Getting into the Swing of Regular Life Again

Today was a challenge. This morning, I had to leave my husband’s side to return to work. It was tough for me, after more than a week of full-time quasi-nursing care. But I did it.

Thanks to the cold I picked up in the hospital, I’ve been operating in something of a fog. But this IT stuff digs me out of that. It’s something relatively unemotional that forces me to think further than the surface. It’s a needed distraction. I spent a bulk of my day doing Intranet design. Have a table… must convert to sidebar….. 🙂

Yesterday, my daughter and I left the house for an hour to attend a reading activity at her school. We went in our jammies. We cuddled up on the floor and she read to me, and she read very well. I was so proud of her.

After an hour, Santa showed up! He read another two books to them, then it was cookies and hot chocolate for everyone.

It was a surprisingly good time. As I go through the holidays, it’s fun to create new traditions with my family. It’s as though Christmas is being remade into something of our own.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

At Home Again

Yesterday evening, we got to leave the hospital. We had 14 stairs to climb to get to the floor we needed to be on. There was a landing inbetween, so there was a place to rest.

Today, the home health nurse and the home physical therapist came over for visits. It’s good to be so well-taken-care-of. My only fear is that the insurance will get messed up along the way, as insurance always seems to do. But, hey, I can only worry about today, and my husband making progress with his walking.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Day 3, New Knees

Today, my husband walked 60 feet with a walker, 4 times. He was pretty tired the first time, but after that, he seemed reasonably ok. A lot of his weight is resting on the walker still, but the physical therapists seem really pleased with his progress.

Tomorrow, he’s going to try a few stairs. Sounds like a serious fall risk to me, but I’m sure he’ll manage. Heck, he may even come home Friday or Saturday.
My husband’s nurse is the wife of one of my former coworkers. She’s super nice, as are all the nurses on the orthopedic floor.
Yesterday, my husband kept apologizing for wasting my vacation. I don’t call this a waste at all. I know he would do the same for me. I sit with him all day long, except for when I have to get our daughter from school. It’s not a big deal to me, although today I did successfully campaign for soap operas. Hey, I gave him my laptop to watch movies on.
It was a fair trade. 🙂
I bought this wonderful chair at Nebraska Furniture Mart yesterday, and picked it up today. I bought it specifically for rehab purposes at home. It’s got arms the right height and some cushion that the dining room chair we WERE going to use, didn’t have. Love the chair’s style. We normally go for the modern stuff, or the “this is what we have on hand” stuff, but this is a beautiful chair.
When stressed, one must shop. I think that is one of those rules of life, or something. 🙂
Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

New Knees

It wasn’t as bad as I expected.

The doctor said that the knee my husband thought was the worse, actually wasn’t. The knee that felt the worse had actually been compensating for the one that WAS the worse. The worst one had practically no cartilage. According to Wikipedia, cartilage “is responsible for much of the compressive resistance and load bearing qualities of the knee joint and, without it, walking is painful to impossible.”

Last night, he was doped up, but very alert and talking. We left around 6pm to let him get some sleep. Drain tubes from both knees drained blood into a container at the end of the bed, then the blood was suctioned into bags and fed back into his body. One of the knees hurt quite a bit, but turns out it’s because he’s tall and his feet were hitting the edge of the bed, thereby putting pressure on the incision. Once he repositioned himself, things were a little better.

This morning, he said the drain tubes were taken out. He called to say that he sat up on the edge of the bed, then they were doping him up so he could sleep for awhile.

If I remember right, he’s supposed to get an automated machine on his knees today to start bending them. Maybe that’s the reason for upping the dopage. [sic]

Anyway, that is my “new knees update” for this morning.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

I cooked this for dinner, and it was pretty easy and quick to do, plus it tasted excellent. This would serve 4 people, depending on appetite.

You’ll need:
4 chicken breast halves
8 oz sour cream
1/2 onion, to your taste (chopped)
8 oz cheese (cheddar or your pick)
8 oz enchilada sauce
4 flour tortillas (I used a 9 oz bag of whole wheat tortillas. Don’t buy the super huge ones. Taco-size works fine)
A rectangular casserole dish

Cook Chicken breast halves, dice them
Cool the chicken and mix with 8 oz of sour cream (I used light)
Mix in chopped onion and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Divide this among 4 flour tortillas and roll them up, placing each one in a rectangular casserole dish. Cover them with 8 oz of enchilada sauce and the rest of the (8 oz) bag of cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

While I was cooking the enchiladas, I put 1 cup of rice in a microwavable dish, tossed in 2 cups of water and covered the dish. Cook at 100% power for 5 minutes, then 50% power for 15 minutes.

Everything pretty much is done at the same time.

When plating the enchilada and rice, put some of the sauce from the enchilada dish ontop of the rice.

I also zapped some green beans to go with it (hey, gotta be healthy, right?).

It was just the right amount of food and not overly spicey.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Major Brain Explosion

I have decided that if I have to deal anymore with a large computer corporation whose name begins with a letter “D” and ends with the letter “L”, my brain will simply explode.

Our corporate laptops are purchased from them (well, not after this week), our broadband card misbehaves in them, and to fix it, they:

1. Keep me on the phone for 2 hours TRYING to troubleshoot the problem.
2. Send us the wrong freaking internal mobile broadband card in an attempt to fix it.

Not only that, but when I tell them it’s the wrong card, they say, “I sent you the right card.”

Does anyone know the difference between Sprint and Telus? (she said facetiously)

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Hanging at the Hospice House

Today, I had to go to the Hospice House to fix a printer for one of our employees. I had to say that I was impressed with the facility, which was so NOT like a nursing home environment.

Everything was new and clean. Each room had a handmade quilt on the bed, furnished by a local quilting society.

The gathering area had an aviary with about 10 parakeets in it. There were flowers nicely arranged, all over the place. The person who took me to Hospice House said that families who have a family member die there, send a funeral arrangement to the House. The volunteers there rearrange the flowers to look less funeral-like, because in that sort of environment, who needs something around reminding them the end is near?

Every Monday, someone comes in and bakes enough cookies for the week. Every Tuesday, a beautician volunteers to do the patients’ hair, which cheers the patients up quite a bit, I’m told.

I saw a few of the people. They looked very ill… frail, thin, and weak. There were only a few who were up watching tv in their rooms or laying there in various stages of terminal illness. It was very quiet, except for the chattering of the birds.

The person who took me there said that many families appreciate the personal nature of the House, and even comment that their loved one’s death was “peaceful”.

I am not sure how I feel about death. Part of me thinks that “this is it”; part of me hopes there is much more.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂
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