Wet & Wild!

My first week back at work with my 'mobility aid' was OK, we were really busy (apparently my return co-incided with a flurry of activity - funny 'bout that!) so I was on my feet a lot. So by Friday night the new knee & I were absolutely exhausted & headed off to bed at a whoosie 8.45p.m. I had my 6 week post-op appt with the Orthopaedic Surgeon on Thursday & received an A+. He's really pleased with my range of movement & the incision but still can't give me an indication of:

• 1. When I will be pain-free
• 2. When I will get a decent night's sleep
• 3. When I can chuck away Wally the Walking Stick
• 4. When I'll be able to slip the feet into a decent pair of Manolo's & toss the flats

Things on the reno front have stalled until this week, when MOTH decided to get a run on with finishing the big upstairs Family Room/Home Office. When he pulled up the grotty old carpet a few months ago he got a nasty surprise. About half the wooden floor boards were absolutely sodden & rotten & appear to have been for many years. After a good scratch around under the boards he was spewing as there is only a gap of a centimetre between the floor & the ground. No drainage system has ever been installed & as Stirling has the highest rainfall in the State, water had just been pooling under the floor & the boards have been permanently water logged since 1972. You can make you own assumption about why 3 previous owners just kept putting new carpet down over wet boards & never addressed the problem.

He's looked at digging a trench outside around the 2 walls & installing some sort of drainage system to try & divert rainwater away, but on Thursday night he came storming downstairs.

 'That's it Mills, that trench idea ain't gonna work, so I'm gonna rip up all the floor boards & put in a concrete slab. Then the new carpet can go down on a dry base & my conscience is clear. Gotta do a heap of formwork & then call Mick from Midget Mixers to drop off a load. Do ya reckon ya might be up to shovelling into the wheel barrow on the day?'

Ah the joy's of fixing up someone else's stuff ups! Have a fabulous week dear Hedgies.

Image: Christies

Nine To Five

After 5 long & arduous post-operative weeks, it's back to full-time work for moi & the new knee tomorrow. I'd like a couple more weeks of keeping the leg elevated & the brain in Happyland on the good analgesia, but it's not to be, so I'll just have to suck it up & hit the road in the morning. Things are progressing OK, there's still swelling & pain, but the Physio is happy with my progress & reckons I'm ahead of where I need to be, even though I don't feel it! I don't think the path to the office will be strewn with flowering bulbs to welcome me back, like this gorgeous image - all I'm concerned about is trying to manoeuvre the front steps up into the office with my trusty mate, Wally the Walking Stick in an half-pie elegant way. I reckon ballet flats will be the way to go on the tootsies for a while, but I still have my eyes firmly fixed on those impossibly high heels that beckon me from afar.

Thank you so much again for the overwhelming number of emails & messages of concern/ encouragement, gifts, virtual love & hugs etc, as MOTH would say 'Youse are all a grouse bunch of Hedgies!'