The Last Thing I Want To Do...

I don't want to go to Greece this year, I really don't. It is a country in turmoil at the moment and somehow I don't think it will be over in three weeks. Currently the truck drivers are on strike and they are the good gents that deliver fuel. Hence, there is a fuel shortage in and around Athens. The port workers go on strike occasionally which means any plans to go to an island via ferry could be a problem. The air traffic controllers are doing work to rule which means most flights are not landing on time. So there are my reasons but since the tickets are bought and paid for I guess we're going.

Three weeks ago we finally went to open up our cottage and this weekend we are going to close it. Number of trips in between, zero. I hope that next summer we will use it more or it's time to sell. No point keeping a place that we don't go to. Next week my offspring and family are coming to T-Dot for a vacation which will be a treat. I'm looking forward to seeing my granddaughter Elliotte and wondering if three is too young to learn how to knit. I sure would like to teach her.

As for me, well you know how Murphy's Law works in my life by now don't you. Seems my surgeon can't measure properly and my right leg is 2 cm (3/4") shorter than my left leg. So I trotted off to the shoemaker with three single shoes and asked him to put lifts on the bottoms. I asked for 1.5 cm because I was told the muscles might stretch a bit during therapy. When I went to pick them up two shoes were good, one was not. He can't measure either, he made it 2 cm. I wonder if he knows the surgeon.

I finally had my eyes tested now that they have healed from the cataract surgery and went off to have glasses made. One pair for reading, one pair for the computer and one pair of sunglasses with readers so I can knit in the car while my sweetie drives. I'll give you one guess how that turned out. Yup, if you guessed two out of three your right... two were good and the sunglasses had to be redone. I guess Meatloaf had it right, two out of three ain't bad... I remember actually liking this tune a lot in the day, in fact I liked all his music. Lots of good parties were had to this music. Just listening to it again makes me really happy.






Oh yes, after six weeks of waiting I'm finally getting physiotherapy, three days a week. There's something about three... Have a lovely weekend.

I'm Home - I'm Home!!

There has never been a happier person than me to be home. Well I'm sure that's an exaggeration. Anyone who has to spend anytime in a hospital is always glad to be home. I've had some really ugly experiences this time around and some really good ones.

The bad was a nurse called Doris. I swear she got a kick out of inflicting indignities on patients. She had absolutely no empathy, was abrupt with me, had a phony smile and blamed me for vomiting for three days straight...ya right, I was really enjoying that.

What was really bizarre was that she was the exact same nurse I had six years ago and she was just as awful then.

My time at the rehab hospital was incredibly positive. There was not one bad nurse in the bunch, not even a hint of bad, at least not to me. There were some that were mean to my roommate but that's a story for another day. The physio therapists are amazing and I had a 45 minute session in the morning and hot pool exercises in the afternoon. In between that time I walked, lots and lots of walking. Since I'm still a smoker (a little), I walked outside to the beautiful rose gardens and made friends with other patients and staff who had the same addiction. The first few days I used a wheelchair, then alternated with a walker and the last two days used a walker exclusively. Now at home I'm using mostly one cane and the walker just occasionally.

I have been gone for 18 days and it's time to relax and enjoy my home and garden. I'm going to take the next couple of days to visit some of my friends blogs and see what they've been up to. It's nice having internet again. I didn't really miss it as much as I thought I might. I also didn't miss not having a TV, not even a little and for a news junkie like me, I was amazed at that.

Life went one without me and the world is still turning...

I'm In Rehab

I was moved at 9 this morning and haven't been left alone since. There are doctors, nurses, occupational thereapists, physiotherapists, deiticans and so forth coming to talk. I am exhausted.

There is no wireless service here so the IPod Touch has been sent home along with the laptop. There is a dinasaur in the lounge that I am using to write this. It took about 10 minutes to boot up. I might donate one of my extra computers to this place when I leave. It will certainly be fast than this baby. I will come on line once a day to check emails an so forth and I'm simply not going to bother with the news. It's just too painfully slow to load anything. I'm sure the world will still be there in two weeks. The blogs that I normally read I can't right now but I will catch up when I get well and home again.

