Home in a sea of pain
The operation was Monday @ Bath Israel. the surgeon decided this time to do a 2nd nerve block and I ost an entre day dof PT because as far as I could tell, he had removed the entire right leg. It had no feeling, no strength. Hospital food is worse than airline food used to be, that is when there used to be airline food. The menu had been written by a good copywriter and promised everything. Even the yogurt wasn’t real. I survived on harfd boiled eggs, banan & cheerios and coffee. I was complete sleepless there. I was discharged from the hospital Thursday afternoon junE 26th. We got home around five. It took 45 minutes to get me in the house. I was not retrained on crutches so going upstairs took almost as long and was terrifying. The pain never stops, just is muffled by oxycodone. But Erica the PT retaught me how to use crutches and go up & down stairs slowly but efficiently and I have been able to reclaim the downstairs. I was cleared to shower three days ago and that has been a pleasure. I still have little appetite for anything but fruit. The cats are mostly enjoying my rehab here. I am doing the exercises, three sets a day. I had a fever when I got home and up and down until recently that too has been improving. I’ve been working with Melenie since last Monday, trying to catch up—bills, submissions, snail & email. I came home to1472 emails.At least 60% start by addressing me by my first name then go on to tout some horrible crisis in their candidate’s situation and ask for $$. When this sort of thing got rolling during the last Obama campaign I read them all judicously.Now the flood is selfdefeating. I just erase them all unless it’s a local race. Yesterdayy I finally did something useful. Woody has been managing the house, the cats, the garden as well as taking care of a demanding patient. As if to spite us, the grden has never ever bee so fecund belching out baskets and baskets of cukes, zukes, yellow squash, pattypans, broccoli. Today he picked two ripe peppers—in New England the first week of July. We made our annual zucchini relish today except for the actual canning and then froze the mixture. Then we made beautiful mixed garden pickles. I’d like to make dill pickles maybe tomorrow? I feel very detached from all that is going on locally, everyplace Pain is insulating and isolating. Nothing beyond the body’s problems and desires and set-backs feels real. It is strange for me who am always so involved politically but I noticed the same shut down last knee. Pain throws up a barrier. Arthur came and went soaking us. The sunporch was flooded. We have some high winds and gusts during the night when such events are scariest – bangs and collisions in the dark. But mostly we seem to have gotten off lightly from this hurricane and today the sun has come out and it’s beautiful – I like looking out at the gardens even if they are still off limits. This is the first thing I’ve written in three weeks except for emails.