Yes, I am still around.....

Hey, you should really walk in my shoes for a few days.  Wow, do they keep you busy!  And it is especially hard to do  when you have to continually wait for someone to 'assist' you.  I am still listed on the book as needing a walker with 1 assist.  Basically this means if I want to get up from my chair or up off the bed, I have to ring for someone and then wait until a Nurse, CNA or other properly authorized person comes in to 'watch' me get up and go to the bathroom, changes clothes or anything else that I have been able to do since I was 2 years old.  I understand that with this newly implanted joint that I am a 'risk to fall'..... but come on, let's be real.  I believe that may change sometime today as the paperwork has been sent up from therapy that will allow me to be more independent.

Honestly, there is one nurse or aide who I have to see come through the door when I buzz.  She hovers, she grabs my arm to help lift, she prefers me to be in a wheel chair so she can whisk me off to the dining room and when I ask her to let me please do it myself, she is genuinely surprised that I am so independent.  Freaky!!!

The meals have been OK.  Not on the same level as at LGH, but OK.  I did finally ask for some yogurt with a couple of my meals and they sent a fruited one last night that was yummy!

My sweet little roommate has been a pain in the butt the last few days.  She has been complaining about most things, refuses to allow certain women to assist her and has stayed up reading the last several nights.  I did not think lights from her side would bother me, but every couple of hours I was awake.

Therapy is going strong.  I have occupational therapy.  This is where they teach you how to survive living in your house without major damage to your house or yourself.  They also build up your  upper body muscles so you can use the walker and not kill your shoulders.  Physical Therapy is brutal.  I have been walking (with the aid of a walker) to therapy.  Then I am given tasks, in groups of 30, to do.  I am surprised how quickly things come back.  There is an area of my knee that is still painful.  It is not a sharp pain, but more of a dull ache.  It feels like I have an ACE bandage tightened around my knee and where the knee bends in the back, it feels like the bandage has wrinkled and gotten tighter.  I know the doctor had to do some muscle tweaking as my knee was in a permanently bent position, so muscles back there were shorter than they should.  I am assuming that this will pass as soon as I get them stretched back out to size.  My body is still not trusting the new knee, but everyday gets better.

My day is basically getting up, breakfast in bed, cleanup, dress and go to either occupational therapy or physical therapy.  After morning sessions, I come back to my room.  Yesterday I curled up and slept hard for several hours.  When I woke up, my dinner had arrived and was waiting on my dresser.  I ate and went back to therapy.  I was still working as the therapists began heading home for the day.

Back to my room for supper in bed.  I really cannot do food in the dining area.  I am the youngest at 66 years old.  Dinner does not start being served until 5:00 PM, but the nurses begin placing folks at tables around 4:30 PM.  It is a quiet bunch, 1/3 are sleeping, 1/3 are watching them prepare food and the other 1/3 are crying to go home.  NOT my idea of fun dinner companionship.  So I have them bring trays to my room.  It is much more like I am at home, TV on and my dinner in my lap.

Yesterday I got a vase of flowers from my church family.  I was quite touched.  Nothing fancy, some lovely red carnations, but it makes me smile just to look at them.  No visitors as the two snow storms have changed how everyone feels about driving at night.  My concern now is that since the snow was not plowed out of my driveway and it has now turned cold, I have an ice rink where vehicles will need to be when I am released to go home.  I have seen the front of my house and the driveway in years past when it did not get plowed and became a frozen pond.  Marji says I am not to be concerned, but I am.  I could be doing all of this therapy only to find myself injured on the first step out of the vehicle.  I know my driveway from past experience... I am scared.

So, after a good night last night, I am up, I am waiting for some breakfast and then waiting for the process to begin over again.

Thanks to everyone who has called or visited.  It has help make this time go much faster.