American Idol Finale

I'm not feeling so hot, but thought you guys might like a place to make comments about the finale. Enjoy!

Not for the Squeamish

Tiny Staples in my knee make them give me pills to make me happy ... to the tune of Tiny Bubbles.

Although I'm home shockingly early, I still have a rough road ahead. The knee replacement surgery is one of the most painful surgeries you can have done and has a hard rehab process as well. Between the constant pain and the pills, it's hard to hold onto a train of thought.

I have the added issue of being on the Coumadin regimen -- visiting nurses will come one day a week to draw blood. That whole clotting ordeal is potentially life-threatening. Even the medication is life-threatening. An in-home physical therapist will come three times a week. My insurance company covers those visits in full for up to 40 visits.

Due to the Coumadin, I'm supposed to eat a balanced diet (but no big amounts of green leafy vegetables and absolutely NO cranberries or cranberry juice.) Guess what's in my stocked pantry? Thankfully, I have plenty of other juices and veggies available. This will go on through 8/15.

The problem is that I have little to no appetite.

The emails at the hospital were a big hit with me. Whenever I saw a volunteer standing at the door timidly saying my name while holding a sheath of paper, I smiled no matter the pain. I brought them all home but haven't tallied them yet.

Why did I come home so early? Well, the original hospital stay itself was supposed to be three days, then into rehab. Rehab itself started on the day of the surgery when they had me stand up with a walker and go sit in a chair. Rehab stopped the second day when they gave me the ultrasound test and found the blood clot in my surgery knee. The only reason I was slated to go to a rehab facility is because I live alone and they were worried about me being able to fend for myself. You actually only get an hour or so of rehab a day at those places. Meanwhile I developed a horrible case of diarrhea from the stool softeners they were giving me to combat the expected constipation from the pain meds. I also became violently sick to my stomach.

No buts about it, I wanted to be able to get up and go to the bathroom! I was sick of waiting for bedpans, the humiliation, waiting for them to come and remove bedpans and all. I wanted BATHROOM. The doctor told me I could, and that was that. I started using the walker Sunday night, getting in and out of the bed and chair unassisted. I sat in bed doing ankle pumps, quad sets, and leg lifts (sometimes less than a half inch, but it counts).

Part of the recovery issue with the knee replacement is that you lose your ACL tendon, your quad muscle is cut, and lots of other nerves and tendons are ruined and have to be rebuilt. As a result, you can't make that 500 pound leg do what you want in addition to pain issues. By Monday, I was scooching it along the bed using the other leg, sometimes using a sheet as a lasso to move it, and when sitting on the bed, I managed to be able to swing it up to the bed (then scooch it in place from there). I think that's what made my OS (orthopedic surgeon) offer me the option of going home. While my other knee surgeries were a walk in the park compared to this, a lot of the techniques and rehab are the same albeit more extreme.

When I met up with the actual rehab people before my discharge, they had me climbing stairs and stuff. They measured my ROM (Range of Motion). I have 0 degrees extension (it will lay flat, good) and 60 degrees bend. I know I didn't push the bend to the point of agony -- I think I may have another ten degrees in there. They were surprised how well I did without any formal PT sessions. But I'm not surprised. I don't think the doctor is all that surprised, either. Both he and his partner said I shouldn't have been mobile based on the condition of my knee pre-op. Yet I walked a mile a day and was on my feet sometimes 7 hours a day.

My personal goal for the ROM is 130 degrees, but that won't come for a while. The swelling and staples hinder it right now in addition to having to build it all back up. It's going to be rough -- the surgery takes a lot out of you in addition to decrepit knees. My sleeping pattern is shot. I've been typing this for about three hours stopping in between sentences.

I really want to thank Zoetawny and Sydney for working on the blog in my absence and for their calls to me. Between them, the emails and cards ... I felt very loved. (An oddly welcomed feeling!) My brother called daily and is planning to come down and visit for a day. My friend Barbara went above and beyond getting me to the hospital on time, visiting me, calling me, dropping by with DVDs, cookies, Coca-Cola, chips, and KFC in addition to picking me up, getting my prescriptions, my bread, milk, eggs, and cat.

Speaking of the cat ... when I called there they told me she was okay healthwise, but not a happy cat. Another call there garnered the information that everyone thinks she's such a beautiful cat but she only likes Debbie. Heh. Since getting home, she has explored the apartment apparently to make sure I didn't move in any other cats. If I'm in bed, she's curled up purring. If she's alone sometimes she just lets out a cry. I talk to her and she quiets down. She's a bit unsure about the walker.

More eventually.

A big thanks to Zoetawny for this adorable graphic.  Just wanted to get it up so Jackie sees it first thing when she turns the computer on, whenever that may be.  

Home Alive

I'm home and alive. Thank you everyone for the emails and letters.

Must collapse now. More soon

The Show WILL Go On!!!!

We interrupt this program for some breaking news. 

Sing along with me: "It's a beautiful daaaaay!" (U2).  

Are you sitting down? 

I have to tell you that Jackie is not going to rehab today after all.... 

SHE'S GOING HOME!!!  That's right. When she told me I thought she'd just hit her morphine pump and was delusional... then I realized, she doesn't have a morphine pump.  Her ride is coming in about 30 minutes and she's swinging by the store for milk, bread and eggs and then they pick up the cat.  By this evening, she will be settling in to her own couch, in her own PJ's, with the kitty curled up nearby.  No annoying roommates, hospital gowns, hideously bright lights or nurses waking her up in the middle of the night!

What a difference from yesterday!  She had not even really been on her feet as of early afternoon.  I guess the associate doc came in after we hung up, did the test for the clot and it had dissapated.  And then they let her get up using a walker and apparently she really impressed them with being able to put her full weight on the leg and get around a bit on her own.  They also measured the bend in the knee -- and this is without having ANY PT or even getting up to sit in a chair since Wednesday morning -- to be 60 degrees. My husband got back 90 degrees and they said that was amazing. Jackie has a goal of 130 degrees, of course, lol!  If anybody's going to do it, she will.

She's all set with food at home, made things in advance and arranged her computer and TV etc... so we can all rest easy.  I assume that she will be posting again in no time, and hopefully we'll get to see some pictures.  Thanks go to Jackie for allowing me to do a little bit in return for all the fun I've had over the last 3 years at this blog --and for all the wonderful people I've met. (But who do I hold responsible for the countless hours I've spent here as my to do list takes second place???).  I was just so relieved to know what was going on day to day, and was grateful to have a way to pass it on to others here who I know would have been feeling the same. Ms J, we'll all be waiting for that moment when we click on your blog and see your words again.

And now, the winner of the Guess Those Stitches Contest is...... LYNN1!!!!  I could not believe it when you guessed it exactly at 31.  Runners up are RBennie with 30 and Donna in AL with 32.  

Thanks everyone!  xxxox, Sydney