I am in a better mood, in a better place and I feel quite confident that I will make a speedy recovery...

Off To The Hospital I Go...

For what I truly is the last time for a long long while. Those of you who follow this blog will know that I've had my share of crap these last two years or so and I pretty much hope that this is the end.

By this time tomorrow I should have a brand spanking new hip. To say that I having been counting the hours recently is an understatement. The pain in the last 10 days or so has been excruciating to the point that I spend way to much time planted on the sofa in a horizontal position swallowing heavy duty painkillers. Tomorrow that will all end, I still have a mountain to climb after all...

I finished these little anklets just in time to take with me. I wonder if they will let me wear them in the O.R.?



I'll write when I can and let you all know how it's going. I have real hopes of getting into a rehab hospital for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, later...

Uncelebrated Events

With all the stuff happening in my life these days we completely forgot about our wedding anniversary last weekend and Mother's day was pretty much ignored in this household. Steve's Mom died a year ago and my own Mother died one day before Mother's day three years ago. I suppose there will come a time when we will again celebrate these events, they just didn't seem terribly important this year.

Yesterday I had to go for pre op at the hospital that is doing the surgery. I spent seven hours and still didn't resolve the most important issue... rehab, seems the social worker left for a meeting just around the time when I was done with all the other tests. Convenient I'd say. What did I spend seven hours doing you wonder, me too. Most of those hours were spent waiting. Steve dropped me off at 8 am and I waited half hour for the nurse. We went through my medical history and I tried to address some of my concerns with being sent home four days after surgery. She insisted these concerns would be addressed by the (disappearing) social worker later. She kept insisting that I needed to appoint a "coach", someone to help me at home after surgery, drive me around to physio (at my expense), and someone to make me meals. I kept insisting that nope, don't have a coach nor can I get one. All my friends work and I'm not about to ask neighbours to take care of me. This is the busiest time of year for my contractor husband who is generally gone by seven and not back before five and my offspring lives in a different province. What are they thinking...

Then I saw a anesthesiologist who explained the latest technique of spinal freezing instead of general anesthetic. The next step was a neck x-ray, blood work and EKG. Each of these required traipsing to different parts of the hospital. Trying to get a coffee or something to eat was near impossible with the strange hours of the cafeteria and I finally did end up with a sandwich at 2 o'clock. By that time I needed Tylenol 3 just to be able to walk.

My last stop was with the on site doctor who checked me over head to toe and pronounced me fit for surgery. By the time I called Steve to come and get me seven hours had passed and I was beat.

Last night I Googled hip replacements in Germany and if I had 10,000 Euros I'd go there. I'm embarrassed to be a Canadian citizen in the Province of Ontario. With all the extra tax money they have taken from us in the last four years specifically for health care we have gotten nothing back, in fact they have cut services across the board, sadly...

I'm Tired Of Hospitals

And yet there is another one in my immediate future. Not counting the second Cataract surgery coming up on May 3rd, there is a hip replacement in my immediate future. May 25th to be exact, I will get my second new hip.

What was so shocking to me today was how quickly by Canadian standards this is happening. The usual wait list here in Ontario is anywhere from 6 to 8 months and I was already Googling this surgery in India where it could have been done immediately at a cost of U.S. $12,000. I had pretty much decided that if my wait was more than two months that I would seriously consider India.

My Orthopod knows me well and knows my generally high tolerance for pain. When I told him I could no longer tolerate the pain, that my DH on occasion had to carry me to the loo at night because I couldn't put my foot down, that and the x-ray results was enough for him to put me in the first available spot. He also told me he would try very hard to get me two weeks of rehab although he couldn't guarantee it. The thought of coming home after four days and trying to negotiate the stairs in my house scares the bejeesus out of me. With my first hip I had two weeks in rehab and I was pretty terrific. It makes all the difference in my view.

My friend in Germany had one just recently and spent nine days in hospital and three weeks in rehab. I think the German health care system is one of the best in the world. I think if I ever win a lottery I would move there in a heartbeat. I've pretty much had it with Canada...