I love Romi’s *roving badge touring Sock Summit! Â So much for Monty Python: “Badges? Badges! We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” Yes, we do. Â What a cool idea.
I tried to catch up on my email yesterday and found it too big a job, but I want you all to know how much I appreciate every note and every comment. I didn’t say things too well on the blog, though: they took me off the IV painkiller, but oh goodness, I am definitely still on vicodin.
The roommate I’ve had all along got discharged this morning and came over to say goodbye before she left. She couldn’t quite stand up straight yet, she said. Â She was wearing bluejeans and I winced for her and silently wished she had a jumper to go home in too. Â But I realized afterwards that I’d let that distract me and I’d missed my chance to tell her something far more important: that when her husband and family had come in every evening, the joy and the love that radiated through the curtain was just wonderful to hear and a real blessing to me that I’d needed. Â I’m too deaf to have overheard any conversations, but the part that mattered, that came through loud and clear. Â The caring. The joy.
My abysmally low blood pressure was getting in the way of my healing–there’s a risk of pneumonia if you don’t get moving post-op, and I did just enough coughing to realize I surely didn’t want to go there. Â But at the same time, they didn’t want me walking if I couldn’t get that top number to 80. Â One of the surgeons on duty decided last night to try infusing me with albumen to see if that would help.
Boy did it. Â I was walking for ten minutes soon after, with the very last of the IV bottle bubbling up–Richard said it looked like angel food cake batter being worked up. So now I can say I’ve mainlined angel food cake (still waiting to be able to claim that on chocolate.) Â Pass the whipped cream.
I asked the nurse where the albumen comes from; she didn’t know. Richard promptly googled from the laptop and answered, Cows.
Cows?
Cows.
So does this mean someone who’s allergic to eggs could still have angel food cake? (Notice the one-track mind.) Freeze some crushed Heath bars to sprinkle in that whipped cream, okay?
Meantime, nobody’s been able to find that ziploc stuffed with scarves since I arrived. I’m sure I’ll find them immediately once I’m the one looking. But I managed to sit up long enough to finish a nearly-done one this morning, and the nurse I’ve had for the last few days was not comprehending as I explained how to rinse and lay it out to dry for the lacework to stand out and the thing to lengthen. It matched her shirt pretty well. Â It was fun watching her face light up when she realized I really meant this thing she’d seen me working on was for her. Elann Baby Silk yarn, baby alpaca/silk.
Seeing someone’s face light up at being knit for. Â Reclaiming Real Life in that moment. Â Getting better is a cakewalk now.
*Roving is the word for fiber that has been washed, carded, and is ready to spin. I just needed to let Don in on the pun here.