Thursday, February 20, 2020

Quilting and Surgery

Here's what's on the design wall for our Tuesday quilters. Batiks again, we are on a kick. The strippy blocks were leftover strips from trimming down fat quarters into 10" squares and 6.5"squares. I took advantage of another doorbuster sale at Joann's and spent $20 on batik fat quarters, just to round our collection. Woowoo!
But then everything has temporarily ground to a halt because yesterday I had partial knee replacement surgery.
It went great and I have no pain. Seriously. NO PAIN. I am walking around without the use of the walker, which was more trouble than it was worth and with the new knee, I have grown a half inch on my right side! Taller that is, not wider. So now I am planning more walking in the neighborhood and losing the accumulated weight that happened over my baking for the holidays binge. That's the thing about going to the hospital for pre-surgery evaluations. They weigh you, something I studiously avoided. Arggghhh, bad news for me. No wonder I always wanted  to stay in my loose pjs for the day.
I hate diet talk, and as you long time readers know I have been a dieter every now and then and have lost hundreds of pounds total, so I am not concerned about doing this in a hurry. Altho it would be nice to actually wear the nice clothes that don't fit me currently. Hmmm.
Prior to my surgery, I thought I wouldn't be able to negotiate our stairs very well and decided that we needed to temporarily move our beds downstairs to the front room. We have two front rooms and one is the bigger quilting room. Anyway, the bed frames disassemble easily and we could slide the mattresses down the stairs and voila, the room is plenty big enough to share. We have had separate bedrooms for ages since Dave has been ill and stays up all night. Now that we have reunited in one room, it turns out to be so much better for both of us, once I got him on a better sleeping schedule and as I am right there to anticipate his meds, (don't have to get outta bed and walk down the hall multiple times ) and can prevent lots of bad spells. On the bad side, he still wants to get up and eat something in the adjoining kitchen during the night, turning on the lights and making noise and waking me up. So it's not perfect yet. 
Now the upstairs is pretty much vacant and it occurred to me that this could solve another problem for me. I've regularly injured myself when I try to lift Dave in or out of bed when he is having a spell and I need help for those times, plus relief from constantly being needed by him. Sooooo, why not have a live in nurse or nursing student, preferably a husky guy, who could have two furnished rooms, an ensuite bath, laundry and half bath and parking on the premises, not to mention free wi-fi and a 50"flat screen.
So I am working on this as my new plan. 
But wait there's more. We are going to move the beds again into the sunroom and have more privacy and get our living room back. And I am converting our neglected pantry into a closet (having it done professionally) and adding some bathroom storage since Dave has tons of toiletries. Woowoo!
It never ends!

13 comments:

  1. You always amaze me with your positive outlook and willingness to make changes. I love to hear about them all and you are an inspiration. Fall 2018 we downsized and moved after 36 years. This was a very hard move as we had made the old house our home, remodeled ourselves several times and had everything just as we wanted - but it was too large, house and 2.5 acres. I had made many quilts, wall hangings, crosstitch, and drapes, etc. for that house making it "home". The right house in a wonderful neighborhood in the High Country near Linville NC has become our home. I can't begin to say how hard downsizing was but it was done and now we are settling in making this house our home. During the transition I have thought of you many times and the changes you have made and with such a great attitude. Everything is falling into place, it definately takes a while to decide the best place for things and a willingness to keep making changes. DH isn't so great with this but I have learned to mention something and of course get a negative response, then I drop the subject and usually in a few days he brings it up thinking he suggested a good idea. Works for me. Thank you for sharing parts of your life, it has certainly helped me.

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  2. Hi Melody, I also had a partial knee replacement. I felt the same. But I did start walking too soon, and pretty soon it hurt too much. Also, I wasn't going to go to PT, but I did and it was a great help. Its been two or three years, and I still do some of the PT exercises 3X a week!

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  3. Here's to a speedy recovery! Sounds like a great plan for the upstairs! A win-win!

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  4. It's so great how you make your houses work for you, continually making changes to fit your changing needs! I hope you find the perfect live in nurse or aide to help you and Dave out.

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  5. I'm so pleased to hear the news that your knee replacement has been successful and what a great idea with your re-organising of rooms, hope this all works out well for you both.

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  6. Regarding the diet.....look up Intermittent Fasting. It is a way of eating that involves not eating for 16 to 18 hours and then "reasonable eating" for 6 to 8 hours each day. It is based more on the timing of eating rather then doing low carb, etc. I do it and I like that I still get to eat the food I love but only between 1:00 and 7:00 each day. I am 63, so the weight is coming off slowly but the inches are coming off, too.

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  7. Hi melody, haven't heard from you recently, hope all is well though and DVR during this trying time. Sending you love from a Canadian frontline-er!

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  8. Hello, I check your site for updates frequently. Been missing your posts. Hope all is well.

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  9. So glad you're doing better with your knee and wishing you the best in hiring someone to be a live-in for your hubby. Wishing you both the best!

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  11. Melody..we are your old neighbors from Cary. We still talk about you and Dave and how he would play catch with Michael is the back yard. We just got new neighbors in there again. The third set since you moved many years ago. Michael is about to turn 19 but we still have kids playing in the backyard as I have 4 kids now. Email me sometime. I’d love to hear how you are doing and send best wishes to Dave and you both.
    Maugerelizabeth@gmail.com

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