Hello. It's Me.
October 31, 2016
I know.
Let’s just pretend I never left.
I’m home and nursing a bad knee. I was already scheduled for knee replacement in early December when I exacerbated the knee a thousand fold two weeks ago. I went from wondering if I could just put the surgery off to next year, to having to call 911 to get EMTS to carry me into the house. If I’d known I would be using a cane for the last quarter of 2017, I would have held off on letting my hair go gray.
Mr. Pom takes me for ride-alongs while he does all the errands I can’t do. I instruct him on what Halloween candy to buy and he goes into CVS with the coupon and buys enough candy for a multitude. He hid it higher than I can reach, easy since I am 5’1” and can’t get on a chair. Besides working 60 hours a week, he is now hauling laundry baskets up and down three flights of stairs. Thus, I have to ignore that he washed my cashmere V-neck.
Also, he has control over what we eat. I find strange foodstuffs in the pantry. He is fond of packaged foods. Though I have never seen him voluntarily eat Thai food in his life, suddenly there are several plastic bowls in packaging for Thai soup. And packets of dried pasta with dried sauce “flavorings”. I text him a list of what we need while he is at the grocery store. And then hear his phone “ping” in the next room.
There are some benefits. One of the dogs has lost his mind and won’t come upstairs at night. I hear him flailing around on his dog bed and whimpering until he reaches a crescendo of barking around 4:00 a.m. I can’t manage the stairs more than a couple of times a day, so the poor husband is on dog duty 24/7. He is stoic and stalwart but I’m beginning to notice a few cracks in the façade, such as a liberal lashing of 4:00 a.m. swear words (that would in no way rival mine would I be the caregiver).
We are celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary in November. Between the two of us, we’ve shared more surgeries than either can remember. Between the two of us, one of us can usually remember the name of the person that is on the tip of the other’s tongue. We may evolve to communicating without words. Narrowing eyes or raised eyebrows are all we need to express a multitude of feelings, such as stop eating the Halloween candy since you can’t go out to get more, to if you don’t stop channel surfing I’m going to scream.
Life as usual has gone on while I’ve been away. We will get through to the end of the year. I will have a bionic knee and leap tall buildings in a single bound. We will continue watching finding Nemo seven thousand times with the grandson. We will figure out meals, dogs, and who is going to answer the door tonight (not me, I have a hall pass! Ha!)