Good morning,
@FourCats. I was sorry to hear that you are having a tough time. I’m hoping your Dr will be helping you find some good strategies to work with your new diagnosis. Years ago, I worked as a PCP , basically working in homes of elderly & disabled folks, doing just basic chores to help them. I had the privilege of getting to know some really wonderful people who had many different challenges. One little lady, in her 90’s, had an incredible history of overcoming some pretty rough circumstances, and a great wit and much wisdom. I still miss her. Another lady had fibromyalgia. She was very sweet, & gave me some wonderful cooking tips from her growing up in Mexico. I only saw her 2-3 times a week, but she did seem to have a full life. She was widowed & lived with her daughter & family, & was obviously a much-treasured grandma/ Mom, and contributed to the family well-being in a lot of ways. I know she did have bad days, but I’d say that overall, she experienced a rich, full life.
You mentioned reading. A thought. Obviously, you are a cat lover. Same here, although we just have the one rather spoiled little “ princess”, as we have dubbed Miss Felicity. We have always had a kitty throughout our 52 years. When we had our woodworking business, we’d often listen to books on tape, particularly during long hours of sanding , there was a Lot of sanding required! We both loved mysteries. Somewhere along the way, we discovered a series of mysteries written by Lillian Jackson Braun titled. “ The Cat Who” series. We LOVE them! They really helped pass those long hours of some of our more tedious chores. In fact, my husband is now reading the entire series again, in order at night. They are easily available in both hardback and paperback, on Amazon, and even used, very reasonably. Also on audible, I believe. The woman who wrote them was brilliant! She would regularly educate the reader of some new area of interest, she must have had a rich life of curiosity and research. And she had a sense of humor! Her characters are well developed, a number of them you get to know well. I highly recommend! There are 29 books in all, so can keep you well supplied with reading. I’m thinking of starting them myself, it’s been a long time. Right now, I’m scanning some of my old Cooking Light magazines for some favorite recipes, the older ones have some wonderful classics that are “lightened”.
Well, I should get our breakfast started. We slept I a bit today, as we were both pretty worn out from covering all our newly planted tomatoes, tomatillos, & bringing in flowerpots to protect them from a late winter storm! We’ll probably get snow tonite! Then, I Think our warmer weather is here to stay! Thinking positively!!
Do take care, and know you are in my thoughts and prayers that you will be feeling better soon. You are still a little more than 3 months since your knee surgery. It Will get better. I still struggle some with my balance, and still working on my ROM. Mine has been over 7 months. We have been working hard on getting our garden started, so I’ve been a bit lax on some of my exercises, and, due to the really strong winds here, and my being under the weather for a bit due to a reaction to our 2nd Covid booster, we’ve missed a lot of our walks. But, better weather should help that. Even if my knee is not perfect, I’m still so very glad I had the surgery, and would definitely do it again. That bone-on-bone pain was really becoming unbearable.
Take care, & I’m thinking positively for some better days to come for you.