Guest viewing is limited

TKR Right TKR 6/5

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi @Raffs and @Braunzie ,

I was almost inert yesterday. I called insurance company and billing offices and paid some bills that were due, spoke w/my daughter and son on the phone. Played music quite a bit. Finally at the end of the day I had to force myself to put up the instruments and put away the music books, but it was sort of like taking a tennis ball away from a black Lab after he's spent the day chasing birds in the swamp. Spirit is eager, but the flesh needs someone to flip the off-switch.

Today is not much more productive--more music, finished a movie. Planning on getting a shower and doing a trash run to the dumpsters site. I'm going to try taking a pain pill about an hour before bedtime today, and go through my exercises. I think I can pull them off; will do my best, and if I find out that puts me in the IODI club, I'll have Sunday to recuperate. Also hope to get an online grocery order in to the box store so I can pick it up tomorrow. I'll also pick up some ice so that I don't have to run errands after work this week. That should help.

House is dusty and cluttered and I have zero-none-nada-zilch ambition about sprucing it up. Which bothers me, a little.

Scar continues to heal--it almost seems to be a daily difference. Thinking about this, and no doubt in my mind I've made the right decision to go through with this. A few months of inconvenience vs. a lifetime of limping and sitting on the sidelines. We just have to be courageous, right? Get through this? Then, there's the world out there!

So next week I have the first of my dominoes-cascade of health exams, ones I've put off for years. Trying to wrap everything up while I still have insurance coverage at 100%. And the following week I've got an eye procedure scheduled; will have to fly to another city to get it done. I have developed difficulty in fine focus, and my eye doc told me three years ago it was correctable with a minor procedure, but the only guy in state who does it lives out of town. That's how long I've been kicking this around, and trying to find the time and coverage to take care of it. I compensate for it without even realizing it; I'll be playing music and realizing I have one eye scrunched shut to improve my focus. It's an energy drain, and makes work more difficult, too. Just decided to go for it. Like the knee, no one is going to do it for me. If it's going to happen, I have to make it happen.
 
Sounds like you're taking it pretty easy. .. That's good. How long of a flight will you need to take? Hope it's not too long. The thought of dealing with airports doesn't sound appealing, but I'm guessing the ones you would be using are relatively small? Hopefully.

My house is dusty and cluttered too.. I'm generally a clean house freak, though working full time with 4 kids has helped me "adjust" my standards a bit. Even still, I just kind of need to put blinders on and appreciate the bit of help I can get when my husband and 2 daughters can do when they are not working or taking care of their own priorities.. I may even splurge and get someone to come in and clean the whole house in a few weeks when my girls have gone back down to Portland (for school and work). A clean house for me is definitely mental therapy.. :yes:

Hopefully you'll be OK with your exercises tonight and can enjoy another relatively relaxing day tomorrow in prep for next week.. Wishing you well!
 
The house will be fine. Wonderful that you are making the time to get these medical matters taken care of.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
The quiet time will do you the world of good. I think part of the "letting go" that this recovery entails is giving ourselves permission to do whatever we feel like doing in that moment. Carry on playing your instruments if that makes you feel good, the time will come when you'll feel like sorting out the house and that will be the right time for you.

Couldn't agree more re how worth it this will be when we're back out in the world again. Like many others on here, I've lost far too much life recently. I cannot wait to get out there and have some fun again.

They'll be no stopping you once you've had your other health issues dealt with, you'll be the best version of you possible, and it doesn't get much better than that, does it?
 
Hi again, ladies.

I feel like all I'm doing lately is getting on here, listing everything I've been doing, whining that I'm tiiiiired, and saying I'll be back later. And yes, that's what I'm here to do again! :heehee:

DD awakened me with a `let's chat' phone call just after I fell asleep last night, and I was awake until 2 am after that watching cat videos. (I have no explanation for that.) Had hoped to get up at five and try to go swimming before work--we know THAT didn't happen. :yawn:

Dragged out of bed at 8, gathered odds and ends to eat over the course of the day, showered, dressed, and gathered up the trash. That was the part that was unbearable--all the containers were full to overflowing. Dumped the trash, went in and put a day in at work, picked up my son's phone from his friend, picked up my weekly supply of ice, pulled up to the garage and got salmon and a roasting chicken out of the freezer, over to the house, and then lugged seven bags of ice, the box of freezer food, my computer, purse, and cryo-cuff from car to porch and then inside, dumped ice in cooler, re-filled cryo-cuff, fed cat, and am curled up in bed, leg on the snowleopard pillow and icing. And am whooped! and in the telling, that seems like precious little. Didn't even carry the frozen food downstairs yet. Will probably put most of the meat in the frig to thaw, grill the smaller piece of salmon, then cook the rest of the salmon and chicken tomorrow.
:tiredwheel:
But at least I feel like there's enough completed here for me to be at the point of being able to function for the rest of the week. Still haven't made a grocery run, but I hope to stop in the store on the way to work tomorrow and pick up enough fresh food and odds and ends so that I can stock up at work. And if I am not done in, I'll shower tonight while the salmon is cooking, and then put in an order of groceries at the box store to pick up after work tomorrow, and then I'll have most of my choring done for the week. And then maybe I won't be so tuckered at the end of the day.


:catbutterfly: Cat was waiting to greet me when I got home, came trotting up to check out the activity in the garage. I called to her when I was shutting the doors, asked, "Where are you?" and she meowed back, but it was so clearly a reassuring locative meow (I'm right here, behind the truck. You can't see me, but I'm okay) that I pondered again the marvels and mystery of cross-species communication. My leg was so swollen that I dreaded getting back in the car (and out again) one last time after I got the food out of the garage. It's only about 40' from the house to the garage, and I could have walked it, but yeah. She ran ahead of the car, and popped up on the porch, as if she had been trained like the dogs, and waited there while I safely parked. I took a few minutes in between lugging ice bags to throw some pebbles for her to chase, and she did, quite sportily.

