a blanket of warmth

I have a little blanket that always lies with me..
It often gives me comfort whenever the need may be.
It covers me and takes away the cold that chills my bone,
I like my little blanket , her home is my own.
Because you see,,this blanket is really a afghan crocheted with love
From Doris who left this world to unknown realms above.
Doris loved to cook,sew, make quilts and afghans galore,
I only wish I had taken one or two more...
The one I chose is colorful,white with colors through
And when the days are gloomy..the colors cheer me too.
I think about all the time with needles in her hand..

Each weaving back and forth became a colorful strand.

My little warm blanket covers me from head to toe,

I can't help but think of Doris each time I draw it close.

I think of how she may be gone but would be pleased to know,

How her lovely little afghan gives me comfort so.

Occasionally a tear may fall when I think of one so dear,

That is no longer with us but yet she lingers near..

She's in my blanket,,in my pics ,inside my house and out,

Theres not one place that I can see that Doris is'nt about.

I call my blanket ,,my Doris blanket ,by her hands it was made,

It covers me..It warms me,and its like she is with me thru the day.

Thank you Doris , for making these beautiful blankets...for which i truly love....They are a source of comfort crocheted with hands of love...

14 days behind me

well....ones too dark and the other too light...but basically this is the way my leg looks two weeks out.................................................................

well...I can recall too vividly of what i was doing at this precise time two weeks ago...waiting in a Little teeny white hospital room getting ready to be hooked up to iv's and routine blood work being done for(((((puke))))) surgery and the spare hand talking to my la sis....Its funny how time crawls when you dont want it too and goes fast when you dont want it too..as soon as said phone was whisked away from me....i think i must have been taken to the bates motel...or their psycho ward...from going to the chopping block and returning to a white bedroom was where my journey began....Everything appeared to go as i assumed was normal...But dont ask me what normal is suppose to be in a hospital..whatever the nurses want it to be as they are in control of the meds...I do remember that first night of surgery at somewheres around 9 p.m. or after..memory foggy on time.....that i called my la sis ..squalling and saying "I thought you said this didnt hurt...well mine sure did....She was livid and from there on out I was probably the orthopedic floor nightmare for that week,,til my release....I still think as soon as they got my wheelchair on the ground floor as i was leaving i could see all the fireworks going off on that floor now that they got their worst patient OUT OF THERE.Day 2 and day 3 seemed to get a little better as i kept repeating i did not want another night like day 1....

between my la (nurse) sister calling them all the time about my meds and anything else they weren't doing right..and my EX..i have to capitalize that one...sister in law spending the next nite to make sure i got that extra push which was extra pain allowed in between the 4 hour percoset if you so needed it..the only problem was if you slept through that time allowance you missed it..so she made sure i was awake and made them give it to me in between the pills...which is the way it was suppose to be..whether i was alert enough to ask for it or not..i got it...PT wasnt too happy...I couldnt stand up on the floor to walk..couldnt keep my eyes open for all the drugs the EX was making sure i was getting..Actually if i had had a little bit more of controlled pain i wouldnt have been seen or heard out of......oh well....i'm just glad that is all behind me..i go back to the knee doctor tomorrow and hope the surgical site looks alright..the nurse yesterday said it looks a lot brownish but maybe that is the way its suppose to be doing....well..lets hope so..dont want this knee re-opened,,,,

and thank goodness the left one is suppose to be alright...

Anyways ,,just getting home from the hospital was controlled pain for me..noone checking on you..up when you want...pills every 4 hrs.when you felt like it....A few obstacles you had to get cleared at first ...and the worst one of all was ((((gross as this may sound))))was getting the back end to work back in a routine.....pain there til you got it back into working right....ol med..called mag=citrus had to do its death defying act on this one....

All in all..I feel a lot better since i've gotten home..I still get winded at times...and fatigue will not allow you to stand no more then what you can..The nurse and PT told me to just get up and do what i had to do then lay back down....so now i try to do a lot of sit down work.My little pink lady..my walker treks around with me and i have a pouch for my phone and glasses , another mesh bag to carry things from one spot to the other hangs on the opposite side so im ready to rock and roll.......I have a cane and crutches if i so need them for a step -down...

Anyhow...I got out of the hospital on Saturday following my surgery...groggy and sleepy ..par to the procedures of what i had done..

