Saturday, April 2, 2022

Saturday, April 2, 2022

    This was a downtime day. I didn’t even speak to someone until I called Jean, my hanai sister, in the afternoon. She was in pain and wouldn’t come to the phone. She was recovering from back surgery that was extensive enough for a three-week stint in a rehab facility before she could go home. I spoke to John, her husband. I think I kept him on the phone longer than he liked because I needed contact with a family member. It helped me feel better. I was more than a little down. 

    Jean is suffering from the same leg pain that drove her to get back surgery in the first place. I had asked both Jean and John if the doctor had checked her hip before he did the back surgery. Lutz said it should be routine to check the state of the hip before doing back surgery. They may not have shared the information with J & J.  

    The good doctor, considered one of the best in the greater NYC area, didn’t think to share accurate information about her recovery period. They remembered the doctor saying, “You’ll have ten days of pain, and then you’ll be fine.” He said nothing about her being unable to move any part of her body for several days and needing to be in a skilled care facility for several weeks. Lutz said they denied her ‘informed consent.’  

   The pain in my left wrist from playing too much FreeCell, and all my writing was bad today. I used the infrared lamp on it. I massaged the lower arm. Those helped. The most effective was the finger massage I did. The muscles or tendons on the palm side of my thumb were tight. That helped the most.

    I walked as much as I could today, always in short bursts. I couldn’t walk without the support of a walking stick, even in the house. I was sure many thought, “Good thing she is having hip surgery; look how bad it is.”  But I was not the least bit sure the hip was the problem. I wasn’t feeling the pain in the hip. It was at the knee. My hip joint felt just fine. The pain might have been caused by the hip. Dr. Salassa said hip problems can manifest anywhere on the upper leg down to the knee.

  On the other hand, I started this new exercise regime, strengthening my left glutes. I knew they were weak, but I assumed it was a consequence of my other problems, not to be remedied. Everything changed when the PT told me this was what I had to work on.   With every step I take, I work those left glute muscles now. Doing that impacts the inner thigh muscles. Those were the ones giving me problems now.

  I went to Mei and Peter’s to request help with various things. I want the very handy Peter to help me set up the portable air conditioner in the guest room. Damon planned to visit in early May. He would not survive if he didn’t have his air conditioning. All my other handymen weren’t available. Scott gave me one piece of advice: make sure you don’t use duct tape. Use Gorilla tape instead. Peter said he was busy today. I told him no worries; he had a month to get the job done. He would come over first to see what was involved.  

   B had originally set up the system in one of the casement windows. He cut the bottom of the screen and put a plexiglass panel for the rest. He taped something down. Right now, I couldn’t imagine how it was all done. I took the system down to wash the window. Scott tried to tape it up again, but it didn’t hold. The old, dried glue remains prevented the tape from holding. I had the screen and the plexiglass panel lying on a table in the garden for the last two years. I had tried Goo-Be-Gone on the old glue, but that did nothing. I tried gently scraping it with a razor blade. That was labor-intensive, and I sometimes scratched the paint. Today, I went out there and could take a wet cloth and wipe most of it away. As I had hoped, the sun broke down the old glue.

   I asked Mei if she could help me with social media. I want to find other venues to post my The Phonics Discovery System videos.   There are occasionally more viewers, but it is slow. I kept heart, remembering how the visitors to my blog were low, zeros, ones, and twos a year ago. Now, there were running over 200 visitors a day. I was still waiting for the numbers to drop precipitously. If people read it because it is a class assignment, they will stop reading when the class is over.

    I also asked if I could borrow a few of the rags they used to wipe down the freshly washed cars. Sure. Even better, they would send their sixteen-year-old son to wash my car. I noticed the car looked washed and wiped on one of my walks. I texted Mei to ask if David had come over. No, he would be over in a while. I told her the car looked good already. We had a massive downpour. While my car looked better, it did nothing for Josh’s. It was a miracle. Two hours later, I heard someone at my door. There was David, ready to clean my car. I showed him it didn’t need anything. He offered to do Josh’s.  

     I heard someone at the door just before I was getting ready to do my late afternoon walk with Elsa. It was Lutz. He had a question for me. I told him to hold on a minute till I got Elsa on the leash, and I would join him for a walk. I had told him about the THR surgery scheduled for June 2. He said I would be laid up for about two weeks. If I needed anything, to let him know. He went to Costco twice a week. Could he do anything else? He had told me about his love of cooking. I said, “Yes. Cook something for me.” He told me about his slow-cooked spaghetti sauce from a recipe he picked up in Italy and a German stew with lamb. My mouth watered at the thought of the home-cooked meal. He also said he was planning a trip to Thailand. He thought to leave early in June, but he would postpone his trip till the 15th when I could fully function again. Holy cow! Am I lucky, or am I lucky?

     I finished season two of Bridgerton and all episodes of Brokenwood Mysteries. At the end of Brokenwood, they offered a new series. Chelsea Mysteries. There’s only one season. I couldn’t make up my mind if I liked it or not.

    I hadn’t heard from Isaac all week. I knew he was on vacation for two weeks. I hoped he was okay. I texted him, saying, “You’d better be having a fantastic time.” He texted me a picture of two friends volunteering at the church’s Hilo school. They had gone to Volcano yesterday and were in the Waipi’o Valley. Great!