THR Diary of my journey to happy times

Hey there @Klassy So sorry about your knee. Laughed that you went looking for who to hate, rubbish burning! Hope things settle down soon. Gardening is beckoning, but it will have to be next spring for me. No way I’m kneeling. Love this time of year.
 
You poor thing. I'm sure you feel quite qutted that your knees are interfering with your fabulous progress. Because of my pre-existing knee pain, I think I have mentally prepared myself that it will be a factor in my recovery. Although I feel a bit mad about it interfering, I can put it on a back burner for now.

Despite your knees hurting, you dug holes? :hairpulling: Do I need to come over there and give you a slap?
If I can convince someone to help me, I think I am decided on my yard this year. Just sweet william out front to lend some colour to the bushes, new bark and maybe some tomatoes, carrots and peppers in the back. I think I am going to plant sweet william all around the sad looking shed so it makes a canopy. They look after themselves well into September here but offer the most beautiful abundant flowers.
 
@Fit4Family you are wiser than me. Though I shall be checking up on you at the 4 month stage when you receive your engraved invitation to the ODI Club.

Husband is away, so @Carriemay60, you are hereby appointed slap giver in chief.

I was very good yesterday and did nothing. I put my best clothes on so I wouldn’t be tempted by even the most adorable seedling or insolent weed.

Today will be more of the same, although I did walk about a mile to an appointment. Took 45 minutes and I felt every step. Took a taxi home and now icing.

I have put Sweet Williams in all the difficult spots in my garden. They seem to put up with anything. Although we may not be talking about the same plants here, as the UK version wouldn’t make a canopy. Well, a gnome canopy maybe.
 
Laughing. Picturing my engraved invitation. Seriously, have not been on ground since I fell and broke my hip, so can’t imagine willingly getting down there any time soon. Plus, if I can kneel, I can clean our shower floor. Really not missing that. ❤️
 
Also laughing. When I told friends I was going in for a hip replacement and they asked how long I would be out of action, my standard reply was always “The surgeon says no driving for 6 weeks, no ringing for 4 months, and definitely no housework for 3 years.”

I got back to ringing ahead of schedule, but unfortunately it seems like housework may take longer than expected. In fact, it appears that my husband will always have to clean the shower floor. So disappointing.
 
We have one of those land handled scrubbers. Works a treat for the big soaker tub and the wall tiles.

Klassy, I think we might be talking about the same plant. I have a scrubby little bit of gravel/dirt near the front porch where the paving tiles change direction. I can only get the seeds about an inch deep but once they get going they climb all over the porch railings. So I'm hoping with a little bit of trellis, they will climb all over the shed.

I should have guessed your hubby was away when you went from being told no to planting so fast! :bignono:
 
It’s all about harnessing technology.

Google “GE big boy appliances SNL” for a must see video on this.

My husband happily cooks a roast dinner ever since he downloaded an app for it.
 
It still doesn’t sound like Sweet Williams, aka dianthus barbatus.
Sweet pea maybe?
 
Day 136 update.

My name is Klassy and I am impatient.

I have been smugly posting my 10 day updates along the lines of “Look at me, sloooow start but now doing so well, all it takes is patience, simples”.

Now I stand before you as a warning of the dangers of the 4 month ODI Club.

For the last 10 days I have had a lot of pain around my left knee and I have had to stop doing everything.

When I read back over my previous updates all the signs were there:

“Day 116 ...Developed a persistent pain in my left knee by trying to push it to walk down stairs alternating feet. I gave it plenty of rest and ice and it mostly settled down.

Day 126: ... Unfortunately the left knee is limiting the distance I can walk. However, as long as I stop at the first twinge, there is no lasting pain. In the last 10 days I have started borrowing a dog to take walking ... I have begun walking downstairs with alternating feet, sometimes it comes easily even on steep stairs, other times I have to abandon it due to knee twinges. I did a 1.2 mile walk uphill in 26 minutes fairly easily, the downhill return, after a rest, was harder, again due to knee ...”