No appetite you had...just thirst....so it took me 3- 4 days of munching crackers with my pills and that was enough for me...

ahhhh...then the appetite started to return....now my cook has me 1 egg,,i slice of bacon , 1 toast and coffee for breakfast...its a morning ritual..hey i cant complain...the he in the house has taken over about everything...I feel bad at times....and I try not to ask him to do too much.He has all the outside work to do before winter gets here...firewood...fixing everything that needs to be done before it gets too cold..has to feed my animals...winterize the pool....plus he alternates between trying to paint a whole house and repair whatever needs to be repaired to get it ready to rent....so i try to do what i can for myself....he has a lot to do..

Yes..Now that i am home ,,i try not to think about whats behind me....I'm just hoping said dr. visit goes alright tomorrow and everything is still aligned up with the surgical knee....hey im two weeks out....and i know its going to be a long drawn out process but ive never sat this long at any given time and at times the rest part feels good....

Not that i dont have pain...If i go past my 4 hours depending on what i am doing then ive overworked my leg and id better grab a pain pill..sometimes it takes its own notion to want to burn,itch or whatever to keep me alert.ahh,,,the sad part is...my knee controls me now...what it wants it gets.....and that will probably be the way it will be the rest of my life.

PT is the most important part for knee therapy now...being able to work my knee properly will be weeks down the road...so now i am just content to be home ..to regulate my own pain...and i know with each slow passing day that my knee will have to be getting better....i'm waiting.What choices do i have...I am at my knees beck and call....
"and it calling me now...............later guys................

no more wondering??????????

this is the before picture ,,,before i had surgery...............

the next one are shadows of the after ...Is there really any difference??danged if i knowI guess when all the swelling goes down they may match a little more....maybe not.

thirteen days ago was a wondering about my journey into the other world of bionic knee ,,surgery,,,what to be and what to come...

one word describes it all....IT SUCKED...and still does...the only thing i can say is at least it is behind me but not all the pain that came with it...thank goodness ...percoset seems to be my best friend right now along with my little flowered pink walker that gets me around.At first i tried to stretch my meds out so i would be taking fewer and fewer and from two to one but that doesn't seem to work at this point...cause when Mrs.Knee wants to hurt..she does...and if i have waited too long to give her a hit of pain killer then it takes me that much longer to get settled down also,so I'll keep feeding her for the time being....I have learnt thru this little process....no more hurrying doing anything.....at all...you'd better start a little bit earlier to get where you are going cause timing is your worst enemy at this stage...so far ,it is working.....

The nurse and PT have already been here for the morning and gone..one just draws blood to monitor my coumadin and the other gets paid for watching me exercise...thats ok....They check vitals .etc...while they are here.....and answer the few questions i may have...One in particular was ..why did the back of my legs and knee hurt so bad yesterday..of which after finding i was up on them for too long of times was the answer...they told me to get up..do what i had to do then lie back down..everything has its drawbacks and overextending my time up would be one of them...and be too much on my knee...like with exercising....not over two sets a day...cause then you can overexercise the leg.....

gee..so may things to have to watch for..then this medicine at this time ..this one at that time....this one with food...this one not...so needless to say,,i keep a giant notebook and pencil close by.....and sometimes i have to make that la phone call to see just what i have done....or didn't do..

Thank God ,,there is a nurse in the family,,or at least she says she is...no way could i be a nurse..my brain couldn't survive remembering all those vital things you have to know....

Thanks ever so much for being here with me thru surgery..hospital stay, home recovery and now rehab sis....I really couldn't have done it without your knowledge of what was to be done....or what was going to happen as you went thru it first..I'm glad you went into nursing instead of venturing...It paid off.....Again....to say thank you is not enough....love you a lot.......

and this is the best pic i could find of us....me following in your footsteps...heyyyyyyy.dont complain....at least you are the pretty pink one....

24 hours from now

I'm wondering what the next night will bring...great pain with no end in sight from having this piece of metal put in my leg.a long sleepless night writhing in pain from this foreign object implanted in my body......I can see the purple and black now surrounding my leg as i bruise easily and this will actually be the first major surgery i will have had although i have had my throat cut from one side to to the other when they did my thryoid surgery and i have had both knees operated on with ligaments sewn back together and cartilages taken out but i think this will be the worstest (ha..no such word) one of all....unless i muster up nerves of steel overnight to take the brunt of most of the pain....maybe i can sleep thru most of the next three days and wake up with no pain.I tried to accomplish most of what i wanted to get done in case i am hindered for a week or so .ok........short post ....i am outta here to pack a few more things for the journey to the new leg.............part....owww..it hurts already.

