Knee Replacement

I just had my first shower in 15 days; washed my hair too, so have to stay out of bed until my hair dries. What better time to blog about the last two weeks.

I'm not going to provide any gory details. I think the photo tells it all. My right leg is in the Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) machine. I spend six hours a day having this machine slowly move my knee joint. When I got home I was at 60 degrees; now I'm at 98. I can feel myself getting stronger every day thanks to the pain meds. Without them it would be really hard to get my exercises done. I'm on morphine twice a day and two Tylenol with codeine every four hours.

My time in the hospital is sort of a blur. I got excellent care, but the food sucked in so many ways. I give Kaiser credit for trying to serve a healthy meal. The method, however, was a bit out of date. They served powdered cream for my coffee and margarine. The fruit was all canned and the meat looked gray. There were no sweets of any kind on the tray. My sister missed the pudding. For the most part I ate yogurt brought to me by Kerry and my sister Vicky.

I've had excellent home health care with my nurse, Rachel, and physical therapist, Rob. A week from today I transition to an outpatient PT clinic in Lincoln. I'm still on Coumadin to make sure I don't get any blood clots. Only have another 9 days of that. You can't eat green vegetables or blueberries because they are high in vitamin K. Blueberries are not in season but spinach is. I get to watch Kerry and Vicky eat spinach salads. I love spinach.

My days are pretty much the same: six hours on the CPM machine (two 3-hour periods), exercises, icing my knee and walking around the house. I nap when I'm on the machine. Haven't had too much of an appetite, which is just fine with me.

The big thing about the knee replacement is doing everything everyone tells you to do. That way you get good results. I have balked at some of these things but I keep in mind the things I want to be able to do and that gets me back at it.

Yes, it is the most painful thing I've ever done but it's going to be worth it. I will have my left knee done after the quilt show next October. Any questions.

The Ingredients For Tonight's Dinner

This is Dark Days Challenge meal number six. The pork chops are thick enough to stuff so that's what I'm going to do. The stuffing will be the Argentine lamb chorizo sausage in the background mixed with dried cherries. The chorizo has quite a bit of spice so I'm hoping the cherries will balance that. Then we will have sauteed chard. Pretty simple dinner.

Pork chops are from Bob at Coffee Pot Ranch, chorizo is from Dan at Flying Mule Farm, chard is from the farmer's market and the cherries were a gift in my Christmas stocking.

I always brine my pork chops to increase their moistness. It's pretty simple. Because these chops are so thick, I'll probably brine them for a couple of hours.

This is my last DDC meal for a while. Surgery on Monday is going to cut into my cooking for a while. I'll be back when I'm able to get around the kitchen. For the next few weeks the kitchen belongs to Kerry and my sister Vicky.

Quilt For A Raffle

My quilting bee is making a quilt for the local hospice so it can be auctioned off and hopefully raise some money for this wonderful organization. Each member of the bee makes eight teacups; we will have 56 in all. To me they look more like coffee cups. It's a great way to use up some of your stash. Here are my eight. Had to get them done before surgery. Click on the photo to enlarge.

DDC Meal Five

I'm trying to get in as many DDC meals as possible before my knee replacement. Probably will not spend much time in the kitchen after surgery on Jan. 10th.

This is a lamb shank from nearby Flying Mule Farm cooked in the crock pot in a sauce of white wine (local), pomegranate molasses (not local unless you live in Lebanon), salt and pepper and onions and garlic (the last two from our CSA box). Flying Mule Farm uses only mules for farming.

The yam is from the farmer's market and the butter on it is from Golden Glen Creamery. I visit Golden Glen whenever we visit Kerry's family in Burlington, WA. I buy lots of butter and cheese. It counts as local; I didn't make a special trip there to buy it. I was in the neighborhood. I checked this out with the Queen of DDC, Laura at Urbanhennery.