Pixies

So, do you have pixies in you house? The mischievous kind. Mine used to trade me forks for spoons. Every six months I would have to go to Value Village and buy more spoons, and donate thirty or fourty forks. But THIS time they brought something BACK! Thank you!  About six weeks ago I brought home lovely rosemary rolls and english muffins.  These treasures usually get placed on the prep counter, sliced, and then frozen. Lovely nuggets of treat to go in the toaster. We both clearly remember them landing on the prep counter, and then poof! Not on the counter, not in the frig. Not in the small freezer, not in the chest freezer. Not in the kitchen storage cupbords or shelves. Not in the spare pantry area in the other bedroom. Are we SURE they are not in the chest freezer? Take almost everything out of freezer. BOTH of us inspect. No rolls or english muffins. Sadness.
Last night, while searching for bread in the freezer, which I was pretty sure we didn't have, the pixies heard our need, and gave them back to us! Rosemary sourdough rolls, and english muffins! Happy dance and thank yous to pixies!

Hope

Well, have switched around what I am feeding Squirrel, and he is doing much better! Skin looks healthy, lesions are gone, behavior is lively and engaged. Gaining a bit of weight, even.

Spring salad harvested moments ago. Some spicy mesclun mix planted a bit ago, Claytonia perfoliata which volunteers here, and sage blossoms which moved here with me.

Looking back

Looking over some of the sites I used to follow. Still incredibly inspired by Cob Cottage Company. Will I ever be able to live in a space that pleases me?

Goodbye to Squirrel

We are going to have to say goodbye to my brown tabby, Squirrel, recently pictured sleeping in my bathroom sink. Have overstretched my resources, to find that he is severely diabetic. Would need many dollars for further testing to determine insulin dosage, need insulin pen, cat glucose meter, and a continuing supply of needles, test strips, and pokers. Couldn't afford it for myself, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, cannot afford it now. He is only 11! With having lost Sir to bone cancer earlier this year, am feeling scared about how many more of my four footed family I am going to lose this year.

Well, today I got to go watch my daughter at the local Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) rapier practice! She is quite new at it, but is working hard. The surprising thing is how much muscle and tendon strength it takes to hold up and wave around a one and one half pound sword at arms length. She was having so much fun that she overdid it. Sad arm! It was good to see her so uncomplicatedly HAPPY, working at learning a new set of movement skills. One of her strengths is movement. Special daughter!

Cats. Go figure.

Well, PT was exhausting and left me with VERY intense awareness of some muscles that are being required to WORK. Soaking in the downtown pool, at 84 degrees F afterwards was much appreciated.

Well, another visit to hip surgeon, today. He is VERY HAPPY with how I am healing. I may now, with suitable caution, put on my right ankle brace assembly. Whoop de doo! I may now trim my toenails myself, on my right foot! Just, no falling down. No visit needed, until one year post surgery. Whew. I have been in happy tears several times this week. I have spent three and a half years in pain. I do not think I actually belived I would be able to get to a point where I was pain-free.

Five weeks with new hip

Getting stronger and happier! Been back in swimming pool for several weeks. Physical therapy (hereafter PT) exercises that a year ago were excruciating are now minorly uncomfortable in a stretching/rebuilding kind of way. And my ability to DO them is improving!
Currently aggravating non-ability is, I am not allowed to get in to the position I need, to be able to trim my right foot toenails myself. Until bone growth firmly anchors the new hip to the bone, it has the possibility of dislocating my brand new hip. D does NOT know how to use a nail file/emery board for smoothing edges. Senior center has a foot care person there once a month, but cost is $25.00 for attention. What to do? Probably hand D a nail file to attend to his OWN fingers and toes, until he gains the skill to do mine.
D fell and scraped himself up nicely, coming up the back steps. He is rather frequently the victim of no right side of right eye vision, remnant of the 15 year ago brain hemorrhage. Edges of curb cuts and overhanging branches take him down several times a year.

Home

Came home on Friday, the 5th of February.

New achievments

As of today, I can walk (just a little), using only a cane! It has been almost two years since I could do that. I am SO pleased! In PT and OT, I am working on balance, strength, and muscle isolation. Remind some muscles that they need to work hard, and remind others that they do not need to help out, and should stay relaxed.

Yes, I truly bless the miracle of hot running water.

Probable release date, February 9th.

Old draft-summer 2013

More resilient right now. Garden going well. I am eating lettuce, endive, a few peas, a few snow peas, kale, sorrel, red dock, beet greens. Got tomato plants from a local gardener today, who mostly grows heirlooms. I've also put in gooseberries, and Thundercloud Black Elderberry this year. Trying to take cuttings off of the big Blue Elderberry that I have admired a few miles away, for years. Gonna try and get cuttings off of my blueberries this year, also. And this year may  be the year to get brave about trying to graft apples. Have P-22 mini-dwarfing root stock multiplying themselves, so could take pieces off of the trees I've got, for scion-wood. With luck, this will be the year of the cucumber, as I am trying several open pollinated long varieties to find a replacement for the Tasty Jade F1 that I like so much, as i do not choose to grow F1 hybrids anymore. Also have edamame and fava beans in the ground.

