Spencer returned on a Saturday that was the same day his mom was coming to visit us. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get on the same flight as her (she was coming from Portland but he could have come Van-->Seattle-->Portland-->Santa Rosa). I took Max to the dog park and then went to the airport to get her. I ended up being 45 mins early to the airport, but thought that was ok since I had my knitting with me, but then Kari’s plane was about 35 mins early too! So I was actually there right on time. We got some lunch and had a visit and did a few errands, and then went back to the airport about 4 hours later to get Spencer.
We had a very nice visit with Kari, though she got sick while here and spent a day resting on the couch. That was ok though, because I was in Berkeley for a meeting all day and Spencer just puttered around while she rested. While she was here we were able to take a trip out to the coast as well, and enjoyed some nice weather and lovely views there.
After Kari departed I had my knee surgery. It was a simple endoscopy surgery to look for torn things in my knee to fix and cure my pain and swelling. I thought it was going to be good too because the surgeon I had likes to do these with just local anesthesia for the patient, and in the past general anesthesia has made me really ill (even when I got my wisdom teeth out and the surgeon said not one patient of his had ever been sick from that—I was the first). So I had spoken to the surgeon and the anesthesiologist, and everything was cool. They were going to knock me out for the part where they prep and numb my knee, then allow me to wake up for the surgery. I was also going to be able to watch on a monitor. There was a second anesthesiologist that spoke to me briefly before the surgery, and then he gave me the drugs. I was taken into the operating room, I moved onto the table, and then I woke up in recovery two hours later.
It turned out that the second anesthesiologist gave me general anesthesia by accident. The reasons that this happened were 1) he spoke to me with vague language and I didn’t know he was talking about general—I thought he was just referring to the first part of the surgery, 2) he and the first anesthesiologist did not communicate well enough about what was going to happen and 3) he didn’t correctly read the chart. Although those things should have happened, I have also learned that I/the patient can be more thorough in communicating. If I had said something about it being local, we would have discussed it more clearly. I certainly will next time.
So I was really sick for the ride home and the rest of the evening and through to the morning. I didn’t have severe pain in my leg, but it was still hard to deal with being ill and maneuvering with my leg. I also felt bad for Spencer, he had a lot to take care of with me like that. He did really well though and was super awesome. Unfortunately, the surgeon didn’t find anything torn that he could fix in my knee. He said that it looked really good in there. He trimmed something (I can’t remember what it was called), but said that he didn’t know if that was going to fix my problem or not. Now I’m recovering from the surgery and will see soon if I still have the symptoms that I had before. I have an appointment next week with him to talk about it.
My knee was really swollen after the surgery, and has gradually gotten better. I was on crutches for about 5 days after the surgery. From the swelling inside, I was having trouble for a while with being able to fully straighten my leg, but I’ve been able to do that now for about three days, so that’s nice. My incisions healed well (I have two on the front of my knee), but one is dark purple and I don’t really like that. The skin around them is really sensitive for some reason, so I still have a little pain there and discomfort sometimes when things touch it. Yesterday I walked downtown for the first time. My knee is pretty weak, and that made it really tired, but I didn’t have any pain. Then today I rode my bike to work for the first time since the surgery, which also made me really tired. But all in all I’m doing well.
A few days after my surgery we began receiving our Thanksgiving visitors! My parents showed up on that Tuesday, and then Sabrina and Lucas arrived on Wednesday. We had a great time hanging out with all of them. We began cooking the Thanksgiving dishes on Wednesday afternoon (I only worked in the morning that day). I made cranberry sauce for the first time from Grama’s recipe. Although a few things went differently than her recipe said, it still turned out very tasty. It didn’t end up being like a jelly but more like a sauce. I enjoyed it a lot anyways. All around, the dinner was excellent. Mom had brined the turkey, and it was juicy and tender and awesome. Our other dinner items were stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, the cranberry sauce, stuffed mushrooms, chocolate mousse, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. (I think that was everything.)
We all just hung out here for the weekend. Mom and Dad stayed in a hotel nearby, and Sabrina and Lucas slept on our extra couch’s pull-out bed. We did a lot of cooking, and sitting and talking, and then on Saturday after Tday we went downtown to see the shops. Oh, Sabrina and Mom and I, and my friend Megan also went to a sale at the yarn shop in Santa Rosa, and my mom bought some really nice yarn that I’m knitting a shawl out of now for her. That was cool, and I really like this yarn. The other highlight of our weekend was a scotch tasting night. Sabrina and Lucas brought some scotch for Spencer, and we tasted that along with the two that my parents gave him as a Ph.D. present. Although some of us didn’t like the scotch too much, it was a fun event as well.
Not a whole lot has happened since then, although Spencer and I both visited friends over this last weekend. I went to Oakland to see Andi and Abby (who is 5 now!), and Spencer visited Ron yesterday in San Francisco. Ron lives in Portland but is down for some work, so it was cool that they were able to visit. We also went out last week to a restaurant bar so that we could watch the Oregon Civil War game (college football between Oregon State University (Beavers) and the University of Oregon (Ducks)). We had margaritas and beer, and it was fun to be out doing something like that. However, we were the only ones there actually watching the game! I was surprised about that, since both teams were ranked fairly well, the winner was headed to the Rose Bowl, and we still live in the Pac 10 region here. But there we were, not even hardcore fans, not wearing any Beavers garb, and we were the only ones who cared. I had taken my knitting with me too, and you should have seen the look the bartender lady gave me when she saw me doing that. (I was also the only one in the bar who was knitting.) Spencer and I had fun, but it would have been even better if the Beavers had won.
We still haven’t gotten any Christmas shopping done. My problem is that I can’t think of anything for anyone this year (I only have one person figured out). If you know of something I should get for someone, please let me know. I went out a few nights ago and the only thing I found was a sweater for myself (I didn’t buy it).
Ok, I guess that’s the update. Sorry for the lack of writing, and I’ll try to keep it more frequent from now on. I posted some thanksgiving photos in my gallery, so have a look at them if you’d like….
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