Update

I had my surgery a week ago, last Friday.  I was so nervous about everything, but mostly about the anesthesia.  I have had Brian Waterfall do my anesthesia for both of my most recent surgeries, so I was a little nervous about having my life in the hands of a stranger.  But Dr. McAllister came highly recommended from my friend Steve and it was fine.  I know Dr. McAllister's brother, who does some anesthesia at the Women Center at AVH, so we had something to talk about.  TOSH really had this surgery thing down to a fine science.  I met my circulating nurse before the surgery, so that was nice.  Her name is Max and she took good care of me.  When I woke up in the recovery room, the back of my knee was really hurting, as if it had been hyperextended for a long time, but I knew it had been bent.  They were really good to address my pain and within the hour, I was comfortable.  I now have three little scars on my knee and it is  swollen and a little stiff.  I drove yesterday for the first time, which was great.  Driving is easy, but getting in and out of the car is slow.  My knee is still stiff and doesn't bend as much as it used to, but the Physical Therapist, Joel, is taking care of that.  It hurts to do the exercises he gave me, but I can already tell a difference in both mobility and strength.  Now that I can get up and around, my recovery is starting to feel more like having a vacation from work.  Last weekend, when I couldn't get up much and I needed Percocet and ice on my knee, I got so bored with TV and knitting that I thought I would go crazy.  That's why I mopped the kitchen floor on Monday.  Everyone thinks I am crazy, but standing still and moving my arms with the mop wasn't a hard thing to do.  Since then, I have gotten a ton of flowers and vegies to plant, so Tori and I will be doing that this weekend.  I will supervise and plant the pots and Tori will do the kneeling and shoveling.  

We had a little incident on Tuesday.  A Husky dog jumped our fence by the Woods yard and chased our chickens and actually bit Arwen.  She was in shock when we found her, hiding by the fence.  I took her inside and comforted her and she finally started acting more normal.  When we found her, she was limp, wheezing and cyanotic.  I thought she might die from shock in my arms, but she seems fine now.  There were so many piles of feathers in the backyard that I was surprised that she and Osiris had any feathers left on their bodies.  When we first went out there, after Dana had chased the dog away, Blackberry was in the pine tree (smart girl), Dot, Nefertiti, Chic, Buffy and Chicken Little were hiding in under the ivy on the side of the house.  They can really get down under the ivy if they need to.  We couldn't find Osiris, but she showed up in a little while.  I suspect she was hiding under the chicken house, but we couldn't see her.  We called Animal Control and they actually found the dog, still running loose, about a mile away.  They followed it home, where it jumped a 6 ft. fence into it's backyard.  So, they picked it up.  It is a nice dog and wasn't doing anything that doesn't come natural to it, as far as hunting.  The officer said that because he saw it running loose and jumping the fence, the owners will have a pretty high fine.  Also, it has to be quarantined for 10 days, and will cost about $30 to pay for that.  We decided to press charges of animal attacking animal, not to add to their fees, but to let them know that their dog had come a long way from home and had gotten into mischief.  We discussed it and decided that if Lacey had gotten out and caused some damage, we would want to know about it.  I hope they will figure out how to keep him confined in their backyard.  We also added to our fence to make it higher, to protect both the neighbors from our fierce chickens and to protect the girls from jumping dogs.  

Oh, back to my knee.  No more running for me, ever.  Unless I want a knee replacement in a few years.  So, I guess I will take up hiking and biking.  It has been a bit of a paradigm shift for me this week, along with some minor grieving for my lost youth.  :(