Old draft-summer 2013

I've used the concrete reinforcing mesh for tomato plants for years. A 150' roll is about $100.00. It is 5' tall, and I cut about 5 1/2' to make a tower 18" in diameter. I just bend line wires around to attach the ends. A roll gives me 27 towers. Some towers have been in use for 16 years, now. We frequently use a tall T-post between pairs of towers to anchor them sturdily. Sometimes I can just get away with anchoring them with 8" long U-pins, used for heavy weedblock. This year I needed to put up SOMETHING QUICK for pea trellising, and used many of the towers for peas. Then I needed to put some more varieties of peas in the ground, and then the beans and cucumbers, as well as the tomatoes. At this point, I have towers with as many as 3 different pea and/or bean varieties growing up the same tower, escaped peas on a tomato tower, and a tower of swiss chard seed stems, as well as one of Madras rat tail radish seed stems all confined to towers. I am only gardening for myself, and surplus for my daughter's household, so I do not need hundreds of feet of support at any one time, for any one crop. In the Maritime Northwest, I can't really justify more than 10 tomato plants, as they are SO marginal if not in a greenhouse. These towers give me lots of flexibility, particularly as I am gardening a 52' diameter Mandala bed. I plant a bit at a time, not a large area prepped and planted all at once. I have also used a piece of the wire to partly encircle one of the end alcoves, and am growing a mix of peas, beans, and sunflowers up that, making a hidden area for my granddaughters. Plus side of this-the pea and bean vines are anchoring the giant sunflowers to the wire, to prevent falling over. Other plus side-I have mobility and balance issues. This wire is sturdy enough to grab on to, if it is anchored to T-posts. Gotta be doing something right, when I hear "Nana, are these the peas we eat whole?" and "Nana, where is the best kale, today?"

1week out

Blessings, oh blessings on the weather! I was able to go out in the courtyard the last three days. Why is this important? I CAN'T HEAR ANY TELEVISIONS OUT THERE. I haven't lived with TV since 1973. A hallway with multiple TVs blaring from different rooms is NOT my idea of a peaceful environment in which to heal. Being able to go soak up sunshine, talk to plants, listen to a hummingbird, that is healing.
I was in this same nursing home in 2012, when I had the infected foot that had to be carved up. I went into the courtyard yesterday, and thanked the plants that helped me then. One is an ornamental maple tree, whose buds are just beginning to swell, whom I last saw shedding its leaves. Another is a stalwart blue spruce. The ornamental Japanese maple that they stupidly planted during a 95 degree summer, has since died.
I can't figure out how to get pics out of my phone, onto this site, but I am very, very pleased with my current status. My standing alignment is perfect! Thanks to lots of time in the local pool, I am sure. The external rotation in my right leg is virtually gone! My daughter (who has to lift my leg in to the car) says that my leg moves smoothly, not catching, (crunch, crunch) all the time.
I get to have a shower tonight, and wash off all kinds of goo, ooze, and sweat. Ah, simple pleasures.

Six days with new hip

It is evening, and I am tired. Well, yes, there is reason. I am only six days out of major surgery under general anesthesia. Have had physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) evaluations. Played hard with OT yesterday and today. Have had dressing changes each of the last three mornings, which requires much distraction and deep breathing. My 28 (I think) staples look good, but I am starting to be sensitive to the tape, so layers of ME are coming off each time dressing gets changed. I am getting a good record of state of incision on my phone. No, I will not post, but you may ask, if you come visiting. I forgot to request painkillers until about 4 pm today, AFTER OT, rearranging of my space here, putting clean laundry away, and visits. But I will say, I think I am healing quite nicely. Hardest thing may be to keep myself from overdoing it. Visits from local friends now being accepted. 

Post-surgery (out of chronological order)

So, now two days past the surgery. Enough drugs cleared out of my brain to begin to communicate.
Vignettes of memory-being wheeled into the operating room. Four or five nurses all turn to me. They are all dressed in identical  turquoise scrubs, with caps and face masks on. Cheerful greetings from all, and introductions to all. Mental giggle about introductions being no use, as I  can't tell them apart.
Another vignette-I am in another room, with people bustling around, and I am ALL DONE. I babble incessantly, and the person attending me seems to find it all pleasant and enjoyable. What good manners! I am sure that I said nothing sensible!
I spent ALL DAY trying to rehydrate. Total cottonmouth. Backs of sinuses were even dry. Hot beef broth and Graham crackers for my first snack/meal. 
And yes, they do get you onto your feet the very same day as surgery. The first day, I got to stand to get to the commode. Day two, I was escorted part way down the hall, and was allowed to walk (escorted), to the toilet. Day three, I got to walked down the hall twice, and walked to the shower. I even had a shower! Washing all the sweat out of my hair was such a relief. Ahh, simple pleasures.
Late last evening, I am sitting on the toilet, all bare, to urinate, hope for a bowel movement, get a sponge bath, and allow the nurse to change my sheets. Along come several more nurses needing to do things to me, and I invite them all in. They blink once or twice at my state of undress, and I tell them that modesty is over-rated, at least in a medical setting. We proceed to chat up a storm, giggle immensely, and accomplish all that is needed with great cheer.

Three days with new hip

Three days with new hip. Going well. Nursing home tomorrow. I am actually being able to stand up straight again. My alignment looks to be pretty good. Simply hanging vertically in the swimming pool at the YMCA has evidently helped with that. My surgeon is happy with how the surgery went. I have a very impressive row of staples, holding me together. Did both rounds of physical therapy today with painkillers only JUST administered. Was still able to walk quite good distances, with smooth, even stride (and a death grip on the walker).
No muscles got unhooked or cut to get access to the hip ball and socket, the muscle fibers just got sort of parted, to let the bone out. So it should not be a very long time before the muscles quit yelling at me.

Hip surgery!

Day after tomorrow is the long-awaited (hopefully) miracle-making total hip replacement surgery! I am so ready to grit my teeth, and dig into rehab, STANDING UP. I will have to work again on Standing Up Tall. I want to get back onto my bicycle. (Granddaughters are bicycling WITHOUT training wheels.) After the surgery, I will likely be on narcotics. The sooner I can be  done with those, the happier I will be. I am looking forward to letting my brain heal from narcotics, and getting my brain back, so I can do my book of HARD sudoku variations. All coming soon!