Irene has been aquasizing for a couple of months now as part of the recovery process from her hip replacement operation. She’s going an amazing five or six times a week, and it really has been helping her: she’s walking better and better, and has even been able to go on some quiet rides on her horse Spirit.
Irene and I met my friend Chris, his girlfriend Billie, his Mom, his brother Rick, and two of his Mom’s friends for a walk through VanDusen Gardens.
I was over on Ensellitis’ blog today catching up on what he’s said during the past few weeks. He posted a collection “Stupid Links” a week or so ago, and I hate to say it but one of the links wasn’t so stupid 🙂
I’m not a Christian. I’m also not an athiest. I’m in that dangerous middle-zone: I’m an agnostic.
Being an agnostic means the jury is still out, and in my case always will be. I don’t believe in “God” as described in any theism. But I also think there is an amazing wonder to the near-infinite complexity of the universe having produced something like a flower, or a Kelly. I find it really hard to believe in daily involvement by some sort of supreme entity: if so, he/she/it is a mean, vindictive, cruel SOB. But I could imagine some entity crafting the starting point with the
hope of creating intelligence, then occasionally taking a look in to see how its coming along. Sort of “Enlightened indifference”…
Irene still can’t bend over, she needs my help to get in and out of bed, and she still hasn’t managed to make herself a meal yet. But she *can* walk across a field on crutches and hug her horse 🙂
Irene is back at home since yesterday after her hip replacement, and she’s doing really well. The big challenge at the moment is getting her to eat. She occasionally feels dizzy or light headed, but I figure she’s been eating at most a thousand calories a day over the past five days, not counting the 24 hour fasting period before and after her surgery. My theory is that she needs to be eating more than a bird in order to have the energy for healing and moving around. But Irene wasn’t quite believing my theory about food intake until the Occupational Therapist, Greg, dropped by and agreed with me that she was doing well and the most probably cause for Irene to feel light headed was lack of food. Sigh…I’m just the husband, what do I know? After Greg’s visit I was able to convince Irene that I should pick up some meal replacements (Ensure) for her, and she’s had a couple of those now…and (surprise) is starting to feel perkier.
Irene made it through her hip surgery just fine. Irene was courageous and seemed quite calm: I’m so glad she was strong. The only downside in the process thus far was not knowing what was going on after they wheeled her away into the “no admittance” surgery prep area at around 10:00 am. I asked at the surgery admitting area at around noon, but they had no information for me other than what ward Irene was going to end up in after surgery- they basically told me to go sit in the waiting area like a good boy, and the doctor would come talk to me later. Later came and went…until around 2:45 PM, when I saw a bed go wheeling by with Irene on it. I followed (no one said boo to me) and all was well.
On Monday Irene will be going to the hospital to get the first of her hip replacement surgeries. We’ve been to the hospital for orientations and such this past week, so we have most of the details more or less figured out. But still its a bit scary.
We had a pretty good weekend in Retirementland this past weekend. The stay at the Empress was good fun, and we had a decent visit with Irene’s folks. You can click the picture below if you want to browse through the photos I took.
My wife and I are heading over to Vancouver Island to visit with her folks. To turn it into a bit of a “vacation”, we’ll be staying in the Empress hotel. I’ve walked past it several times before, but this will be the first time I’ve actually gone in…and certainly the first time I’ve stayed there.