so much to do..too little time

the big day will soon be here..today i went for pre-ops at the hospital to get me ready for that big day next Tuesday...I am in no way looking forward to this surgery..i don't see why my doctor thinks i need surgery...don't these legs look anywhere near perfect..shapely....guess not.....I guess if i were in severe pain or any kind of in depth pain i would be more intent on having this done...but the way i see it ,,i am going to be in more pain after surgery then before and it seems to me it ought to be the opposite...anyways...the date is next Tuesday..the 22nd...and i have so much i want to get done before then...we are in the process of trying to get a house in condition to rent...and i am not in any way much help now..let alone after the surgery...i just have to much i want to do to be hindered by not being able to do anything of great depth for at least 6 months..oh well..too late to turn back now...

maybe i can take this laptop to the hospital and do some catching up on my posts..we'll see....

i thought i could have the femoral block or the pump like the Louisiana sis but i guess they don't do either one anymore..its either pills or shots..just want i wanted to hear...that's just hunky dory..ok....just an update on where my surgery is at....now i am off to the kitchen to find something to eat......I've worked up an appetite just thinking about surgery....good bye.

why would i go

after tonite,,,why would i.......

and you ask me..."why dont we go on a cruise" well tell Miss Peggy I would like to BUT..........if it wasnt for the ???????????.

I would have... and my mind runs wild when it gets over water....

ahh,,,the boat ,,the boat
For one thing,I went on a mini cruise tonite...we boarded our boat at the hockingport docking site....i was trying my best to stay steady as i hiked one leg over the dock onto the boat and looked back to see if the other one was following..yep..two legs..still attached....I'm carrying my life jacket in one hand,,a sweater for the cool breeze from the water and a pair of sweats in case the temps drop fast...as it is always a little more nippier in or near water....I scanned my surroundings as we got on...I could see a yacht docked on the other side of the little river, river boats all decked out with palm trees and bright lights, people sitting in chairs fishing from the banks

cruising the river..

we cruised on down our little river til we crossed under the bridge that directed us into the mighty ohio .....the banks were ten times as far apart as the little river we were on....the pilot..(man in the house ) piloted the cruise ship we were on down the mighty ohio and opened the throttle up full force ,,the wind blowing our hair among the roar of our little engine..soon when we got tired of cruising down the river ,,the pilot pulled the little boat over to the side and proceeded to fish for whatever would have the misfortune of jumping on his hook...fishing is not one of my favorite things to do but when asked to go...i grabbed my camera and thought why not..

as i sat in our little boat ,,,i would gaze out of the corner of my eyes watching in case i would encounter a giant squid wrapping his tentacles around me or a menacing shark coming up to take a bite out of our water craft and visioning the little boat sinking to the bottom in all that water never to be seen again..with that thought i clutched my life jacket closer and thought the man in the house will have to pry my locked fingers off of this one to get it away from me...(I've got to quit watching all those movies

that end up with the main characters being ate because in this scenario I'm the main character....) with that thought I gazed around and my wandering imagination saw a crocodile .

...alias a big log floating on the river

...a different looking bird

sitting on the side waiting to take off in flight and swoop down upon us..ahh but he took off and flew the opposite way.but wait theres a snake sticking its shiny green head out of the water waiting for the chance to spring upon some unsuspecting prey....but wait...thats not a snake ,,,thats a pop bottle..my eyes are deceiving me again.....alas my camera helped me pass the time again,,..the moon was shining over the water and casting a shadow as far down as the eye could see and a picture was in tow...i would have been absolutely bored on this little cruise if not for my little buddy in my pocket...when bored,,take pictures...

on the west va. side of the river among the trees and wooded hills you could see houses and farms dotting the river..on the ohio side at the point we were at was highway and rock cliffs that the man in the house worked on years back,logs and other objects floating on the river..,OK.. my cruise is almost over and we want to get off the water before dark.and the other cruise liners (((barges)))) happen up the deep waters..the waves they create could toss and sink a smaller vessel like ours if we would wander into their territory....things look more sinister in the dark especially in water..and im sure my eyes could really imagine things..and to top it off ,,i have never sat so still in my life...and i sure dont want to piss the man in the house off at this point...i can see him tossing my fat butt of this little cruise ship we are on and noone knowing where i went or what happened to me..happens all the time doesnt it..or trying to load our little ship and getting caught underneath it..all kinds of thoughts race thru your mind..who can you trust these days....is the person in the house with you that you thought you knew for over 15 years coming out of the closet...has he had enough of me...have i ticked him off...think I will just sit on my cruise ,,take pictures and KEEP MY LIP SHUT....so my lip was zipped on this trip ..i even talked nice on this trip...i am not in command or have any control on this ride...this one hour trip was a half day outing it seemed..I WANNA GO HOME AT THIS POINT..

