We are flying to California to spend time with my DH's family and then we will all fly to Cabo San Lucas for some sun and fishing. Last time we were there we caught marlin. Now that is a fun fish to catch!
Linda Leaf

Catch up on schoolwork and yardwork..I am happy to have extra time
Olya

Wellllllllll, since you asked. Tomorrow is a BIG day for me. We start out at the surgeons for pre-op and post-op consultation. Then a bite to eat and on to Southwest Regional Hospital for my pre-registration for surgery on Dec. 5th. Blood work and blood deposit for my surgery. How Fun!! Dennis is taking the day off to go with me. Bless that guy-he is a keeper, for sure.

Dennis will be doing an 8 pound Turkey breast on the rotisserie Thursday. Slow sweet cookin' I'll make my pumpkin pies and get my stuffing ready on Wednesday. Thursday I will fix the green beans, make mashed taters and mushroom gravy. Then it's EAT EAT EAT! I remember Dennis' first Thanksgiving (10 years ago) in Florida. he could not get over the fact he was grillin' turkey in cut offs and a tee shirt. He had me take his picture so he could send it back to his pals in Missouri.

It's amazing how a whole day of cooking gets demolished in a very short time.

Holiday blessings to all of you and your loved ones!

This year I didn't feel like doing a traditional turkey dinner, so instead am planning on fixing the following:
apple/celery/pecan salad, whole berry cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, sherry sauced sweet potatoes, spiced beets, pork tenerloin fixed in the crock pot with wholeberry cranberry sauce spiced with cinnamon and cloves on top, some sort of bread, a nice white wine, and for dessert a pumpkin/cream cheese pie in graham cracker crust.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone ~ FlowerLady

Your dinners sound delicious.

Since I am still recouperating somewhat from a hip replacement, this will be only about 5 times in our 50 years that I haven't cooked a big, traditional Thanksgiving meal. This year I am just sitting back and hoping the meal with all the trimmings we ordered will meet our expectations. Somehow it just doesn't seem the same though without the familiar smells of turkey roasting and pies baking.

Hope everyone enjoys a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends.

Ginny

Gini- I need you girl and Lady W. Gini, how are you doing, sweetie? Is your recovery difficult for you? How much assistance have you needed? I need the BIG PICTURE and all the down sides of what to expect after I get home after surgery.

I didn't realize that my home recovery would be so long. Today at the surgeons I had 2 options. To be moved to a nursing facility for a week or get in-home care. In home care nurses are like $20 bucks an hour!! This is a very busy time for Dennis at work, and he went with me, today, so I asked him if he could take a week off. He said "Ya, I can, but it's a crazy time at work". This will be hard for him to take extra time off, even tho he has tons of sick and vacation time he hasn't used. The surgeons asst. said just if he is there at night, and maybe 1/2 the day would work. Nurses and phys therapy people would come in a couple times a week to draw blood, check vitals, help me bathe and get me exercising. She said I am too young to go the nursing home rehab route and that it would be horribly depressing for me. So we are going to go with the in-home rehab. I don't really have anyone to check on me or stay with during the day. My best friend just moved back to St. Louis and all my other friends work too. I am totally in real-life shock. I think I am finally realizing how intense this surgery is, especially after signing a consent form for them to dispose of my hip bones and tissue after surgery! I don't want to get scared, but I have to tell you, this has been a real wake up call!! Who will water and tend to my plants???? I wish I had someone close that could come stay with me during the day. I hate putting Dennis on the spot with this. If I had known earlier I would have waited, but now I am committed to Surgery December 5th.

HELP!

Cindee, I'm sending you an email.

Ginny

Cindee

as depressing as a facility may be....don`t rule it out.

What you are going thru is`nt minor :(

Cindee, there is a difference between a nusing home and a rehabilitation hospital. My husband went to a rehab center in Melbourne and there is a world of difference. The whole purpose of a rehab center is to focus on getting people who have had knee surgeries, hip replacements, strokes, broken legs, etc back into the real world. You are with people of all ages and the word is therapy, therapy, therapy. I wish I lived closer as I would stay with you and work your buns off getting you rehabed. My doctor in Tallahassee had the surgery and was back at work in six weeks. It is all in how the rehab is handled. Linda

Actually, the surgeons assistant said it's mostly old people. She thinks I will do better at home with the therapists coming in.

That is what a nursing home/ rehab center is like, but a honest to goodness rehab center is filled with people of all ages and I know that for a fact. Linda

Cindee, Linda is right, there is a big difference in Rehab facility's verus long term care facilities. Some skilled nursing facilities aka SNF's are 80 or 90% LTC and that can be a bit depressing to someone who's not used to it. Long term residents tend to be on one wing, short termers on another. I would see which facilties are on your plan and then go to the state evalutation site to see what the ratings are. On a short term basis, 80% of the facilities are fine and you'll get about an hour of PT and an hour of OT each day, the nurses are there to monitor you and will call the doctor, etc should you need additional pain meds, etc They also have recreational activities, etc or you can just spend the time resting. Like you said you're probably only going to be there a week but if you do need additional time, they can work that out with your insurance company too! Rehab centers like Healthsouth are instensive rehab places with 2 hours of PT and 2 hours of OT every day, and almost everyone is there for short term rehab.It tends to be very regimentated. You'll go home to rest LOL.