Me bad.
 
Your penance my child is to twirl around three times saying “I must not overdo it!” And then put your feet up and ice for 40 minutes armed with a box of chocolates and something juicy on Netflix!

I hope you feel better soon :)
 
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Days 137-140.

Day 137 (last Friday) was one of my lowest days for a long time. It was the third day in a row of total rest so I was bored. Not only did my knee still hurt, a lot, but I had a terrible cough. I would have been googling for all the dreadful things a cough might mean, except that H had started coughing a few days earlier. When it wa just him coughing, we thought he had an allergy, because he suffers badly with hay fever and the pollen count is high. But I don’t get hay fever. Either there is something else we are both allergic to, or we have both caught some new bug that starts with a cough, or the cold we both had back in February is staging a return performance. Eventually we both developed runny noses, so it seems like the good old common cold once again. I’m glad I didn’t waste too many hours googling links between THR and lung cancer.

On Saturday we were booked to go on a ringing outing. This involved driving 3 hours to a motel for Friday night, a full day of visiting 6 towers to ring, then drive home. I felt so bad after the drive up Friday evening that I enquired if we could book the room for Saturday night so I could spend the day in bed while H went on the outing without me. I mention this to give an idea of how crummy I felt, that 24 hours lying down in a Premier Inn was more attractive than a day out in beautiful countryside meeting friends to indulge in my favourite hobby, not to mention the pub lunch that I had pre-ordered. But they were fully booked for Saturday night.

This was lucky, because I woke up feeling 50% better, and by maxing my pain meds I managed to enjoy the outing. I also managed to ring a quarter peal on Sunday to which I was committed. And go to ringing practice on Monday morning, because one has to live a little. But I’m lying down with ice this evening instead of ringing and going to the pub. And I have not touched the garden! I managed to get H to do a little bit of weeding, by threatening to do it myself. And the plants I did get into the ground before my knee went on strike are flourishing after spells of rain and sun. But I think I will have to accept that in 2019, as in 2018, I am not able bodied enough to keep the garden as I would like. Ah well, never mind. My recovery is an investment of time that will pay off in years to come.
 
Day 141. Some gentle garden work, just feeding prunings into the shredder, water the new plants. Day 142, nothing to speak of, a bit of housework (load and unload washing machine, not scrubbing floors or anything active, then resting with ice. The highlight of the day was cutting my toenails for the first time post op. I could have done it much earlier, but I had a professional do them at about 2 months and they have only just grown enough to need cutting again. I hadn’t quite reached the point of not being able to cut them pre op, but it was a big struggle. It was maybe just a tiny bit easier, maybe the same.

Day 143 I walked to the post office, about 1500 steps, maybe half a mile, each way. Mainly to post a birthday card overseas, but also to see whether I could resume walking Max.

The answer is no. I had to stop and sit on a bench both ways to relieve pain in and around left knee. Sitting brings immediate relief, but then it is worse when getting up, eases a bit after a few steps, but staying too painful to walk for pleasure.

For the first time I had the thought: was the op worth it? Almost 5 months on and mobility is right back to where it was pre op.

Very discouraged.
 
Awww, bless your heart. The knee will quit being a brat soon and settle down soon I hope. Whenever my knee flares it feels puffy like there is fluid on it and I think I've heard somewhere that an injured knee does gather fluid, make it bounce back slower than many other areas. I wonder if you find anything useful to help this along by looking on the knee forum? I think elevation helps and a alternative ice & heat. I'm not sure walking on it a lot will do it any favors at all. Knees up Mother Brown!! :rotfl:
 
Thanks for your thoughts my friends.

I’m hoping it is just soft tissue problem and nothing that will show up on an X-ray- not prepared to think about OA of knee.

Day 147 and I have missed my 10 day update. I wish I could say that was because I was out living life, but not so. Still using knee as little as possible and hoping for improvement. It is not quite as bad as it was.

On plus side, hip is fine, no pain sitting or lying so able to sleep normally, able to enjoy bellringing.
 

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