im back home and im safe...whew....i'm dry ,,,i dont smell..so i must have done alright.....that was my mini cruise...

now ask me,,,if i want to take a major cruise on the mighty atlantic or pacific ...sharks..whales..octopus,and all those other creatures in that deep dark lurking water..well...miss peggy .........I DON'T THINK SO...i dont like water and all those creatures in it...and i think i am going to skip my shower tonight...ive seen enough water.............later............

lunch break,,m-m-m good

I'm ready for lunch ,,I'm tired and hungry...so i took time out for a ???????? what might this be,,,my lunch....yeppppppp??????Mrs..K might say it looks like road kill..but i swear i wasn't out anywhere near the highway..what i actually wanted was a tomato and mayo sandwich but the friendly preachers wife wasn't up this way today...so i had to settle for a mayo and jelly sandwich...actually it was so yum yum good i had to have two....now ,,gut is full and i had to take a break...break to the blog site that i cant seem to get to anymore...

all gone......yummmy

..........another day almost gone in the hundred minus 88 acre woods..actually the man in the house acquired another 30 some acres when his mom passed but the immediate 12 surrounding us is all that we have...of ours together....

it has been one of those long days where i have worked and toiled all day and it only looks like i did nothing when i get through...i worked inside cleaning and sorting canned goods and rearranging shelves in the kitchen and hallway...lots more to do in those areas but as usual i had to wonder out on the screened in porch and wanted to work outside a little bit..the outside was calling me ...cause you see,,,I HATE HOUSEWORK..so i proceeded to sort and separate on the porch...the box ..no i should rephrase that and say the big box that holds the big bags of dog,,lamb and pig food for those monster animals had to be cleaned out,,,,now this is not a small box....it holds three 50 lb. bags of food along with everything else that seems to fall into it....ok,,finished that...now for all the pool toys, the floaties,,,the life jackets,,pool chemicals, the tools for pool cleaning, the goggles, fins and hoses are all to be put away..the baseball bats ,,balls, bases and gloves , all needed to be nestled away some-where for another summer ,all the toy guns ,swords and whatever had to be collected ,, out with all the summer toys and out come the winter....sleds,coats , boots and gloves will soon fill the transition from summer to fall, and winter.........football season is upon us..can still ride the bikes and riding toys for a while yet.i swear if i didn't have all the toys that the 7 year old DOES NT play with ,,i might have room around this house...but I'm not getting rid of his toys..that's his stuff...unless hes willing to give them up and occasionally we get to sorting and do..but theres toys for the living room,,,the tub..the porch..then there is the outside toys....as a matter of fact you would think there was 10 kids around here..sometimes there is but not permanently... but he has times and moods like we do that he wants to play with army men...farm animals..hunting toys..monster trucks or whatever strikes his fancy that day...so i let him pick and chose...so how can i get rid of his toys when that is all hes got....that's his own things that he can call his own...and the older ,broken ones i do pitch without him knowing....

the pool is slowly turning green,,,which we will not try to resuscitate at this point because our season for swimming is GONE for this year..when these nights get down in the 50's..just doesn't warm back up through the day to warm the pool water..

and when the man in the house doenst go in it,,,IT MUST BE COLD...so good bye to all those sun soaking days..hello fall..

ok...my break is up...just wanted to make an appearance before i start back to work..want to finish the outside porch before i quit..so toodle loo til next time...well. before i could get this posted i heard the dogs barking and someone calling my name...the preachers wife was outside with watermelon,,a tomato for my tomato sandwich and watermelon for the pigs...so we let her 4 year old go out and feed the piggies some watermelon rinds.....we wandered around the yard then down to the deceased mothers house that she and her husband are wanting to rent ,,,she wanted to walk through it one more time and see what changes we might need to make as she has 5 boys and it only had three bedrooms...planning is in the progress if we can get the builders to agree to it...so now it is almost 4..time to do a few more things before i quit for the day which i am almost ready to do...i could do more but this knee i need replaced slows me down more then i want too....or if it isnt my knee that slows me down then i have a darn good excuse..ok..im outta here............