1 month check-up!

I am exactly one month post accident today and in to the recovery phase (really? a month already? hard to beleive) and today was check-up day.

I am happy to report I passed the test! While I closed my eyes and squeezed the nurses fingers, broke out in a cold sweat and made wussy noises in anticipation of the pain (which has been my constant companion every day - I can truthfully say now I have never experienced pain of that magnitude, not even when I had the girls, and hope I never due again) my surgeon (what is it with orothopedics ? They all look like they walked off a daytime soap opera set, and mine is no exception!) gently bent my knee up towards my chest for the first time since the accident. Discomfort - yup! definitely. Pain- nope! Woo-hoo! A lovely bend to about 75 degrees, apparently a very good indication that I will obtain at least 90% or better return to full operating function! We are all pleased!

What remains a mystery is if my actual knee will be kind to the newly manufactured tibia plateau upon which my knee joint sits once walking begins. Lets hope so! Still, another 4 weeks before any weight bearing activity is allowed and I intend to follow the advice religiously. But I am getting better on my crutches, and beginning to manouver around a bit. No up the stairs yet - dead lifting my own body weight up 14 steps on crutches causes quite a a bit of jolting around and I am unable to bend my leg out of the way and it bangs into the riser with every step, so I am still "living" on the lower level of my house, with period trips up the stairs, arse first!, for long re-juvinating showers!

All in all, I'm recovering on schedule, with no complications and for that I am grateful.

And yes, I am beginning to knit a bit. The scrap squares blanket that I started months ago is almost finished and I am now at the joining and finishing phase. And there has been a bit of work on the second sock that was worked on during DD1's extended stay in hospital prior to the accident.

Speaking of DD1, she continues on her remarkable recovery, baffling doctors with the reversal of her Pulmenary Hypertension. While she continues to be short of breath on exertion, and has lingering and puzzling body pain, she is leaps and bounds from where she was even this short month ago.

Knit on......

Just spinning my wheels.....

Sigh... Purl and I are grounded. Let me set the scene. A lovely Sunday afternoon, All is well with the members of the family, DD1 is doing well, and DD2 is working, and the G-man is holding the fort. It is sunny,  but not too bright, cool but cold.


the perfect day for a ride, and so we did. A few hours later I found myself having worked to the far outskirts of Ottawa. I was thirsty and being the mid-aged girl badly in need of a restroom, so when the sign said 16km to Cumberland, and I turned for the home of my motorcyle pal Peter. Finding no one at home, I confidently re-negotiated back down the tricky gravel driveway, and pulled out.

For fhat happened next I need to rely on the accident report. AlI I rememeber is no traction and then wham, traction galor! And then there was a ditch. When my heart stopped pounding and Purls kills switch kicked in, I realized that there was no way my right leg was letting me stand up, so so I pulled out my cell phone all the while cursing a blue streak.

As luck would have a pair of good samaritains, mom and daughter, stopped moments later and took over the mechanicals of the cell phone and called all the appropriate emergancy personnel, and kept me squared away and in good spirits while we waited. Can't say their names as I have yet to speak with personally, but ladies you are the best!! Simply the best!! I can only hope to pay forward the kindness, campassion and good humor as you showed me that Sunday afternoon.

OPS (Ottawa Police Services) attended and prompty imformed me he had found the problem with the ditch: there was a Harley in it! Good sport that he was though, he had is up and out of the ditch and tucked away safety in Peter's lean to. Sargent your Harley quip is forgiven in light of your brotherly biker concern for the sercurity of my girl, Purl!

So, up until this point, aside from the wee problem with my front leg, I was in good shape.That was until I discovered that when a person is in what is considered a vehicluar accident like myself, they need to be taken to the nearest emergancy room, and in this case that place was the Monfort hospital. OMG! I.DO.NOT.SPEAK FRENCH. Barely a word, and the Monfort is nothing if not French.

For now I will spare you the ups and downs of my 10 days there. The stories are hard and 2 surgeries later I am trying hard to forget most of them.

For now it enough to know that I my right Tibia Plateau was shattered and rebuilt over the course of a week and I`m grounded for the next few months. My stable now houses a walker, a wheelchair and some shiny crutches I have yet to make friends with. And a whole summer to learn how to play nice.

I have not let Purl see them, she would not be pleased. She too will need some TLC: new handlebars, a signal light, and front spokes checked and complete safety check before next season. Poor girl - she is stabled at Peter`s next to Miss Daisy, and will stay there until repairs begin. It is the best place for her for now, amoungest her kind while we both recoupreate.

And yes there will be knitting - as soon as the pain meds allow me to count sequencally, there will be plenty of time for knitting. A whole summer of knitting the days away...

Knit on........