No pain killers last night before bed, and none this morning upon rising. I decide today will be crutch free.. right on schedule.
Now don't get me wrong.. this is my 5th day out of surgery, and I walk like a toddler. I cruise the walls and the chair arms, and stagger through the open spaces. Hubby watches me nervously lest something gives way and I go careening into a table or counter top. But all is good, nothing gives way, and I slowly move around the house trying to get back to normal tasks. I cannot pour milk very easily for some reason, and I can't bend down and pick up the things I'm constantly dropping. I have a light canvas shoulder bag that I put stuff in when moving from one room to the other. If I want to take my phone, my netbook, a magazine, and my water bottle they go in the bag and eventually they get there with me. It takes eons to get from here to there, and by the time I'm there I am ready to be where I came from with a bags of ice planted across each knee. But within 20 minutes the ice has reduced the aching and I'm ready to do something else. So today is the day we will go shopping.
We eat breakfast and I eye the feeders suspiciously.
"Did you feed the birds?"
"no"
I make my way to the garage, lift the lid on the seed can, and discover that there is only enough seed in the can to fill one of the three feeders. I hobble out to the driveway where feeder #1 is and fill it with seed. It's WAY more difficult than I imagined. There is a slope in the garden, and the mulch is soft. I manage to get to the feeder but have a devil of a time getting myself back up the slope. When I say slope, I'm talking about a very, very, very small incline lasting about 1 1/2 feet. I grab little tree branches for support which, I realize, will do nothing to stop me from pitching forward should I lose balance. I will not attempt this again for a while.
"There is a new bag of seed next to the can. I can't lift it. Could you open it and fill the back feeders?"
"I will, when I feed the fish."
Hubby feeds the fish, then the birds. I watch from the window.
"I fed the fish, they were hungry."
I doubted it. I would tell him not to feed them, but it's the only way I can get him in "feeding" mode for the birds. I don't ask if he counted them, because I know he'll lie.
We pull the car up to the front of the store and I shimmy out of my seat onto the macadam. I've decided to take one crutch just in case I get tired, and I do get tired. We have very little shopping to do, and are in the store for probably 15 minutes, but it's all I can do to stand in line at the checkout. This is the most walking I have done in 5 days. I think about work. There are three flights of stairs, and three blocks of walking to get from my house to my office. I know now why the doctor said a minimum of two weeks, and possible three or more. I am nowhere near ready for the commute, no less the lifting and moving of boxes etc. I set a new goal.. I will be back at work in two weeks, not three or more.
A short walk up the street, and the shopping trip did me in and I find myself flat on my back again, ice bags on each knee. The bruises are turning green around the edges, but they look kind of cool with the little star bandages across each incision. After lunch I realize the aching is not responding as well to the ice. I take a pain killer and take a nap. Dinner is KFC... at least it's not frozen food and it is disgustingly delicious. By 9:00 I am ready for another pill and sleep. I lay awake, even after the meds have kicked in, my knees throbbing.. but I think it might actually be the muscles that hurt now. I take another pill and am asleep within an hour.
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