day 202: A Little Cleaning, A Little Organizing, A Little Gardening
Date: Saturday, July 20, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 77, Low 71 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Slow, slow, slow. Everything I try to do these days takes me so long. My body just doesn’t move as fast as I think it should, so I keep thinking something is really wrong with me. So tonight I Googled, “How long should it take to feel absolutely normal after a total knee replacement?” The answer I got is that it takes “3 months to return to most activities and likely 6 months to one year to fully recover to maximal strength and endurance.” Then I Googled the same question for a laminectomy and the answer to that question was between two and six months. Well, it has been exactly six months since the back surgery, but then when you read on it says, “However, you may find the area that was operated on will never be as flexible as it once was.” So, okay. I am just 2 months and 2 weeks out from the knee surgery and 6 months out from the back surgery, so I probably should not be surprised that my energy level is zapped so quickly requiring frequent rest periods while I work. I just have to plan for things to take twice as long as expected.
That said, I did get a little cleaning done today (very little), a little organizing which required putting accumulated things back where they belong. I had to make a number of trips to the basement to put things away and what seemed like a million trips from one end of the house to the other getting things back where they belong. Late in the day, I went out to plant a few things that were still in the containers I bought them in. And I continued my daily pulling of unwanted vines that seem to be encroaching suddenly in all parts of the yard. And the big accomplishment of the day was getting the twin inflatable mattress deflated and put away and the sheets and blankets washed and stored. Then I got out the full-sized inflatable mattress and got it ready for my friend Lynne who arrives on Wednesday. That was the one thing I had to do today, so at least that is done. Otherwise, I only got half of what I wanted done, so that work will continue tomorrow.
The other thing I had to do today got done as well. Justin and family will be flying home to Puerto Rico later this week and I had a whole pile of things they had to leave here because of space constraints. I went to the Post Office to get a couple of flat rate Priority boxes and came home and got them packed and ready to send on Monday morning. Mission accomplished.
