Hospital Sketches

The View from my chair...
Behind my TV and the Announcement Board is a little mural.  That's my closet under the clock.  

My view out the window

Yup, it's me.  Finally in a place where I can pop in and say hi again.  Whew...that "knee replacement surgery thing" is really a show-stopper.  Like all stories there is the good and the tough.

  

I had my knee replaced last Wednesday around noonish at Florida Waterman Hospital in Tavares, FL.  What a wonderful hospital.  Super nice room with huge picture windows.  Great nurses and helpful PT and my doctor (Donald Perry) gets a big thumbs up.  

For those of you who have gone this route already you know that they give you a "pain block" that makes you feel pretty darn good for the first 48 hours.  But as that wears off...reality sets in! I've decided against posting the photo of the surgery scar at this time.  

  

These sketches were done while the pain block was still working.  I became pretty famous on the floor as "artist-patient" in residence for awhile!  So I waved the staff good bye around 2 on Friday.  And I am writing this on Monday morning.  The home-health nurse dropped in on Saturday.  

The weekend home went okay..my daughter is here from Madison, WI answering my every beck and call.  I am icing the knee as much as possible and trying to wean myself off pain meds as much as possible.  I expect a call from PT anytime today setting up the home PT schedule for the first couple of weeks. I am forewarned that this is going to be tough going.  Grrr.

My daughter flies home this afternoon (boo hoo).  

My other daughter has been "coaching" me from Illinois by text.

And my neighbors here have been so delightful!  Can't say enough about the friends.  

Hoping to at least keep up some sketching during the PT and rehab.  I think the real "grit" part of this is ahead.  

The mural is completed

Keeping myself busy in the week before knee surgery turned out not to be a problem.  Although I would have preferred to have more say in the way my time is being used...like enjoying Zentangle® or doing outdoor sketching.  

Instead, out-of-routine problems like having my glass cooktop decide to "give up the ghost" and having to shop for a new one and planning to have it installed has taken up some inordinate time.  ☹️
But it's a small thing.  I remember reading somewhere when you stamp your feet in impatience you should be rather asking for grace.  Indeed we need to be gentle with ourselves sometimes. 

One joyful thing this week was the completion of the pool-side  mural that ten of us in the Fine Arts Club took on as our challenge this year.  (I am the tallest one in the middle.). I think we actually look at this now and marvel that we even tackled the project!  I know none of us really realized last year at this time the amount of time this would take.  Next season we'll host an actual grand opening and invite the whole park to the celebration.  But for now we are taking a well deserved bow.

I am so looking forward to the arrival of my daughter, Julie, from Madison, WI.  She comes on Monday to do care taking and be supportive through my surgery and the first few days home.  
I am anxious to get on with this now as I am sure you can tell.

Weather cool in central FL this week but looking marvelous next week in the mid 80s.  I am going to check out the Diva's challenge now as I think Zentangle is the very best calming thing now during the stress of this week ahead.  

Finishing up the Pen and Ink

Just reposting this as I finished the lower section.  I decided on some grasses and some leaves.  I looked up birch leaves to make sure I had them right...oaks I know!  I decided on no color for now...I could always change my mind another day.  

But it is framed and in the Hawthorne Art show for this afternoon!

Hoping to do another pen and ink soon as I found this fun and even relaxing to do.

The time for my knee replacement surgery is drawing near...a week from Wednesday so we are trying to get things in order here allowing for me to relax and rest and do my therapy.  My daughter, Julie, will arrive a week from Monday and stay a week with us...holding down the fort.  

Weather here in FL is lovely now...will be in mid 80s the whole time my daughter is visiting.  My two favorite months in Florida are November and April.  But March isn't bad.  Coping with the time change today.  

It is full spring here.  The Jacaranda trees are purple and the Tabebuia trees are bright yellow.  Azaleas are almost done now.

No hibiscus this spring since the hard freeze in January did them in. But they are re-greening now so there is hope.  Hawthorne bushes are in bloom and orange trees send amazing sweet smells.  The oaks here lose leaves and grow new ones in the spring...bright green and shiny.  We have a pair of sweet ducks on the pond now probably nesting.  (also a few small alligators!).  The song birds are nesting now.  Lots of sweet sounds in the yard!