Self-Portrait Thursday: Knee

It's all about the knee today. Midnight: no more food, no more water. I've already been restricted from vitamin E and Advil for the past three days. The ice-pack people were here today to show me how to use a velcro-on waterbed-like knee wrap that hooks up to a cooler of ice water. I'm sure glad I got that tutorial. Don't know how I would have figured it all out myself! (rolling eyes) .. the thing is pretty nifty, though... or it seems like it will be, anyway. I have also rented a hospital bed for the recovery so I don't get my knee bumped in the night by my sweetie. Plus, I can elevate my knee or sit up (ish) to read with a touch of a button. Pretty cool, for all it's worth.

I'm super-aware of my limitations today.. of how much my knee still hurts, still slips, still restrains my movements. It'll be nice to get that fixed, even if it does hurt more and restrain my movement more tomorrow. In six months I should be able to do the things I enjoy again: dancing, ice skating, running along the beach, playing frisbee, walking a dog (I miss my doggie), climbing trees... going up and down stairs without thinking through every single step, walking at regular speed up and down hills... six months.

I wish I'd been able to get myself better set up for recovery. With Beth's packing, departure, etc. I didn't get to spend that time setting up for my own needs. Time ran short before I got the things I need completed. I'll survive just fine--but comfort will be far below what I had hoped it would be.

Keith is a blessing. Every single day is easier and better because he is part of my life. He does little things every day to help me cope, to help me get ready, even just to be there. It would be a very different, much darker experience without him.

Mother has been quite helpful as well. Together we have put as much of the house as we could into order following Beth's departure and the chaos left behind by the move. I caught up on laundry yesterday for the first time since February. I have a clean (if still cluttered) bathroom to use. We have made a little mini-suite of my bedroom with the mini-fridge from Keith's office and a hotplate. She even made banana bread!! Yay! It was yummy. I have been saving those over-ripe bananas in my freezer for months now in just such a dream that banana bread would magically appear (I asked Beth, but she was busy).. and it did! :) yummy yummy banana bread! .. unfortuately, we ate it all, so I don't get any after surgery tomorrow. :P

But I do have a box from Zann! A box that arrived two days ago -- I haven't had any time to relax and open it leisurely, so now I get to open it as a Home Again Get Well package when I get out of sedation enough to remember how to remove tape from a cardboard box. ;)

And today I read the Get Well card that Laura sent!! :) Thank you so much my fab Brit friend!! :)

Things could be better, but I'm not going to be talking about the things that have gone wrong along the way. Right now I have time and energy only for the investments that bring me the most support and healing. I am very fortunate indeed to have so many wonderful Blog-friends offering comfort and support and encouragement and yarn!

(I cheated just a little.. I cast on one of my Get Well skeins tonight so that I would have it tomorrow morning in the waiting rooms. I pulled it at random out of the bag of Get Well and Exchange yarns, and it was the one from Laura! The first of the Get Well yarns to arrive in the post lucks out to be the first Get Well yarn I knit from!! :) ..and I just have to say.. while I loved the colorway, I do sheepishly admit I was also a bit skeptical, wondering if it was going to end up being garish. ... but now that I am watching it knit up, I *****LOVE***** it!!! It's so much more fabulous than I ever expected! .. bright and cheerful and just the thing to bring me luck tomorrow in the Operating Room. (Not that I'll be able to bring the yarn in with me.. it will have to wait for me in the waiting room with my mother and my husband.)

I will get some sleep as soon as I have finished writing this post.

6:30 AM, wake up and shower with special antiseptic soap. (had to do that already once tonight.) .. No personal care products of any kind--no shampoo, no deodorant, no makeup...
...and remember not to eat or drink anything. Not even enough to take medicines. They'll have to wait until evening.

8:30 AM, at the hands of the anesthesiologist.

10:30 (ish) to 12:30 (ish) on the operating table.

12:30-2:30 (ish) in recovery waiting for the anesthesia to wear off enough to go home.

I get my own copy of the operation on DVD to take home as a souveneir.

After that, I can't say. I don't know when I'll be well enough to be online again, but you can bet I'll post a note again as soon as I can.

Hugs all.