Expectations Versus Reality

With hope flickering in an uncertain heart, I look towards the future. Well, at least the next month or so. I’m having difficulty thinking much beyond that.

But Jerry began out-patient PT last week and that’s a huge step forward.

This has certainly not been the winter I’d been anticipating. Do I dare hope for the summer I’ve longed for?

After my knee replacement in January, 2022, the entire winter and much of the spring revolved around recovery and PT, with the goal of regaining enough mobility to participate in my dog sports and camping. In other words, get on with my life.

I worked my tail off to meet my goal of attending my first K9 Nose Work competition the end of May, 2022.

2022 wasn’t my best summer ever; I wasn’t pain-free, and my balance hadn’t really rebounded as well as I’d expected as I continued working with my new knee and slightly changed stride. However, the dogs had a blast and I was happy to have seen my goals achieved. It was good enough and I expected it would keep improving with time and exercise.

I’d been determined, all summer, not to allow my still-recovering knee to interfere with my fun. Thus, I threw myself not only into a regular exercise and stretching program, but also into a multitude of K-9 Nose Work, AKC Scent Work and Barn Hunt trials and practices, and fit in as much camping as I could before, after and between trials.

Needing to elevate and ice my knee most nights was a fair price to pay.

As summer wound down and fall brought its usual chill nights and crisp days, I was more than ready to settle into what I expected to be a quiet, uneventful winter.

I even resolved within myself to enjoy winter this year, which most of you know has not been my norm the past few years.

I was tired by the time September arrived. I looked forward to peaceful months of processing raw fleece, drum-carding beautiful batts of wonderful wool and other fibers, spinning to my hearts content and knitting. My winter was all planned out.

Winter started out wonderfully. I spent days properly sorting and organizing both my fiber storage room and my yarn and knitting stash.

Once that rather daunting chore was satisfyingly behind me, I set about planning a variety of blending and spinning projects, looking forward to a creative and fulfilling winter of fiber and relaxation.

With an over abundance of snow outside, I was more than content to spend much of my days in my tiny bedroom fiber studio, was getting into a groove and feeling productive as well as inspired.

Then February 4th arrived and my quiet, low-key winter of relative solitude abruptly evaporated.

I won’t rehash the details, but needless to say, my spinning was on the back burner the whole first month as I became sole caregiver, chef and bottle washer (don’t ask).

Eventually, if only to save my sanity, I moved my spinning wheel downstairs, where I was able to squeeze it between the portable commode, lift-chair, walker and wheelchair. We do not have a large living room, so this took creativity and some major cleaning and rearranging.

Winter wore on, and because of the outlet spinning and some late evening knitting provided me, I was able to fairly cheerfully spend my days downstairs where I was needed to see to my mostly chair-bound husband.

My most important not-so-secret weapon? The Bose sound-canceling headset. Set to Quiet mode, I could listen to an Audible book, quiet music or even my own thought … while all around me, the TV was blaring, the dogs were periodically barking and Jer was (yes, along with the TV), watching and listening to a video or podcast on his computer.

This bombardment of high-volume noise was what had sent me running to the peace and quiet of my fiber studio in the first place several years ago, but now, since my presence has been required downstairs, I had to come up with a way to lower the non-stop noise level to something tolerable. Thank you, Bose!

So, out-patient PT has begun. Jer has been getting around better and better with the walker, although he remains confined to the main floor of the house. Now, if he’d just acquire some sort of motivation towards his recovery PT.

His last appointment with his orthopedic surgeon showed continued healing and he’s allowed more weight bearing. It’s been two and a half long months since the accident and my fingers are cramping with the effort to keep them tightly crossed.

Update; I wrote this blog post almost two weeks ago. Although Jerry still blows off doing his daily at-home PT, which irritates the heck out of me, the leg continues to mend. He is mostly walking, albeit slowly, with a cane now, and drove the car for the first time last evening when I tempted him with dinner out at a nearby restaurant. 👍

The 2023 season’s first K9 Nose Work trial is less than two weeks away. I sure wish Jerry was as motivated to regain his full independence as I was at this time last year!