If I d something stupendous like go dancing or ride a horse I'll be back.  Otherwise, just know that if you are contemplating a hip replacement...get the minimally invasive one.  Surround yourself with beautiful people for a week and then you will be fine on your own!  Actually, if I didn't have the dogs to tend to, I could have done this alone but it was much more fun to have Val here that first week anyway!  The pampering was awesome!

I will leave you with my first Spring flowers that are finally blooming.  Yes, I got on my hands and knees for this shot and getting up wasn't difficult!

A new beginning.  Spring and a new hip and my first flowers of the year, what more can I ask for!

Take care, Stephanie

Oh and psssssst....if you ended up here via a search engine, don't forget to stop by my bead journal for a peak at my work!  Better yet stop by  my web store (opening soon) http://beadedheron.com 

I can say I am not just happy I did this, I am elated!    Only 17 days into recovery and I feel better than I have in years!  I am working like there is no tomorrow and have made more jewelry in the past 2 weeks than I have in a year I think.  The best part?  Almost all of it is sold so far!

Ok, I will stop rambling for now and go ahead with the day to day...

Monday day 17...today is an awesome day!  The sun came out which is always nice but it is not the sun that is brightening my mood.  it is the fact that I am already walking better than I was all winter!  I do short distances in the house without my cane.  I went out the garage today but I did use the cane and I filled the bird feeders. 

Tuesday day 17...another great day!   I am having a great time because I can work uninterrupted and not have to drop everything to go somewhere.  The weather is great and I feel great!  I have energy like I can't remember having.  I feel like I have been reborn,  and in a way I have.  I am excited about getting my life back and I know it is true that I will.  Every day is a big improvement and finally the anesthesia brain fog is about gone.   It helps when those that surround you are loving and supportive.  It makes all the difference in the world!    I look forward to tomorrow! 

Wednesday day 18...one thing I am today is Tired with a capital T.  I have so much energy now that I'm having a hard time sleeping.  I just want to do everything I haven't been able to do in so long.   Since I didn't sleep hardly at all last night I am seriously dragging today.   It is a beautiful day for the first time since last summer & I saw 78 degrees when I was in town running around.  I would rather have been home enjoying this first beautiful day but this weather is not supposed to last and we're supposedly in for heavy rains for a few days and even snow on the weekend!  Because of this I decided I better get the things I need today instead of tomorrow.  I sure don't need to be trying to get around in a 3 inch of rain downpour.  I have an appointment to get my staples removed tomorrow and I am looking so forward to having them gone but it is up in the air as to whether I will be able to get there or not.  3 inches of rain on top of saturated red clay might render my driveway useless.  I wish I could take my staples out myself somehow, I have done that in the past with stitches!

I did a lot of running around this morning.  Maybe that is another reason why I am so tired.  I went to 3 bead stores and the grocery store and the feed store.  The only thing I carried was beads.  The rest of my supplies were put in the car and Val is coming over in a few days to help me unload the dog food & bird seed.   

I don't think I will have a problem sleeping tonight, I am deliriously tired. 

Thursday day 19....Today I had my staples taken out.  I was going to ask how many there were but I forgot I was too busy yakking with the wonderful nurse who did the job.  The bikini line staples were a little ouchy to remove but that area is so tender anyway.  The ones in back I couldn;t even feel her doing it..  After that I figured as long as I was in town and since gas is 3.57 a gallon I might as well do the rest of my errands for the month if I could.  I went to walmart for a birthday card for my grandson and a few other items that were all located in one general part of the store so when I walked into the store I took a shopping cart instead of one of those handicapped scooter carts.  If you have never driven one of those carts they are not all they are cracked up to be!  Sometimes the wheels are bad and they go bump bump down the aisles.  Sometimes they break down in the middle of a store when your basket is already full.  Other times there isn't one available.  Anyway, I digress...I pushed a shopping cart and walked and I wasn't hanging on to the handles for dear life.  I was pretty sor by the time I walked out but it wasn't really that bad.  Then I had to go to the post office and mail some jewelry.  I am very proud to say that throughout this ordeal i never once got behind on my jewelry sales or mailing and I had a very sucessful month.  This was all done to proper plannign ahead of time and I can't stress this enough.  Total days not tending to my business was only around 5 total.  This is less days than taking a weeks vacation.  Thankfully, I can make jewelry just about anywhere, even in bed.  :-).  I also went to the grocery store and I even did a little browsing at Goodwill. 

Friday day 20...Today is exactly 3 weeks since I had the new hip done.  I feel great!  Unbeleivable and nothing like what i expected when I signed up for this!

Sat & Sunday days 20 & 21...Saturday was met by a little bit of a set back in the form of a knot in my lower right back.  I suspect this is from sleeping in some awkward position and not a sign of things to come.  Sunday morning the feeling was gone, thanks God!  The soreness could surely have come from going out and runnng errands 2 days in a row so soon so this weekend I spend working quietly on jewelry making.  I ammaking somethign for myself!  A beautiful Amulet jewelry set that i can't wait to wear.

Tuesday day 11...Today I made beads and it went well.  I torched for about 1 1/2 hours but I did get up now and then and move so I wouldn't get stiff.  This was my first full day alone and my only complaint is the weather. I vacuumed on one leg this afternoon and I didn't go all out and move furniture or anythng, but I did need to go over the rug quick.  It didn't bother anything since I didn't stand on that leg while vacuuming. 

Wednesday day 12...A friend came over today and we put necklaces and pendants together that needed to go with her when she left.  It was great fun but I did find I was sore afterward.  I spent the whole afternoon sitting in the chair even though I got up several times and moved around.  I ended up sore from sitting there for so long.  it was fun anyway and I will just rest more tomorrow. In the morning I had photographed some of the jewelry and the photos were the worst I have ever taken.  I must not be steady enough for macro shots quite yet!

