As usual it's been a crazy few weeks here. We're giving our master bathroom a facelift (new tile, paint, vanity, sink, mirror, lighting, etc.), adding built-ins to the tv room, quarter finals as school for the girls, and my surgery. As with any home-remodel project, something always comes up as an unexpected issue. The lighting for the bathroom had consisted of two canned lights from the ceiling over the mirror. Tom was able to move those around so that there will be one light above the mirror. He also had to raise the outlet as the countertops will be higher. And when he started peeling off the wallpaper he discovered that there was this strange other paper under it -- not a true wallpaper, but more of like a base-paper. Which is a dickens to get off (trust me -- I helped with this part!). The dry-wall underneath in places had the white paper coating scraped off (NOT due to our removal of any of the paper) and any remaining glue created a nightmare when he was re-mudding the walls. ACH!
And then the dishwasher had a leak. We started smelling a musty odor under the kitchen sink and Tom noticed some water seeping out the wall opposite the dishwasher. I believe that during our efforts to get the dishwasher to clean the dishes again we inadvertently (perhaps?) created some leak or so. So the repairman comes out but the part is not in stock so another week later, it's finally fixed. Unfortunately it seems the musty odor remains so perhaps now there's a leak somewhere else in the kitchen sink area. Sigh.
I believe the quarter finals were perhaps the least stressful of events, at least from mine and Tom's perspectives. The girls performed well first quarter and are again inundated with homework for the second quarter.
As for the surgery, that's another story! First there was a one-week delay due to the fact that the surgeon's father-in-law died and he was out of town. Mom changed her flights at a large expense (mom's the best!) to come in a week later and stay through the 31st. Then the various home-improvement projects were all coming together, so we went to "plan B" and mom took me to the hospital in the morning (well, I drove) and stayed with me there which allowed Tom to do some of the various work before the cabinet install people came the following day. So mom and I sat and they got me all ready and we sat some more and some more.....Finally about 2:30 they took me back and sent her on to the waiting area. As they gave me my "relaxing shot" at that point things started to get fuzzy. I remember talking with the PA as she marked the appropriate hip for surgery and being wheeled into the OR and then the hook-up of the IV and the beginning of the nothingness. Then I was a bit more aware in a hospital room, being told I'd be spending the night. Tom was there -- apparently the surgery started late, ran quite a bit longer than anticipated (guess that hip was in rather bad shape) and they hadn't yest established that all my systems were working well enough to send me home so I was to spend the night. I was able to chat with Abby on the phone and was so thankful that mom and Maggie were there to keep everything running while Tom was with me until visiting hours were over. I FINALLY got to go home at about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon and, as the girls noticed, still a bit foggy. I went to bed at 7 rather sore. Each day has been an improvement in range of motion and less pain. Right now it seems to me that the achiness is different than pre-op -- more from the surgery and the ways they had to move my hip around than anything else. It's confirmed that there's little/no cartilage left in the hip and there were more/larger bone spurs than anticipated. I've had one PT session and have to do my exercises regularly. I'm allowed to put no weight on it at all for 2 weeks. Sigh. Then I'll gradually add weight. Meanwhile I'm figuring out a lot of ways to get things done and every day is a bit better. Hopefully I'll be even more capable before mom has to leave for home.....
Mom's taken Maggie to her cross country meet this morning -- I didn't think crutching all over city park was such a grand idea, especially as the ground is still rather wet. Tom should be taking Abby to her ensemble practice and my goal for the day is to sponge-bathe and do my exercises and watch the OSU game......good enough for me!
Enjoy the rest of October!
