POST OP day 12

Hours of sleep last night: 4.
Woke up at the buttcrack AGAIN.  watched me some "i used to be fat" on MTV.  Does anyone else cry while watching that show?  I'm so proud of those guys for reaching their goal weight with such a limited amount of time.  They all seem to throw up though.  There was even an episode with a girl named Kirsten!  Reminded me of the days when i was so chubby that my mom had to buy elastic jeans because I couldn't fit into the ones that actually buttoned :o(.  That's probably why I'm a jean junkie now.  Proceeded to watch some Oprah with guest Celine Dion.  She showed her new twins (not those twins).  She sure luuuuuurves them.  Oprah surprisingly was not wearing Christian Louboutins on her buniony feet.  While Oprah was on, I redid my bed mostly to readjust the egg crate mattress.  Before the surgery i dug it up from under my bed and during the struggle of pulling it out from under, one of the bed legs got in the way, tearing the mattress in the middle.  but the outer part remained intact

a crack in the eggshell mattress!  isn't it ironic?  dontcha think?

On todays agenda: scheduled session with Kim at 10:30am.  I never really got into describing her.  She's awesome, a fellow south looper.  She provides me with little tips here and there.  i.e. how to ace bandage properly- figure 8 style as opposed to wrapping from bottom up tourniquet style.  Also, she told me i could wash the foam cushion of my knee brace AND ace bandage!  i did that the day after i had bled all over it.  It's still such a hassle to put that thing on, but at least it's clean.  And the initial ace bandage I had was so high tech- velcro instead of those dangerous 2 clips.  Kim just had a baby girl named Reese 3 months ago (random factoid, i was born at micheal REESE hospital).  Homegirl only gained 28lbs during her pregnancy yet her baby was over 7lbs!  she must've been one of those cute preggos who's all belly.  she definitely knows how to rock black patent leather danskos. her social security number is....just kidding.  There's a guy who has sessions the same time i do.  When Kim leaves us alone I'm so tempted to ask him, "what are YOU in for?", like something jailbait would ask.  He does a lot more total body stuff.  One time he wore these shiny shorts and was doing exercises on the ball.  I was busy doin my thing looking up at the ceiling until I heard this weird rubbery struggle sound.  the poor guy fell off the ball d/t his slippery shorts!  we all laughed it off, he said he was not gonna wear slippery shorts anymore. Oh man, I hope he doesn't wear cotton spandex at the next session.

today's knee...less swelling and bruising!

Today's therapy was another good one, I came out with such a high.  The new thing for today was that I got the okay to ditch one crutch.  The secret is that I've been walking around without crutches since Friday just to regain stable gait and weight distribution, I didn't tell her.  She did another great job today and it's so encouraging to hear her talk about my progress.  We even got into discussing baking, with a focus on cake balls and oreo truffles, yum!  No worries, not a girl crush.  But I don't think that it helped that I wore this shirt:

We did the usual exercises, this time it only took about a minute until i was able to consistently pedal on the stationary bike forward.  The most painful exercise, by far, is when I'm laying on my tummy doing knee bends to my butt.  She puts a rope around my foot and has me pull the other end forward to bring my left heel towards my booty, 10 total.  After that she takes over and pushes my leg down as far as it goes.  I have to take a big deep breath before she does that so upon exhale, that's when she pushes down.  Almost an "Ahhhh, Kelly Clarkson!" moment, only much slower.  Hurts like a mofo, but it hurts so good.  Towards the end of the set when she was doing the maneuvering, I actually felt part of her hand touching the back of the thigh, that's the most bendage i've had post surgery!  We did squats on the total gym machine (think pilates pulley station where you're laying on the rowing pad), today she raised the angle so i'm up more.  Last Friday I was angled more close to the ground.  I guess the goal is to do standing squats, but i still have a ways to go because I'm not relying on a lot of my body weight for resistance.  Ended the session icing while I chatted with 2 real sweet older ladies.  They were both wearing pastel velour gym suits as they walked in with their walkers.  so cute!  Because of my ginormous brace, the lady with the baby blue velour suit thought I hurt myself real bad, she was so concerned for me.  But i told her it was the brace that makes it look scary.

I finally found a website that sells sour cream and onion powder! stinky part is that there's MSG in it. not a fan of puffy face.  Luckily when Diony came to pick me up from PT, she presented me with the following.  She said to save one just to smell when I'm craving again.  I'm still interested in ordering the SC&O sprinkle to have it PRN.

i hope i don't scrape my palate with these as i ingest them furiously

Later in the night Shar, Lis, and I hit up Triad sushi lounge in the south loop.  It was the first time to debut the one crutch look.  Too bad the sidewalks were so slippery so my style wasn't too pretty, especially when we walked past the entrance thinking it was around the corner, even though we made eye contact with the workers.  Could feel the employees staring at us walk aimlessly, the one crutch definitely added to their entertainment.  I was thinking that maybe I could use a cane instead and bedazzle it or add a colorful scarf like steven tyler.  Anyhoo, here's a lil taste of our scrumptious dindin that was super crunchy:

this is how we roll (phoenix, red dragon, and volcano rolls)

Udon tempura

couldn't get enough tempura, so we ordered more

Chinatown Square for dizzert!  Despite the chilly weather, we still managed to handle the coldest items on the dessert menu.  It was a great way to end the day, even though it was frickin cold out, was nice to be in a different setting.  Gotta enjoy every opportunity I get to bust outta 809!

happy president's day!