Thursday, November 12, 2015

Lost in the woods...



  She's been lost in the labyrinthe of her crazy cockamamie world...  lol   But she's still the queen of Quite A Lot.



 I finally had the knee replacement surgery, for one thing.   I will be having the other one done too within the next 6 months sometime. Depends on the other stuff going on. I had some issues with blood clots  from the surgery, and am taking  Coumadin and trying to find the right dosage to get things leveled out and the numbers of the PT/INR where they are supposed to be. 

             [The prothrombin time (PT) is used, often along with a partial thromboplastin time (PTT), to help diagnose the cause of unexplained bleeding or inappropriate blood clots. The international normalized ratio (INR) is a calculation based on results of a PT and is used to monitor individuals who are being treated with the blood-thinning medication (anticoagulant) warfarin (Coumadin®).]

 It seems I  vacillate between clot city and hemophilia. lol  I had a pulmonary embolism while at the hospital. It was a small clot in my lung (never life threatening) and was addressed immediately. I spent a week at the most amazing hospital ...4 days longer than I was supposed to.  The knee replacement itself went exceptionally well and I am now at 6 weeks post-op and am walking without even a cane. The relief and lack of knee pain is so amazing I am begging them to hurry and do the other. lol  

  This is a pretty brutal surgery. They cut the femur bone in 2 places (above and below the knee), manipulate the muscles and tendons and out with the old and in with new. The pain from the surgery is pretty bad,--who knew cutting your bones in half would hurt so much ??  Those ladies at the circus make it look so easy when they are sawed in half...  

 Anyway I had home health for a few weeks because it was just too hard to get rides and to appts (exhausting) because I live out here on Honeysuckle Hill. I have to have that blood monitoring done weekly, so it was easier for them to come here and the physical therapist too. But now I am driving again and back in life. Have a few weeks of outpatient PT and then I'm finished with that. Very happy to have finally taken care of this...like everyone said I would be.



  I have stopped writing everything for a while here.  No blogging, no magazine stuff, nothing. I wasn't even on the computer at all for days at a time. Been lots of other stuff going on...my sister-in-law's brain cancer is in full progression it seems and we are all dealing with that.  Within a 6 month period 8 people I knew died, one of whom was a family member. The weather was a nightmare here this year and I had no garden to can. Imagine what THAT has done to me.  lol  I did buy some tomatoes and can some salsa. have canned some Cowboy Candy. Have frozen what few bell peppers made it. It was awful.  By next spring my pantry will be empty. Thank goodness I have canned so much the past 2 years when the gardens were bountiful.  One of my peach trees died. My apple and pear tree were hit by fire blight and are going to have to come down. The county sprayed and killed ALL the blackberries along the front of my property one day when I was gone...new guys working for them and didn't understand about the wrath of Annie (they do now).

  All in all--a very strange year indeed.

  Hopefully I will get back on track. I have missed you all so much. Missed writing. Missed reading your blogs. I feel like I am coming out of an intensive hibernation. On a bright note,  I did have 2 of my recipes PAID FOR and PUBLISHED !!!!!!!!  by Grit magazine in a special bread issue they put together. As soon as I can find one of my copies, I'll take some pics and show you.  Very proud !  lol  

  You can imagine the disarray of my house after several  months of not being able to do my householding chores. First because I could barely walk there at the end and then the recovery from surgery.  Slowly but surely I am making my way through it. lol




  I AM SO GLAD TO BE BACK !!!!!!




Namaste.

10 comments:

Mama Pea said...

And we are SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU BACK! You have been missed, but oh my goodness, you definitely get an excused absence because of all that's been going on in your life. Let's hope, hope, hope you're headed into a period that affords smoother sailing. Having your second knee done (I've heard) goes better because you know what to expect. (Just remember to stay away from those blood clots!!!)

DJan said...

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed reading this post, Annie. It's been so long, and to find that it's been a mixed bag for sure since we last got a post from you, I am glad it's looking good for that knee, even if you are not having an easy time of it. Being out of pain is wort h a LOT. :-)

Akannie said...

Mama Pea--I have missed you too !! How did your garden year turn out ?? It was pretty awful down here...there were NO roadside stands selling produce this year even--anywhere !!

Akannie said...

Thanks DJan...and you know, everything considered I haven't really had that hard a time of it all. A friend of mine just had her second one done and she's having a worse time than I did. The blood clots just happen sometimes, they said. All the rest of me is good though. Wait until you guys hear the story of how I found my doctor the magic man -- lol !!

Mama Pea said...

Hard to believe your whole area got socked with a bad gardening year! Ours started out VERY slow and cool, but at the end Mother Nature (or the garden gods) came through and we got a very good harvest. Got about half the poundage of potatoes as we usually do, don't have any idea why as the ones we got are lovely. My shell peas didn't produce quite as well as usual but with the other veggies, we have enough and then some for our winter supplies . . . for which we are very thankful.

Ol'Buzzard said...

Best wishes for a painless recovery.
the Ol'Buzzard

Akannie said...

Mama Pea...it was crazy. The weather would go back and forth between way too cool for the time of year and then sweltering hot. The rain kept the ground so wet and my walking was so bad that I didn't dare go out there to weed what was growing, and the weeds went wild. We got NO sweet potatoes out of all the ones we planted and just a few potatoes. All the rest were rotted in the ground. It was crazy, but I'm glad yours was salvageable !!

Akannie said...

Thanks Ol' Buzzard...it was pretty rough at first but it's better and easier every day. I'm ready to do the other knee soon as possible...

Mary LA said...

I never feel unconnected to you Annie because we read one another on FB and have mutual friends etc. But I am so glad to see you here blogging and I hope the knee heals in a less complicated way and the next op goes smoothly. And your SIL is in my heart -- this has been a hard year for you. I planted a new herb garden, have such sympathy for your unproductive (in the vegetable sense) summer garden. The housemate may have to get her knee replacement replaced. (She's had a decade of excellent mobility though.)

Looking forward to reading your published recipes. Take care, my dear one.

Akannie said...


Oh my sister... I think we will always be connected. Spirit to spirit. It has been a hard year, but I am hopeful that the upcoming year will be better. And I am visualizing the Annie Kelley Memorial Herb Garden ! lol