Recovery Days.....Friday and Saturday

Recovery takes time.....and it's hard work.....but it's also a blessing.

I am so grateful to have this surgery behind me and to be 12 days into recovery.

I am already walking better than I was before surgery.

However, recovery is a process that takes time. Day by day one must do the work of recovering.

It's really not that hard when I relax and realize I am in it for the long haul.

Kirby, the physical therapist, has asked me every day, "Do you have plans?"

And every day I tell him, "No, just resting and recovering at home."

He assures me that I am clear to go out.....to eat or shop or visit.

So far I have been content to stay home.

Yesterday he brought a step with handles for me to step up and down on.

I did it fine and he laughed and said he was trying to find something to challenge me.

I have all the exercises down but that doesn't mean they don't hurt. Or some of them do.

Today he brought an oval foam cushion 'step.' I balanced standing on it with my 'bad' leg and bent the other one like a crane. My task was to stand balanced without holding on for 90 seconds. 

Oh, MY!!! Now THAT was a challenge! Kirby explained that in that exercise, I use tiny little muscles deep inside the knee. I could sure feel them after that long 90 seconds!

Who knew such small exercises could do so much?

I was happy to tell Kirby that I will be going out tomorrow so I will do the exercises on my own.

He was excited I had plans!!

At first I told him I was planning on going to church but then I changed my mind.

Instead, Louis Dean and I will watch the service live online.

Then we are going to Dallas to watch Harrison and Logan's hockey game.

Kirby clucked around like a mother hen warning me to be careful of steps and climbing and such.

I'm looking forward to getting out of the house - not that I'm tired yet of staying in.

I love staying home. 

So far I have spent more time in bed than out of it.

Louis Dean comes in and has his morning coffee or afternoon tea and sits with me and we visit.

Then he goes off and works on his music or projects and I entertain myself.

Yesterday I watched an Endeavor program.....which was rather dark.

I lined up a funny film to watch next and I may do that tonight.

I finished up the hydrocodone and did much better tolerating it this time than in previous surgeries.

Now I am taking Tylenol 3 which is not quite as strong. The pain is not unbearable although it does wake me up at night. The side effects of pain medication is what is making me feel so sick.

I am eating lots of fiber and doing all the things they suggest but the afternoons seem to be when I really feel ill. Tomorrow we will go to the pharmacy and find something a little stronger to help me be more 'regular' if you get what I mean.

I noticed Louis Dean hovering around the door this afternoon just waiting for me to wake up from my nap. He had a song he was wanting me to hear!

Right now he is into George Jones and Tammy Wynette duets.....

and he has worked out arrangements for An Old Love Turned Memory and We Live in a Two Story House. He is the dearest man. I love that he loves to sing to me. And that he has the patience of Job.

He's quit cooking so much - I guess he got a lot of it out of his system - and is heating up soups and preparing easy meals. AND he is cleaning up fairly well.

I've been doing some housework everyday so the only room that looks really bad is the den.

We are both going to tackle that room on Monday.

I pulled myself together this evening and gave him a good haircut!

While I don't know how to wax his eyebrows - I do know how to 'mow' them with the clippers!!

He's in the den waiting for me to finish this journal entry and come out and eat chicken noodle soup with him and watch a program.

I'll close with this 30 year old picture of Deanie, Nita, Lonnie and me.

Deanie found this the other day and sent it to us in our group text.

The year was 1990. 

Little did we know then where we would be 30 years later.

And WHO we would be 30 years later.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Philippians 1:6