Who has new knees?

I’ve been home a week, I think. It seems harder to keep track of individual days than to count the number of Fridays since I broke a string of bones. We’ve bought groceries one time, which counts as zero, as there was no food in the house when Laura and I came home. Actually, she went grocery shopping; I simply was installed.

There has been sorting in the last seven days. Transfer bench to tub: I should have done this when we moved here and I gave up my walk in shower. Toilet riser seat: very nice, but it needs a cushy seat added, though the therapist assured me it really was not a necessary expense. Wheelchair: comfy, but used for little more than chatting with Laura while she makes supper.

Walker: indispensable! Two broken shoulders notwithstanding, I would be beached without it. Not grounded, but stranded. Like I told the young fella, you can fix both shoulders someday, if necessary, but I won’t get over this broken leg if I can’t substitute some other body part. Shoulders it is. Painful, but doable.

It’s my knees that hurt, and not just a little. In therapy at Regina, the therapists strapped each knee into braces that stopped them from snapping and hyperextending. Here at home I have similar braces, but all Velcro; no buckles and locking straps. If I put them on in the morning, I can get through the day to about late afternoon. Not pain free, but tolerable.

At my next doctor visit, in September, I think my first question will be How soon can I get new knees?

Who out here has new knees? Tell me everything about them, please!

In the meantime, in a week home, I have entertained a home nurse and an occupational therapist. Passed those with flying colors. Tomorrow, a physical therapist will size me up and give me an exercise regimen. That will be good. Better yet, I’ve been to lunch with a friend. My neighbor took me out to buy the walker. I watched Laura do garden work for half of last Saturday. It rained all day Sunday. 

Pretty boring to recuperate, yes? I have begun weaving, between naps. So far it amounts to two bobbins, so I’ve just gone around the breast take up roller. And today, I played cards with the Methodists. They picked me up, opened doors, let me in through the sanctuary, and we played pinochle for two hours.

I ate my usual entire bowl of corn chips and Nancy and I lost the day. Bad cards. Wonderful, wonderful company.

So, please tell me about your knees.

Praying mantis, peach crumble and perfect tie on

On Saturday Laura tackled (ahem) four weeks of weeding. I kept her company. The plants keep filling in. We have a praying mantis in the sedum, and a cone flower as tall as Laura's wire flower.

My sister stopped to offer fresh peaches! Just the smell is divine. Laura made her google version of a cobbler last summer, but this year I held out for a crumble. It was a tough sell, but now she is a convert, and announced she could settle just for a pan of the crunchy stuff, with ice cream!

My bowl full, with three scoops of good vanilla ice cream!

I spent the entire weekend tying the new warp to the old. All 440 ends! In the old days, it was 800 to 1,000 ends for a new run of fabric. I should be grateful for towels, not shirts.

Tiring business, and it put me to sleep a few times. I understand how cats can just zonk. It has to do with blurry eyes, tired fingers and aching shoulders.

But now it's all tied, new to old, and tomorrow I'll get it pulled through and tied to the breast beam. Laura admired it for a second, and asked "You pull it all through at once?" Yes, I do.

All the news

Wednesday evening my sister brought me home. Here's what one month of unfinished business looks like. It would be worse, except Laura brought me all the mail she got, and we put our junk in Regina's trash and I paid bills on my cell phone.

Took me one day to get down to the desk pad. That was Thursday. I finished much off today, after an appointment with the young kid doctor who put the titanium rod in my leg.

He gave me a copy of the x-ray. I tried to scan it, but once again my HP Office Jet Pro is convinced it is not associated with my Dell Windows 10. So just let me report, a 9 nine inch long titanium spike, with 8 screws through it. Dr. Wilkie showed me the line that is mending, four weeks later. I can only see a separation where the break started, at the knee.

He asked how my recovery was coming, and I said save for the effing knees, not bad. Based on year old x-rays of my knees, for which he recommended replacements and I turned him down, he injected my uninjured knee with cortisone. I prompted a shot for the right knee, too. He grinned. "I don't think so. You'd take advantage."

My very oldest granddaughter stopped by tonight. Bekka is twenty five, and welds for an aerospace company. The hair cut is brand spanking new. Her mother doesn't even know, let alone seen it.

And speaking of haircuts, the final picture of me with an extra month's growth. Melanie says she'll "see what I can do with it," and I said "Cut it off!" "We'll see," said a very pleased Mel.

So, that's all the whining for a while. Work to do. We have lot's of post cards to address to registered voters who skipped the last election. Get out and vote. Go to the polls in November. If you don't vote, you don't count!

A quest

I know many of the aids by name by now, and not just because they wear name tags. Marianne and I rub along quite well .

She is past efficient when speed is essential, and way laid back when not. I've been late for nothing with her in charge, including those horrid days I was Hoyered out of bed,  screaming in pain because the straps were ill positioned on the nine inches of titanium rod in my thigh. We remain speaking work mates, a lot because I've learned new ways to get out of bed.

I'm champion at side board, and standing and pivoting now. Interestingly, my bare feet can barely tolerate these floors. Shoes are essential to dressing, for me. Flat feet.

Back to Marianne. We have running conversations about her evenings and weekends.

"I have a soccer mom van and no kids, I take care of so many."

After a day off, "Blondie and I took the kids to the zoo today." Blondie is another aid, with inch long, spikes of bleached white hair. Marianne scrolled through zoo pictures of herself pushing a double stroller with one hand and occasionally leading a third child. Blondie was there, with two daughters.

"Well, how was it? Something you'd do again, or maybe not for ten or fifteen years?" 

" It was such a good idea, " said my my little ball of energy. "No repeat!"

When she talks food, I only listen, of course. But this weekend became interesting. She and her boyfriend both have the weekend off. But, it's raining. 

There are two ball games. In the rain? There is the Italian Festival. In the rain? 

I asked if she knew The Holden Arboretum? "Yes, but in the rain?"

" Hard rain? Cold rain? You wrangle kids and old duffers. Your boyfriend is a police officer. You haven't melted. You both have waterproof clothing! "

Marianne was warming. The attraction of the arboretum is the fairly new skywalk, high above the trees, overlooking the valley.

"My former husband has a dedicated bench there. I've never seen it. I understand it's by his favorite pond, though I couldn't find my way back. The one our oldest daughter ran straight into, in her 'walk on water' days. "

"A quest!" said Marianne. "We'll find it, and I'll bring you its picture."

First day of school

Well, I missed it, but Laura didn't. We're both working on "school" right now. She has physics, art, English, government, ASL, and more she can't recall because the tablet is "configured like a phone, and that's stupid" . Oh well.

She wore her favorite thrift store outfit, and picked up new glasses tonight.

Back at my place of knowledge,  I have been drilled in the proper bath equipment, transfer apparatus, lounging apparatus. 

I keep on smilin, agreeing, demonstrating my ability to transfer from anywhere to anything. My goal to leave is Wednesday. I'm good for an 8 inch step, and just need four in a row, up, to get in my front door.