Forgive my absence. I have been completely subsumed with healing my knee and haven’t felt like sharing the nitty gritty with you. And you’re welcome.
I started PT on March 25th and can confess that it was a huge moment of F.E.A.R. for me. For those of you who know the acronym Future Events Aren’t Real, my worry and anxiety about getting my new knee tuned up was legitimately paralizing. My range of motion was worrisome and the physician’s assistant who met with me the week before had given me the worry that if I didn’t get the knee bent soon, they might have to go back in and break up the scar tissue. That was enough to send me into paroxysms of panic. Physical therapy has to be one of the most miraculous things in the medical profession. Years ago when I had this weird “frozen shoulder” that affects some women in their mid 50s, I went to about six weeks of PT and was able to raise my arm over my head again like it had never been frozen. I am persisting in imagining that this process I’m in will result in similar success.
I chose Vargo PT in Burbank, which is only about 5 minutes from my new home and as soon as I walked in, I felt at ease. It feels like a gym but with gentle trainers at every table. A few weeks ago, they started each session by hog-tying my leg to that table in a bent knee position for five minutes, a warm heating pad on my offending leg, then adjusted tighter for five more minutes, and I survived. Then we started in on the exercises. They have a great app so that in between visits, you can do the exercises and report to your therapy team on your progress. We added a few new exercises each week, and each visit, I have a massage and adjustments/tips from one of the physical therapists. The FEAR has definitely abated, and I am now going to be more eager for my time there. And enjoy doing the exercises on the off days at home. Though I will say I spent last Friday (in my sixth week of recovery) completely in tears at Vargo P.T. After a very busy week of walking, my legs were overtaxed. The technicians and therapist were very supportive of my rough day.
On my upcoming book – I have reviewed the line edit after paying for that package and that was definitely worth it. Now we’re in the design phase/ book design and hopefully that will be done soon. Stay tuned!
I’m learning about my new home – how the light moves through from east to west and how grateful I am to the previous owner for maintaining the wooden shutters which give relief in the early morning and late afternoon. The hummingbirds are ravenous and I’m filling the feeders about every two days which adds up, but they are still behaving somewhat well with each other and haven’t commandeered the feeders. No bully birds. In the late afternoon, sometimes there can be up to ten birds on each ring.
The tulips I bought for my dining room table were in obeisance to the western windows.
Last week, I had a wonderful spring break visit from my daughter in law, Whitney, and my granddaughters. This was their first visit and all went well. We had many events planned for the week, including a tea at the American Doll Store in the Century City Mall, a trip to Universal Studios, a visit to the Huntington Gardens and a movie trip to the El Capitan to see Snow White. All involved quite a bit of walking for me, and though I was tired at the end of each outing, I was encouraged that the walking was possible, and I felt better after each trip.
The American Doll Tea was classic – the store is the mecca for American Girl Doll enthusiasts, and they had two shelves of dolls you could invite to your table to enjoy the tea. My granddaughters had brought their own little friends, but they also invited two more, so we had a full table of tea aficionados. The tea fare was filling and quite sweet but after tea, we got to go shop in the store. Lucky Nana! The girls had a budget and there was a lot of negotiating to stay within that budget but they managed to do it. Life is filled with so many choices and I shared with them my secret choosing tool, which I have used for countless important decisions in my life. It is the very scientific eeny meeny miny mo technique. Hope you don’t think less of me. If I’m disappointed in the outcome, I pick the other and keep moving.
After our visit to the store, we went to the playground at the mall and played there with some of the new purchases, offloading the boxes, which made our trip home easier. The tea room had also sent us home with four tea cups and saucers, which was four more than we had before.
Tuesday found us doing my PT exercises before heading out to Universal Studios, beginning, much to Skylar’s chagrin, with the hour long studio tram tour. She wanted to go get on a ride line which we did immediately after the tour. The park has changed significantly since I was last there, maybe thirty years earlier.
The addition of Harry Potter World is significant, and I was impressed with the scope of that area. By the time we got there after a trip to the KrustyLand and Minions, I was pretty tired – keep in mind this was the first week I’d really been out of the house since my surgery, and the heat and terrain at Universal was taxing.
I found a bench to park myself with Birdie while Skylar and her mom went on the roller coaster. Our spot was adjacent to the wand store, and by the time Skylar and Whitney came back, Birdie had selected her pink handled wand. What I didn’t realize was that there were multiple interactive scenes around the HP World where the kids could use their wands to make things happen. It’s genius marketing.
We had gotten there at about 9:30am and by 2:30pm Nana was DONE. I left them and walked back to the car, where I sat in the air conditioning for about a half hour as they finished up. There were pictures to be taken and I couldn’t begrudge their getting to meet Poppy from Trolls, or Hello Kitty!
We got a two day pass so we can go back another time this summer – there was so much we didn’t see/explore. But it was a great day.
Wednesday we were held hostage by a plumber who didn’t come forever, so we spent the day in the pool that day after lunch at Paty’s and a group nail salon experience. Wednesday afternoon, Skylar repurposed my wet bar as a story bar, and set up a place where you could order a story. It was magical and required only “fack” money. I requested a story about a nine-year-old girl from Tahoe.
Thursday, we headed over to Pasadena to the Huntington Gardens and had a wonderful time exploring the Children’s garden and the Chinese garden. Again, lots of steps for Nana, a very good thing. Friday afternoon, we all went to Studio City to the Big 5 to gear up the girls for their upcoming softball season. I’ve never seen so many pink sports accessories, from the cleats to the bats. They both will be very pink when they step out into the field.
Our last stop was on Friday evening after a quick dinner at Mendocino Farms in Studio City. We jetted over to Hollywood, where we had tickets to the new live action movie Snow White at the El Capitan Theatre. I don’t know how they make a business practice of showing that film to fewer than thirty people in that beautiful theatre, but there we were. We all enjoyed it but it was a little scary for Nana, especially the aging of the Wicked Step Mother, Gal Gadot. You think it doesn’t happen that fast, but let me tell you, it does.
Hollywood on a Friday night is everything I remembered from the mid eighties when my husband and I lived for about 8 months at the Magic Castle Hotel, and I would walk through Hollywood with our German shepherd, Jasper, to go pick him up at the Huntington Hartford Theatre, where he was playing in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh. A lifetime ago, but the girls really appreciated getting followed by a creepy Darth Vader outside the El Cap, and the lovely displays in the theater’s lobby. We also took them to Mann’s Chinese Theatre and had a hard time explaining who all the stars were, but Jimmie would have loved seeing his granddaughter put her hands in Shirley Temple’s prints, or her feet in those of Myrna Loy. It’s nice that that tribute still exists.
All in all, an amazing spring break week. Followed by two days of Jury Duty at the downtown Criminal Courts. On the steps of the Grand Park I realized that I could manage steps and so the healing continues.
lifeinthethe8tre 