Surgery takes the starch out of you. I slept well Sunday night and got up at a reasonable hour. I made a cup of tea and a beeline for my recliner and that’s about the extent of my day. I finished knitting the first sleeve of this sweater. I got a followup call from the surgeon’s office to see how I’m doing. I went all day with no pain medicine…the first since surgery on Friday. By the time the early news was over, I felt like I ran a marathon. I took a nice shower and got the last of the adhesive from the bandage and ECG tabs off. It was beginning to irritate my skin. Mr. FixIt brought me a frozen fruit bar and tucked me in to write. 

Ever since I received the long awaited diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism, I’ve been on a mission to find a cure. I became my own advocate and read everything I could find about the disease and how it affects the body. I researched physicians and medical centers for the best and most recent treatments. I joined a Facebook Support Group for people with pHPT and selected the world’s best surgical team to get this taken care of.

I slept soundly the night after surgery. Still loaded with anesthesia and pain medications, I drifted off at a decent time. It helped that Mr. FixIt was also tired after being my helpmate so it was lights out early for us. I mentioned casually that if I felt better when I awoke yesterday morning, we could possibly go home. I should have known when my sweetheart came in to wake me up, he had plans. Oh, my gosh…I was so sore. I gradually dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen for a cup of tea.

We went to bed at least two hours early the night before my surgery. My alarm was set for 4:00. Mr. FixIt awoke at three. I didn’t lollygag around and jumped right in the shower. I needed to scrub again with that special antibacterial soap to cut down the risk of infection during surgery. My skin feels like the Sahara Desert but I’m clean as a whistle.

When I want clarity and direction, I turn to my Bible and read any number of devotions on whatever topic is troubling me at the time. When I want distraction, I turn to my knitting and YouTube for any number of topics that pique my interest. Yesterday was a mixture of both. I read the Bible and my selected devotionals every day but yesterday I spent a good deal of time on the topic of finding strength in the Word and reminding my monkey brain that anxieties are nothing more than thoughts and they cannot hurt me. 

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues! I love to dance and my favorite place to dance is at a concert when everyone else is standing up and dancing, too. Gosh, it’s been a long time since I’ve danced to live music. Lately, I been feeling the sting of these last couple of years. The isolation of the pandemic and not getting to just do what I want, when I want is making me cranky and restless. I’m getting a HUGE case of 24 month cabin fever!

I wish I could have had a blowout birthday party for my sweetheart. You don’t turn 70 every day! But, covid precautions and an upcoming surgery is keeping me close to home and pretty sheltered, so I’ll have to make it up to him when the weather warms up and we can party outside! My bonus son came to the house and decorated the yard for his dad’s special day. He asked Mr. FixIt what he wanted for his birthday. Since we are all about experiences over stuff, the guys will go out for a day of golf come springtime.

Mr. FixIt and I have lazy mornings in the winter. We don’t have to hurry outside to mow or get the outdoor work done before the heat of the day. One or the other of us wakes up, and our movements awakens the other. We stretch and say our good mornings. We ask each other “How did you sleep?” Then we check to see what the temperature is outside. What is the day going to look like? Do we have anything on our schedule? What’s new in the world? We catch up on our social media and the news. By that time, he’s awake enough to get up and get the tea kettle on. Then he moseys out to let Pumpkin out of the building so she can begin her busy day of grand adventures around our little homestead.

I find winter passes much more quickly when I keep my hands busy. I finished the socks yesterday afternoon then immediately started on the sweater. That’s three pairs of socks in one month…a personal record to be sure. And, Gail was absolutely correct…the sweater is much easier and knits up so much faster than the socks do.

We watched football yesterday. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention during the season. But I do love when it gets time for the playoffs. So much more is at stake…at least imminently. Last week, we watched the Cincinnati Bengals pull of an unlikely victory over the Tennessee Titans. The Kansas City Chiefs upset the Buffalo Bills, so that placed the Bengals against the Chiefs yesterday to determine who moves on to the Super Bowl.

Wow…is it cold or what? We were in Columbus the last few days and felt the bitter blasts of flat Midwest winds. I didn’t even look up the wind chill factor. I think it just makes you colder. But I do know this…when it’s 3° outside and the wind is blowing, it’s flat out miserable. Our hotel room was on the first floor. I don’t know if the room was cold simply because it was cold outside or the fact we were sitting on a huge slab of cement. The heater had a governor on it and you couldn’t turn the thermostat up over 78° and at that level, it blew nothing but cool air…until it didn’t. Then it got way too warm. Next time, we will elect to stay on an upper floor.