A January Outing into the Dutch Polder

Just 2+ weeks after my knee surgery, I was dying to get back out to the Dutch polder (and our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant, truth be told!).  Last Saturday was a gorgeous, cold but sunny day with a light dusting of snow greeting us when we awakened.

So off we went...crutches and all.

Just for the halibut, here's a snatch of what the polder ride looks like from the car.
The cows and sheep...and weathervanes...are left and right off the road.
It's a very typical backroad, btw, and one of the reasons why I love Holland.

I told Astrid that when we found a group of sheep, I wanted to stop.
I didn't even wander off from the car, as you see.
And btw, I haven't stood that straight, with left knee fully extended, in years!

What can I say.  I'm a glutton for sheep.

We have The Three Stooges on our Shutterchance photoblog,
so when I see a grouping of 3 sheep like this, I always think of Chris, Chad and Bill.

When we reached the pannenkoeken restaurant, I walked across the fresh snow with my crutches.
Carefully!

 We love eating there mid-afternoon when it's almost empty.
It's our best time talking to the owner, waitresses and cooks, catching up on each other.
"Here come the dames!" they love to say.

We normally drink red wine with our meal but since I'm alcohol-free these first 3 weeks after surgery,
we both ordered fresh mint tea, which was worth its weight in gold.
When we both ate all our leaves, the waitress looked at us in awe.
Yes, that's what you do with mint tea!

We always order the melon-ham-dried-tomato-alfalfa-sprouts starter while our pannenkoek is baking.
The pannenkoek of the month happened to be green asparagas with ham and egg.
A no-brainer for us!  We licked the platter clean.

Another btw:  see that fisherman sweater Astrid is wearing?
She made it 30 years ago!

We love everything about this experience.  Everything.
We love it so much, we take all our guests there.
Maybe you will be next?!

A Knee Replacement the Dutch Way

Exactly 2 weeks ago yesterday, yes, it happened!  And now that I'm on this side of it all, I do have my impressions...but sure would love to compare notes with someone in the US.

There are hundreds of images to show the knee prosthesis I now have.

I like this one because of the crucial "talking points."

Lucky for me, all my arthritic bits-n-bobs are now gone.

Starting 5 days before my January 8th surgery, I had to do all bathing and shampooing with a Betadine scrub
(iodine antispetic), including daubing both nostrils with Bactroban 3x/day.

This was to cut down on bacteria entering the hospital.

Astrid says the nose is one of the worst places for carrying bacteria!

Following the surgery, I must inject myself with Fraxiparine every day for 6 weeks

to prevent thrombosis.  It's not one of my favorite things to do, seriously.

It so happens our Beatrixziekenhuis here in Gorinchem is only a 10-minute bike ride from home.

They do 300 knee replacements there every year with a team of 4 excellent doctors.

My room for 5 days was up on the 6th floor, with a view of many Gorinchem landmarks

(which many of you will recognize by now).
My friend, Jannie, from our senior complex, had her surgery right after mine by the same doctor,
and we became roommates for the duration (with 2 other roomies).

To make a long story short, my surgery took only 45 minutes instead of the anticipated 1.5-2 hours.

They said it was because I had no fatty tissue to navigate.  Well, then.

However, I did have a low-blood-pressure "episode" that set me back my first 2 days.

Let's just say it scared the bejesus out of Astrid...but after I bounced back,

I was my old self again...except for the knee part.
Cheers!

The 5 days in the hospital were mainly for this CPM contraption:
Continous Passive Motion.

Every day my knee was stretched for 2 hours, first at 30-degrees, then, 50, 60 and 65.

I actually got into the swing of it and could even read or use my iPad.

What did they do in the days before this  miracle contraption?
(And yes, that's Dan Brown's Digital Fortress which I finished the day I got home.)

Did I ever mention that Astrid's DIL, Eva, is a security guard at this hospital?
When she visited me, she brought me this bear, bringing tears to my eyes.
How can something so "simple" be so soulful!

Now that I'm home, I have my main mode of transportation:  crutches.
It actually feels GOOD to walk, even outside, with them.  They help me stand tall and straight.
But when I need to transport items (like for breakfast and lunch when Astrid is at work),
the rollator comes to my rescue.  I use it for grocery shopping, too.

Then there's PT, of course, twice a week (4 sessions thus far, out of 24).
Right now I'm still doing half-moons on the exerciser, even at home, to increase ROM.
Talk about S.T.I.F.F.  Also, I still have one place that dang hurts,
which Eline, my PT, thinks is where the patella was stiched back on.  OUCH.

Exercise.  Exercise.  Exercise.
They told us to get a skateboard, which Astrid could have borrowed from her son.
Instead, she bought this home-improvement gismo (for moving furniture)
which is small enough to carry around with me, even to Rummikub.

And throughout everything, Astrid is always there wanting to help!  My Angel!
My foot really swelled up once after PT and she massaged it. 
You may remember that I was a licensed massage therapist for 8 years after my divorce,
but did I tell you Astrid was a sport's massage therapist in her day?  Yup.
I LOVE her hands.  Lucky me.

Speaking of Astrid, she went back to work this week, leaving me to my Ms. Independent self.  HA!
It's amazing how quickly the body bounces back to health and rehabiltation.

And to celebrate a milestone, yesterday at PT I was able to raise my foot 8" off the PT table,
the first time since my surgery.  I hope that means there's no stopping me now!

For all of you who stood in the background rooting me on, THANK YOU.
It's a long row to hoe and I have no illusions about the time it will take to get back into shape.
But I do like the idea that maybe Spring will "resurrect" the new me.  It's a good goal.

Saturday ADDENDUM:
Believe it or not, you can find an hour YouTube that shows a live knee-replacement surgery.
You would need a big stomach to...stomach it.  Trust me.
But dear Astrid found this very simple animated version which I find most educational.
It explains why I still have some sore spots.  HA!