You will probably be in the hospital around 3 or 4 days, home health is usually 3 visits from PT each week (about 45 mintues - see if you can stay with the PT and not be assigned to an assistant), and between 1 and 3 visits from nursing, and MAYBE a nursing assistant 2-3 days a week to help you shower, etc (about 1 1/2 to 2 hour visit). The hospital will probably send you home with a 3 in 1 commode, a walker or a cane, a reacher, long handled bath sponge, a sock assist, and maybe a wheelchair rental.

I would do the SNF / rehab for the offered week, if you get there and find out you really feel great and are ready to go home, you can go home. You're not a captive! The case manager / social worker can then arrange for you go home the next day and to receive home health (which I would ask either way whenever you go home). If you were having a knee replaced, I would say sure go home if that's what you want. But with a total hip, it doesn't hurt to play it safe and go to the SNF / rehab. Feel free to email me!

Cindee - WRF has great insight on the rehab and you have more e-mail.

Oh! And msmarion -

We're having a quiet, the two of us and the cat, dinner at home. Not being big fans of turkey, I'm doing a pork roast braised in apple cider and caramelized onions. Made the cranberry conserve today and will do a sweet potato casserole (brown sugar and pecans). Not sure if our "green" will be steamed green beans or a napa cabbage salad - we'll see tomorrow.

Hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Ladywingr ~ I decided not to do the traditional turkey dinner today and it is such a relief. There is just the two of us also and we are having a nice quiet dinner too. Pork tenderloin with a spicy whole berry cranberry sauce over the top done in the crock pot.

Your pork roast sounds delicious. Would you share your recipe? Also for your cranberry conserve?

I'm making sherry sauced sweet potatoes, asparagus vinaigrette, an apple/celery/carrot/pecan salad, garlic mashed potatoes, an egg poppy seed bread about to be made in the bread machine, and a nice white wine served with it all. For dessert a pumpkin-cream cheese pie with a pecan graham cracker crust. We had a piece of that last night and it was delicious. DH really liked it. It was like a cheesecake.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

FlowerLady

My grandmother fell two months ago (apparently passed out while watering her garden) and broke her leg. She had been in a rehab facility for awhile and my parents had some issues with them. The breaking point came when about a week ago she came down with a bacterial infection that sent her to the hospital severely dehydrated and with major stomach problems. She is now at another rehab facility and will hopefully stay there until she can walk on her leg again. Right now she is only at 20%. That said, she's become increasingly mean and many other things. She's 78. I did see many people younger than her in a rehab facility and I think that if your husband is there with you daily you will be fine. It is incredibly hard on my parents and uncle and everyone around them to be there for my grandmother. If she'd been taking care of herself in the first place she wouldn't be in this situation. Being in Florida I am away from most of it, but I've been home twice now to see how things are going. It's stressful.

Anyway, other than that, I've been crocheting like crazy, doing art and we've been hiking a lot. Getting back into the garden now. We have about 30 varieties of tomatoes growing. LOL, most of them are Chris'! You can check out my blog through my profile if you are interested in seeing them.

I guess everybody's experience is different. I know a lady who is in rehab right now recovering from her second hip replacement. Showering / food / water wasn`t a issue for her.A cooler can always be set up on the side table.The shower can wait. She was surprised how hard it was for her to get up and use her walker just to use the bathroom. If no one is around when you "gatta go" then, what do you do ? That first week can be he**, but worth it !

Gini - hope you are doing well and feeling better every day!

Cindee - go for all the assistance you can get during the first week. You've put up with this pain for a long time and you deserve all the help that's available. Dennis will still have lots to do helping for the recovery weeks afterwards, so let the pros do it for the first week.

Thanksgiving Day stuff - We almost always do the whole Turkey Day thing here at home. Lots of friends and neighbors join us and I cook for days. I love it and not doing it just doesn't feel right. But this year my brother invited us up to Atlanta for the weekend and we went. Its the first holiday season without my mother and all of us are feeling it so it felt right to be together. My brother's kitchen was destroyed by a water leak last February and it's taken all this time to get the repairs done - new floor, new cabinets, new appliances, etc. It was supposed to be done in August, but you know how that stuff goes! As of Thursday there was still no power to 1/2 the room, and several other things not done. But we had a microwave! Thanksgiving dinner ended up being turkey and ham from Honey Baked, StoveTop stuffing made in the microwave, canned cranberries, gravy out of a jar and dairy-case mashed potatoes from the grocery store. Not the best meal we ever had but we had a blast anyway. All of the family gathered around patio furniture (their good stuff is in storage until the repairs are done), with 4 dogs (of course we all brought our dogs!) and a 7 year old child running amok, several bottles of wine open and laughter everywhere. It turned out to be a great Thanksgiving!

Sending you all mental hugs and warm wishes for a wonderful Holiday.

Kate