Thursday day 13...Today I made beads again and other than that I just took it easy after overdoing it a little bit yesterday.  The anethesia must be wearing off now because I can't seem to nap anymore.  I never was much of a napper but I like to try once in awhile.  I'm tired because the howling wind is keeping me awake at night. 

Friday day 14...it is now exactly 2 weeks.  I would like to report that I hurt less but I can't say that yet.  It is still uncomfortable trying to sleep because my leg hurts and while walking the pain is still there pretty much the same.  I am waiting to turn the corner in that area.

I put in a full days work though, making jewelry and photographing it and posting it online.  My photographs are better,  I must be gteting steadier! 

Saturday day 15...today I drove fr the first time! I only had to get out of the car for one stop and that was the post office so I could ship the jewelry I made yesterday.  Other than that I made drive thru stops, so the maiden voyage on my new hip went well!

Sunday day 16...Today is a great day.  The pain is lessening although I still can't ease up on the dosage of pain meds quite yet although I try in the afternoons.   I always end up having to take the regular dose.  But even so, all along there has been considerable pain when I walk even with the pain meds, now it is just less.  I am looking forward to every day's improvements because they are ntoicible! 

On Wednesday Val went home for awhile to visit her family and I was alone for about 6 hours and I spent the day looking for things.  I had bought some beading supplies the day before surgery and now I can't find them.  I am having this problem a lot and it is because of the anesthesia.  I had been in a cleaning frenzy during the last week beforehand,  so things were moved from their usual spot and now I couldn't find them.  I also noticed that I can't remember simple things like words that fit into sentences sometimes and it is so frustrating but if I think hard enough they come to me.  Anesthesia has some strange side effects that linger a long time!

On Thursday I made jewelry for the first time.  I made a couple of beautiful necklaces to hang poodle pendants from.  It felt great to be productive again!

Friday, day 7...we had an awful blizzard with 62 MPH winds and all around us power was out and for some peope they were over 24 hours without power.  My biggest fear was this would happen to us and I didn't know what we'd do if that happened to us.  It is too cold to be without heat! I tried to make a few beads thinking if the power went out I could always fire up the torch and make beads and heat the house that way... but after just a couple of small plain beads I was dizzy and tired so that idea didn't fly.  It was a good thing the power didn't go off for long but it was off and on out all day long.  Thankfully it came on long enough to keep the house warm. 

Saturday, day 8...was a pretty miserable day but I think Ijust felt awful in general over losing sleep for 2 nights because of the noisy blizzard that shook the whole house day and night.

On Sunday, day 9...I told Val I needed to see if I could do all of the work with the dogs and everything so she could finally get back to her family.  I let the dogs out, fed them, and went to the kennel twice to feed and water and bring cookies.  I cooked  lunch  too and now  Val can go home tomorrow!  Her family is missing her bad.

I didn't sign up right away though, there were some things we needed to do before we knew if I needed a new hip for sure or if it was my back that was giving me so much pain all the time.  This was another one of the very reasons I never did sign up to have the other hip done before now.  Would it do enough good to matter?  

I had spine epidurals and hip injections with little to no sucess starting last June.  At the time I planned to have the left hip replaced in October but the more I thought about it, the timing of winter and the possibility of falling on the ice had me re-thinking that idea so I decided to wait until spring.  I am glad I did in a way, because we had a particularly hash and long icy winter.  The problem with that descision however, was spending those extra months pretty much in agony 100% of the time.  Each day seemed worse and by the time March arrived and I called to make the appointment for the hip replacement I didn't know how I would make it another few weeks. 

The weeks flew by pretty fast though, as I had a lot to do to get ready and I was busy with the preparations up until the last minute.  Which is where we are now...I am as ready as I will ever be.  Val is here to take over and care for my fur family and I have absolutly everything taken care of for this whole month. 

I have been working on making the moves in order to have this event take place.  I keep calling the procedure by many names as I am trying hard not to think about it too much.  There is nothing I can do to change this situation and wishing it wasn't so would be a waste of good energy so I refuse to go there.    Instead, my mind is needed to concentrate on the impending tasks to ready myself for a period of  immobilization.  This is my biggest chore.  The second biggest chore is to somehow get my spring cleaning done because it will be awhile before I can do the extra things and I sure can't picture me sitting in any kind of mess or disarray.  Things are pretty orderly so far though.  It is not my nature to let the place fall apart but it has also been a great challenge to just do the day to day lately. 

I have a shopping list that includes everything I could possibly need for at least a month but I am still working on it.  At some point I will have to stop adding to the list and do with what I  have!

Today I bead shopped.  Now I am broke, lol...Just kidding, I have some other jewelry/business related items to tend to before I am housebound as well.  I prefer to support our local bead and glass shops rather than to shop online except for a few items that are hard to find otherwise.  I don't know what I would do without my brick and mortar local shops. 

 I suspect I will be making another trip to more than one shop in the next week. 

 My list for other supplies has been growing but only slowly.  If  "slowly" is a sign of a complete list, it is not too bad.  If I have anything financially to look forward to next month it is the fact that I won't be spending ANY money on gas!..I am just going to get extras of everything on my lists.  Hmmm...I could work on trimming down winter heating bills or electric, both of which have been exorbatnet this year.  Which shall I choose?

One thought that just popped into my mind is to make sure I get at least one frozen pizza, lol.  I haven't had pizza in months.  I will go for the Shelton Family pizza made locally by lifelong friends.  It is great pizza!

On the pizza note I will close for this night.  Countdown something like 9 days...