And the eyes have it!

July 20, 2015

On Wednesday July 15^th I had my eye surgery: trabeculectomy (for glaucoma) and cataract in the left eye. It was about a 90 minute procedure and fortunately I have no memory of it, although I was under a local anesthesia. Each day afterwards through Saturday I had daily visits to the doctor’s office for a check up. For the first few days I was bed ridden. I was allowed up to use the bathroom and to eat. No reading and no TV. I did fairly well listening to the radio as we didn’t have time to get to any books on tape. Each day the doc said my eye looked good. I am also restricted to NO bending, lifting or straining. This doesn’t sound too bad but so much of this is automatic and I constantly have to be mindful of my movements. I drop things and bend down to pick them up and then remember I am not supposed to do that. I can do some real damage if I am not careful. So no loading a dishwasher, no putting things in drawers that are below my waist, forget grocery shopping…I went grocery shopping briefly in Sunday and found myself reaching for peanut butter on the bottom shelf and almost had a melt down when I realized what I had done.

After the surgery on Wednesday, we spent Wednesday and Thursday night in town to make things easier since I was tired from the surgery and I had to be back at 10:30 the next morning and again return at 9:30 on Friday. We spent Friday night at the farm and were joined by Larry’s daughter, Hillary and her sweet family: Scott, her husband and their two kids, Henriette and Ewing. We left Saturday morning for my doc appointment and did not return to the farm. Larry and Susan were expected to return around 11:00 p.m. that night. I miss waking up to the most gorgeous view each morning and my time with Baker, the smartest, coolest dog ever.

There are seven stages of recovery from my eye surgery. There is no specific time frame as each patient heals differently. By Saturday I was at stage two which meant I could read and watch TV and be out of bed for small time periods. I was told by my gyn doc no baths and by my eye doc no showers. I cannot wash my hair until stage four!!!! I have oily skin so I have washed my hair daily since I was a teen even when wilderness camping. I am going crazy with this restriction. Pray that I am at stage four when I go for my next check up on Thursday.

July 22 2015 

On Sunday July 19 we started going through boxes that were left at the storage unit. We created three categories: take to the condo, put in yard sale, and re-store. We worked two-three hours each day, about all either of us could handle, particularly me. It was much easier to do it at the storage unit using my old desk as a place to open boxes instead of bending over a box on the floor. We bought home boxes each day and put things away in the condo. We combined contents and repacked boxes that were to be re-stored and we started boxes for the yard sale. Our goal is to downsize our storage unit from 23 X 24 to something about half that size. Ron’s shop and its contents will be stored as well as any boxes of items we wish to keep at this point.

We went back on Monday for a two hour stint and on Tuesday and Wednesday Wendy Wibbens joined us to help out. I have known Wendy since she was 16 and I administered her GED.  That was 41 years ago!!!!  We have history and a very fine relationship. She is on vacation here from Oakland CA. She took me to my gynocologist post op appointment on Tuesday morning. My doc was pleased with my progress and told me to come back next year when I was due for my annual check up. I was also given the go ahead on having a bath! Yippee! I took a long hot bath that night and it felt divine. I felt clean for the first time in over a week. Now about that hair…

On Tuesday we went to the unit after lunch then worked for a couple of hours. Wendy was terrific and packed up items for the yard sale. We made great progress. She came back to the condo with us and helped to unload the items we brought home. After putting things away, she and Ron organized the kitchen. I must confess before my surgery when Ron and I were bringing things here I literally dumped box contents into the drawers and cabinets here. Well, the two of them took care of getting it all straightened out and it is just terrific.

Around 6:30 the three of us headed to NE Portland and had dinner at Tamale Boy, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Wendy went to her friend’s house for the night and we came home, pretty tired from a long day.

Today I got up and after breakfast took the trolley to a place in SW Portland to be fingerprinted, a security requirement to being back on the board of Our House of Portland. I had an interesting conversation with the owner of the print/copy shop where I was finger printed (it is all electronic now, no more messy ink). The owner was Indonesian and came to this country in 2005 seeking asylum because he and his wife had converted to Christianity from Islam. I didn’t know things were that strict there. He said they came here with two plane tickets and $2,000 and now he owns the print shop. I told him he was the classic American immigrant success story.

I came home, called Wendy and she came over and the three of us went at it again. I am glad to say we have a sizable yard sale pile. We managed to get through the last of the boxes in the storage unit we are dealing with right now. There are more that we have to do but we are waiting on some book shelves to arrive on Friday before going through our boxes of books. Once again we unloaded the things we brought back to the condo and headed out to lunch at a nearby Vietnamese place around the corner. Afterwards we walked another block for dessert, a hot coffee drink at Starbucks. Wendy headed home and we rested for while as we were pooped. I napped and Ron read.

Ron has been busy hanging up textiles, masks, and artwork. He has done a terrific job. I think by this weekend we will be pretty set here except for a part of the iving room where we will put in wall unit book shelves for both books and chatchkies. They are scheduled to arrive at the store on Tuesday the 28th . It has been a difficult time for both of us, frankly. Ron is worn out and has been somewhat stressed. No surprise there with all that has happened since returning to Portland. I have to fight with myself for feeling useless or inadequate because I am so limited right now. But here we are, in a lovely neighborhood, in a gorgeous condo and we have made it our home/sanctuary and nest in less than a week.