Six Days To Go

April 9

I start what I refer to as "the ritual washings" - Every night for the next five nights I am to wash my surgery leg, from 5 or 6 inches above to 5 or 6 inches below the knee with anti-bacterial soap.

I must discontinue using any anti-inflammatory drugs, but I can still take Tylenol if I need it. 

Sometimes my knee feels perfectly normal - and then I move just right (wrong?) and Bang! the pain rips down my leg and I gasp. Yep. This is the right way to go.

Up until now I have not been nervous, mostly excited. But it is starting to be very real to me: I am going to have SURGERY! There are no guarantees. I remember a dear Aunt who went into the hospital for a minor repair....and died....it was something that was ready to go, and she just didn't know it was there.

This is when I am glad to have faith in prayer - mine and the ones of all my friends who I know are praying for me. I let those little fears slide away and look forward to a successful surgery and quick recovery.

I have started a list to give to the physical therapist: goals that are important to me, like being able to get up and down off the floor, do Yoga, and Zumba...yeah, those are important things to me.

I am staying on top of the laundry, planning what to take to the hospital, making lists for my husband. 

I still don't know exactly what time my surgery will be. That info comes in a few more days.

And I wash....