On to May and June

I had hoped to work from home starting the last week of April, but one area on my right knee wouldn't stop draining and close up so I was scheduled for a second surgery to clean that area and re-suture it. Fortunately, the morning of the surgery, the wound finally stopped draining and we were able to cancel the second surgery. So I started working from home for four hours a day in the second week of May.

Around that same time I got a phone call from Bill at Patti's Sewing Machines letting me know they had a Singer Featherweight that they received in on trade. I had left my name and contact info with Bill in December, and this was the first Featherweight they had in the shop since then. My sweet hubby bought her for me as a Mothers Day present.

She was made in 1938 and she's in great shape. I crocheted a bright pink spool doily using some perle cotton.

Since the surgery, it's really tough to stay sitting for any length of time as I get very stiff. I need to get up about every half hour to flex my knees and walk around. It's also difficult to stand for any amount of time, so cutting fabric is a chore unless I do it sitting down. So in order to put my new Featherweight to the test, I decided to piece a simple small quilt top using two mini charm packs of High Street by Lily Ashbury. Very little cutting to do and simple piecing.

I'm calling this mini Road to Recovery.

I went back to work full time at the end of May and found the days to be very long.  Even though I kept up with outpatient physical therapy two days a week and doing a home therapy program all the other days, my left knee wasn't progressing as well as the right knee and I didn't have as much flexibility as I should have.

So even though I had a house full of company in town for my niece's wedding, I went in the hospital the first week of June for a manipulation. Basically that meant I would be under anesthesia and the surgeon would bend and flex my leg in ways that would have been too painful to do while I was awake. The idea behind a manipulation is to break up the scar tissue that formed since the surgery and to hopefully gain more flexibility and a speedier recovery. I left my company to fend for themselves and spent the night at the hospital where my leg was put in a constant motion machine for 24 hours after the manipulation. Of course the manipulation was very painful so that means I'm back on pain meds. This time with a better plan to manage the digestive issues.

A couple days after I went home from the hospital, my niece Kate married her best friend Ted. Both of my boys were home for the wedding, as were all my nieces and nephews, my parents, brothers and sisters. It was great to see everyone.

This is me and the hubs with our sons Chris and Jay, and Jay's girlfriend, Courtney.

The wedding party: 

My niece Kate is the beautiful bride. My niece Sarah is on the far left with the white waistband. My nephew John is the groomsman with the blond hair, and his girlfriend Jen is the girl with the straight hair next to him.

So far my left knee is flexing about 25 degrees more than before the manipulation and I will be leaving physical therapy this week for a gym program that I will maintain on my own. I'm finally starting to feel more like myself again, but I'm not there yet.  I actually thought the recovery would be quicker than it has been. I now know that it will still take a few more months before I really feel back to normal, but I'm headed in the right direction and finally feeling the itch to be crafty again.

It's good to be back.