This past Wednesday I had my left knee joint replaced due to severe osteo arthritis!

The day after this major 3 1/2 hour long surgery…. we got home and found this sweet card from a great friend. It really brightened my return to home … though to be honest with all the bruises I got in the hospital that short 24 hours there…. I was so happy to be back to our cabin in the North Carolina mountains…

Before leaving on Wednesday morning for surgery… I had the first after lunch slot… My honey was busy building a temporary but very sturdy and functional ramp out front….

Before surgery I worked on putting together some of the Nordic Star table runner blocks for our bar in the kitchen over the winter season….

Rick did LOTS AND LOTS of other things as did I in preparation for me being out of commission for a bit but post op now day 4 … he is still surprised at all I did behind the scenes… I am still not released by him to move about with my walker alone because I still have pain meds on board and I have had 2 near unsteady moments that he caught me. I will be glad to be independent again and back to my little nest of chores I keep up around the house.

The most exciting thing though is that I am sewing again… I did a bit of hand quilting the day after we got home and I machine quilted a strap my honey cut from a long piece of nylon strapping he found in his building that had never been used… Physical therapy had me using this style strap of theirs for increased range of motion exercise but I fell so in love with this aid I was happy as a clam to have a handy honey!!!

My honey also fixed up our front guest bath for me to eventually be independent and now he just watches me as I sit down and stand up in there…

Above he took down the existing towel bar and added 2 different bars for me to pull up from the raised toilet seat… it is awesome for my goal of complete independence and safety!!!!

My bestie asked what I would like most for recovery and offered a myriad of ideas… but I knew initially what I wanted was a subscription for just a few months to Audible!!! Yippee 🎉

So while I work on hand quilting the cross hatching in the heart of this full sized quilt on my frame I will be listening to some books now 🙂

Although there isn’t a large amount of work done on this since we returned home…. all this cross hatch stitching following the chalk and water soluble lines has been done since I got home from the hospital. I am so pleased with this 🙂 Linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers HERE <<<<

I hand sewed the binding down to the back side and gifted this to neighbors who fed us a delicious meal prior to my surgery… Here is it hanging in their hallway….

So here is my right leg not fixed and my left leg now straight and fixed….

My left leg was MORE crooked than my right so my doctor and I chose it first and I can weight bear very well already but aid with the rolling walker they gave me at the hospital before check out!

Nail Mail was waiting for me the first day we got home… the cup of smiles card came the next day and the audible subscription I got signed up to use and downloaded my first book yesterday so all is going well.

Can you guess which one of these nail polish strips I decided to use first???

I was so happy to get nail polish strips back on my nails… they are so much more durable !!! But it all had to be off for surgery.

So today will be lots of time exercising and keeping motion in my knee… I wear 2 ace wraps instead of TED hose… the dressing is clean and dry and comes off Wednesday according to discharge instructions and then the following Wednesday I go back to Chattanooga for my post surgery follow up… if no problems come up between now and then I will plan a visit with my surgeon to get the second knee done too!

The worst of the pain is behind my knee and my knee cap which was off center and had to be re-set… My surgeon told me this would be most painful part of the surgical recovery and he is right!

Today is Halloween (which is also my honey’s sons’ birthday!!! Then next weekend is time change for us here in the USA too! So much going on!!!!

Thanks for visiting and have a blessed week ahead…