Irene is back at home since yesterday after her hip replacement, and she’s doing really well. The big challenge at the moment is getting her to eat. She occasionally feels dizzy or light headed, but I figure she’s been eating at most a thousand calories a day over the past five days, not counting the 24 hour fasting period before and after her surgery. My theory is that she needs to be eating more than a bird in order to have the energy for healing and moving around. But Irene wasn’t quite believing my theory about food intake until the Occupational Therapist, Greg, dropped by and agreed with me that she was doing well and the most probably cause for Irene to feel light headed was lack of food. Sigh…I’m just the husband, what do I know? After Greg’s visit I was able to convince Irene that I should pick up some meal replacements (Ensure) for her, and she’s had a couple of those now…and (surprise) is starting to feel perkier.
Irene made it through her hip surgery just fine. Irene was courageous and seemed quite calm: I’m so glad she was strong. The only downside in the process thus far was not knowing what was going on after they wheeled her away into the “no admittance” surgery prep area at around 10:00 am. I asked at the surgery admitting area at around noon, but they had no information for me other than what ward Irene was going to end up in after surgery- they basically told me to go sit in the waiting area like a good boy, and the doctor would come talk to me later. Later came and went…until around 2:45 PM, when I saw a bed go wheeling by with Irene on it. I followed (no one said boo to me) and all was well.
On Monday Irene will be going to the hospital to get the first of her hip replacement surgeries. We’ve been to the hospital for orientations and such this past week, so we have most of the details more or less figured out. But still its a bit scary.
We had a pretty good weekend in Retirementland this past weekend. The stay at the Empress was good fun, and we had a decent visit with Irene’s folks. You can click the picture below if you want to browse through the photos I took.
My wife and I are heading over to Vancouver Island to visit with her folks. To turn it into a bit of a “vacation”, we’ll be staying in the Empress hotel. I’ve walked past it several times before, but this will be the first time I’ve actually gone in…and certainly the first time I’ve stayed there.
Our fridge died about three weeks ago. About two weeks ago, the service guy looked at it and said “the compressor is dead”. Today, the technician came back with parts in hand and welded in a new compressor. Our fridge is once again making itself cold inside.
Its Christmas Day here, and I’m just starting to wake up on my second cup of coffee. Maybe by the third or fourth cup I’ll be truly in the spirit of the season 🙂 Irene is “bah humbug”ing because she has come down with a cold, and I’m complacent in the knowledge that I will have it soon as well. But there are folks out there with real problems, and my wife and I are incredibly lucky in so many ways that it defies counting.
I’m feeling reasonably “jolly” this Christmas season, but for some reason I’m not feeling very “christmassy”. I tried to go out and do some Christmas shopping, but I just couldn’t overcome a sense of comfortable lethargy…I think I’ll have to take Irene out after Christmas on a shopping spree or something, as I’ve only found her one gift.
