In the Arms of a Fireman

 It's official. I am officially old & infirm. Yesterday, to my disgust, I fell on my face on my porch. I got up from the chair, hooked my foot under the open screen door, twisted my knee & ankle & fell onto my knees on the porch. 'Course, I couldn't get up & my knees hurt so bad I ended up face down. The person I had just said goodbye to wanted to get me up but  I needed more than one person to help since I was in pain. All I could think of was a fractured ankle so I waited for the Fire Department to arrive. Of course they came with an ambulance .  .  .  .  .  and then all the neighbors lined up to goggle .  .  .  .  .  sigh

The Fire guys got me up PDQ - amazing guys - and set me back on my chair with my cane. I was in pain but could move everything & bear weight on that leg. I was sore from foot to hip, including my knees on both legs but everything worked so I didn't go to the hospital. I figured the next couple of days would be tough but manageable.

Today has been awful. It would've been nice to lay in a hospital bed with people bringing drugs & putting my eye drops in for me. Looks like I wrenched my knee really well & it's extremely painful. It didn't help that I landed on my knees either. My entire right side is painful but I can get from bed to computer - it's two painful steps & to the bathroom - only when I have to - with difficulty. If I didn't have bars on the toilet, I don't think I'd be able to get back up again. I can't make it to the kitchen yet or carry anything so I drink in the bathroom & I'm fasting today. I did manage to get the front door - four steps from the bed - open so the cat could come in & eat. I figure a couple of days in bed will help my knee a whole bunch & maybe tomorrow I can get to my recliner. On the way, maybe I can grab a package of cheese slices, a box of Triscuits & a bag of baby carrots. If I can't carry them, I can sure stuff something into my sweatshirt pouch, ha ha ha.

Eye Report

 Well, here I am 7 days post cataract surgery. I have to say it was the easiest, quickest, least intrusive   surgery I've ever had. It took longer to sew the end back on my thumb when I tried to slice it off with a can!! Other than dumping a whole lot of disinfectant into my ear & hair, the whole thing was fast, tidy & painless. I felt nothing other than one little tug. I didn't need pain killers. No pain, just itchy & teary from the medication. The worst part of the whole thing is those damn eye drops. I swear I'm still dropping them in through my eye lashes .  .  .  .  .  

My new eye does get tired. When it does, I have to take a short nap or wear my glasses so it's fuzzed out of focus. The first three days I took long naps & went to bed really early. I ate lightly & drank only water. Yesterday, I put on my sunglasses & went for a coffee. I found it easier to drive with my glasses on, using my bad eye and made sure I had my best sunglasses on. Since it was only a few blocks & familiar, all went well. Walking is a bit of a problem, I use one eye with the other closed since my depth perception is wonky. But, all in all, I recommend this surgery to everyone. Just get yourself someone to put the drops in if you can.

Knitting - no knitting at all. I suspect there will be no knitting until I get the lens removed from my glasses where the fixed eye is. I can't see anything if I take them off & one eye is totally blurred out with them on. What's a knitter to do?? I may try spinning instead.

Oh by the way - just got an invite from Clara Parks to join the Wool Channel. It's a pay-to-access site but I signed on for a couple of months to see what it's all about - only about $10. Will it become another Ravelry?? 

Post Op Report

 

For the first time in my life I can watch TV & see the nose hairs of the actors. That is how clear my vision is in my right eye. I've worn glasses since I was 8 years old & never had vision like this! Not only that, it's like someone washed the yellowy-brown nicotine stain away - the colors are so clear & bright. It's also very weird having only one eye done while the other is not. I still have to wear my glasses to see out of the other eye . . . . .  you'd think someone would remove the lens I don't need any more but I don't even see the optometrist for two weeks! They told me I may still need glasses for reading but if the other eye works out like this one - no way. I could leave my glasses off but the fixed eye gets 'tired' if I use it all the time. Poor thing, it's been through a lot in 24 hours. Too bad I have to wait 6 weeks before I can get the other one fixed but maybe by then I'll be good at using all the damned eye drops in teeny tiny bottles.

Another Hospital Visit

Got a call yesterday while I relaxed on the porch with a coffee & book, my eye surgeon had a cancelation for Friday, was I interested?? You betcha!! I said YES, did a thumping dance, laughed out loud, cheered & yodeled before I even thought about a RIDE. The nice girl on the other end heard me & was laughing as well. She gave me the rest of the info - then I had my work cut out for me - get eye drops, start them immediately, find someone to pick them up, find a ride - no purses, no jewelry, no wallet, no keys allowed, find easy food for the next three days, take a shower before, take an extra oxygen tank, put new tank in my carrier, wear short sleeve top for BP cuff, find ride. 

Every dish in my place is dirty - every pan too. I've been feeling blue this last week so I haven't done anything. So, I guess today is clean up day. I know I can fill the Crock Pot with something for dinner for Friday. I'll be really, really tired from all the walking I have to do & will probably go home & crash for several hours!! There are times in a single person's life when a partner would be really, really handy.

It's Getting to be Too Much

A lot of the blogs I've been following for years are slowly disappearing. Some are retiring, some just post less often & some just stop posting at all for no reported reason. I miss them. I used to start my day off with the ones that post daily but not so much anymore. 

To blog or not blog, that is the eternal question!  My life used to be a lot more interesting or am I thinking of someone else’s life?  Until I was around 62, I rarely saw the doctor & hadn't actually been in the hospital - even the emergency room - well, since the late 70s when I needed stitches for trying to cut off the end of my thumb! Now, even a shower is an adventure. But, 20 months after not being expected to survive in the hospital, I’m able to take a shower & live by myself. So I guess it’s time to stop whining.

My biggest connection with the world has been my computer. And guess what blew a fuse last week? It keeps going to repair itself & doesn’t come back . . . . .  till I turn it off. Then it takes two days to try to fix itself - sort of. So I’m writing this on an iPad in very small print. Guess who’s going shopping in the near future?

Knitting - I was going to start work on the gloves that I fell in love with in the new Knitty but I've damaged my index finger on my right hand & can't knit. So, instead, I decided to air all my skeins of Briggs & Little yarn outside. I bought enough for two cardigans but it's so full of dust & bits that it makes me wheeze & cough when I try to knit with it. Not good when you have lung disease!!  I thought of washing the skeins but I think hanging them to blow in the wind on my porch will do the job just as well. The yarn is also so dry that it's sucking up the moisture in the air & getting fat & soft in the process. I may even wind up outside knitting on the porch all summer.