Figured out something about cats. They're really not so much pets as roommates. Granted, roommates that shed a lot. And don't vacuum. Or remember their keys. And who are known to sometimes ask, "What are you eating? That looks gooood." And who like to have their bellies rubbed. But they have this unpetlike quality. . . je ne sais quoi . . . as a matter of fact, they may epitomize it, as much as anything could be said to epitomize je ne sais quoi. As a matter of fact, if anyone ever uses that term around me I will say, "Ah, yes. Like cats," just to confuse the heck out of them.

Early to bed tonight, no matter what.

Flauting is coming along splendidly. I've solved some problems that were holding me back, and so enjoying it. I've had a book of Celtic flute music around for years and am finally taking the time to learn some of those tunes. I heard it said of James Galway that he's so passionate about the flute that probably the last breath he takes will be blowing a flute. And my thought to that is, "Yes, and it still won't be enough." There are nights I just have to allow myself to take the books away and pack up the instruments. I've gone through my shelves ov music books and am reacquainting myself with my resources. Found a set of CD's with ear-training instructions that I took out to my car and started to used during my drive time.

The music feels like another piece of my life I'm getting back, post knee-surgery. A world full of possibilities awaits.
:wowspring:

Okay, time to tackle the stairs and the salmon. More, as I tend to say, later.

Edited to add: Nope on that. Looked at the clock while I was downstairs, and after I'd opened the salmon, I saw to my shock that it was 9:06 PM. The fillets were too big to thaw in the cooking process, so into the meat drawer they went. Oh, well, it will be quick and easy to make dinner tomorrow. Found one last lonely chicken-and-cheese burrito in the freezer when I was putting the ice away, and that became dinner. After having some of last week's enchilada for lunch. Nummers. Hey, I'm happy to have food. Especially food I can cook in under two minutes. And if you'd like to join me in my dinner music, here it is. Start it at 6:30, and enjoy: .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good to hear that music has filled so much of your time while recuperating, but I get tired just reading about your day. Then I remembered I swam 15 laps, biked 4 miles, went to Walmart, then made dinner for guests. That tired me out and I'm no longer recuperating from a TKR!
 
Great post, wow you did a lot. Cats are funny creatures, independent yet can be quite needy!
 
I got tired just reading your post! Glad to hear you're getting back to your music. When I can get a little more mobile, I'm hoping to get back into my photography and photo editing.... That's before I get back into hiking to TAKE my pictures.. That will come in time. :)
 
Holy molies! You know the cartoon characters that get run over by steam rollers and flatten out? That's how I feel today.
:dead:
Went into town early, stopped by the grocery store and used the scooter. I've never done that before and felt like I'd hit a new low until I noticed that no-one was blinking an eye, and I just decided to get over it. It still took my 45 minutes. By the time I got to work, unloaded my groceries in the communal frig and got set up in my office, it was 90 minutes portal to portal. Put in a long day. Came home. Unloaded the car and am in my nightgown with leg up and iced at 7:03 pm. And I am not going in to work until noon tomorrow--kneecation!

I ate shortly before I left work, thinking if I'm too tired to go downstairs and cook, no worries. I just go to sleep.

I am going to indulge my netflixation or get a youtubotomy at this point. Anything I can do from near-perfect horizontality. But I have ice in the cooler, salmon in the frig (albeit raw), and empty trash cans. Some kind of pinnacle of existence.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You're doing awesome. I heartily endorse using the store scooters as long as necessary. They make a HUGE difference to the positive.

Keep resting whenever possible.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
@snowleopard
You're doing very well, but I'd like to issue a little word of caution.
On top of working, your activities for the past two days have really been too much for this early in your recovery. Sounds as if you're a fully-fledged member of the Over Did It Club (ODIC)!

Do try to do just one additional activity each day, on top of work.
 
I am exhausted just reading your post whilst lying here icing and elevating....
 
Hi @Celle, @Raffs, and @CATSMUM

I agree that it's been too much, and have been frustrated that I have had to push to get this stuff done--I don't fall into that category of people who push themselves to exhaustion and then think that they should get a medal for it.
I'm doing bare-bones minimum stuff, as I must have the ice and food, and gas in the car, and I have to get back on top of stuff at work. Without the stop at the grocery store, I would have been eating lunch at the vending machine or fast-food vendors instead of chicken and veggies. It's one of those pay-off things.

Last night before I went to sleep early, I called a few people and put them on notice I was going down, so I was not awakened by phone calls. That was nice.

I'm also taking this morning off. I actually feel okay, as if I could push it and go in, but I'm staying home anyway. I plan on working this afternoon and Thursday-Friday, so a mid-week break is my chance to regroup. Next week I am going to be flying out to get the procedure done on my eye, and that's one of those no-way-out-but-through things, as I've been trying to schedule that for three years (yikes!) And I have a long-overdue women's health check scheduled for this Friday--again, it's a bit much, but the timing works work-wise, and I've got full insurance coverage for one more month before then the clock restarts on the deductible. I am going to have to jam in some uncomfortable/untimely procedures during this month. In the long run, worth it. In the short run, I'll just have to caretake myself as best I can to get through this.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You've got a lot going on. You need to think about training the cat to cook dinner for your and perhaps she could learn to drive too?!
 
Goodness me, you are busy. You need to have some 'me' time when everything has settled down again. Like Raffs idea of training the cat to cook dinner!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Corganics CBD
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Staff online

Members online

Total: 2,322 (members: 4, guests: 2,318)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom