Knee Surgery Blues

Well, well. I actually figured out how to set up a blog. Of course, Blogger makes it almost foolproof, but I still had my doubts if I could do it since I'm not the most computer literate person around. I was setting the thing up and hadn't even considered a name yet, suddenly for no reason the name of a book I read one summer eons ago popped into my head and I thought why not? It kind of describes my life now- no job, recovering from knee surgery 3 weeks ago so I can't really walk painfree for any length of time, and I get dizzy driving. My knee had been bothering for about 4 months prior to the surgery so I couldn't really walk much even then, but I could drive and did alot. I took some road trips driving for about 3 -4 hours just to see some new scenery. So now I have to be creative. Thank goodness I love to read- I have read some really good books- I have a listmania under picopink on Amazon. And Netflix has been a lifesaver, not only sending movies by mail, but there are alot under the view instantly selection that can be seen on your pc. I like to read blogs, so I thought why not try one while I have time on my hands. I'm looking for a job but the market is like a Sahara out there. So of course my funds are extremely limited. My knee has gotten alot better, but so slowly it's hard to notice until I think back to how it felt the first week. I can now walk more with one crutch. And I'm doing exercises to try and straighten the leg since I couldn't straighten for the four months before surgery. The doc said that I had torn the meniscus and there were fragments from cartlidge wear making it painful and unable to straighten out. So at least I can straighten it more now. I went to physical therapy 4 days after surgery- 4 days!!- because the doctors nurse who set up the surgery emphasized so emphatically that I had to start right away. So I put aside my misgivings and made the appointment. I should have listened to my gut. The therapist had me doing things that noone in their right mind would be doing 4 days after surgery. But since the nurse made it sound like my knee would start healing in some weird unfixable fashion, I complied. Hah! That's the last time I go against my better judgement. My incisions, which had started to heal and not feel as raw and painful, started hurting like crazy that night so that I couldn't even sleep. I spent the night on the couch thinking about what a quack that therapist was and how I was going to sue the crap out of that practice. I had stopped taking the Demerol because it was making me too groggy and nauseous and because I had done a check on the internet on drug interactions and it said my combo of meds could cause a fatal interaction, which freaked me out that the Dr. would give me Demerol with the other meds I take. Well the next morning I called my pharmacist and asked him about the drug mix with Demerol because the pain was off the charts. He said that the Demerol was ok for short term use only. Well, I thanked God for that and started taking it again. When I went back to the doc to get the stitches out in a few days I told him about my horrible therapy experience and he said it was definitely too much too soon and that I could wait awhile to heal more before doing any therapy. If only the nurse had known that!!! So after 2 weeks I started doing stretching and bending exercises as I could tolerate them. And I have started cooking again, which I missed. Simple things like roasts or pasta or something from Schwans. I ordered from Schwans the first week and they were a lifesaver. Their food is a little more expensive than the grocery store but everything I have tried is wonderful and tastes homemade, and of course if you are homebound the delivery is so worth it. But I do love to cook, and of course, eat good food so I want to get back into it. My husband has been great with the grocery shopping and following my lists, and I so appreciate that. I love good homemade food that is relatively simple to create, since we know the real goal is to eat/savor it. I don't want to spend 3 hours prepping a meal and dirtying all my pots and pans just to eat it in 15 minutes. My aim is to photograph some of my favorite meals and share the recipe or source. I love looking at other food blogs with pictures of meals, so I'm going to try my hand at it and see what happens.