Is There Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

I'm sitting in the surgery waiting room at the moment waiting to hear what room my wife will be taken to. She's in recovery after undergoing knee replacement surgery on her right knee. You might ask yourself how old is she since most people undergoing this surgery tend to be older. She's only forty but her right knee was the knee of an eighty year old. Rheumatoid arthritis has attacked her and left her with no cartilage at all in her knee. It kept getting worse and worse until she was left with no choice but to get it replaced. Luckily the doctor said everything went well and she should be pleased once she recovers. Apparently the knee was in rather nasty condition.

After she gets out of the hospital in a few days we'll settle into her rehab routine and wait for the results. At the least she will finally have some mobility back and will be able to walk without her crutches. No more will she feel trapped by her pain. Of course this does not mean she'll be able to go out and run a marathon. She still has to deal with her arthritis as it affects her other joints but at least she won't have the pain she's been dealing with for so long in her right knee. Hopefully soon she'll be able to return to work. It's been an ordeal, a little over a year ago she had a cyst descend into her left calf and it had to be operated on to remove it as well as repair a partial tear of her meniscus. These situations have been a drain not only on our finances but our lives as well.

For the past few months my routine has been to get off of work at midnight, come home and do a few chores, relax and get into bed about 2am. Then I get up at 7am and get our son ready for school. After returning home I would attend to my wife and then try to lay down for about 2 more hours of sleep. Then I would get up, put dry dishes away, wash more dishes, cook or assist her with cooking, wash more dishes, perhaps do some more chores and then take a shower and get dressed for work. Then I would pick our son up from school, bring him home and go to work. Some days I didn't even get to return to the bed for more sleep, it was just go and take care of things that couldn't be put off anymore.

My mother in law flew into town yesterday to assist us with our son and my wife in her recovery and will be with us for the next month. I'm very grateful for her coming, we get along well and it gives her a chance to see her grandson, which she doesn't get to do often. Plus she's a good cook so I know I'll be eating well. However that also means I need to be careful that I don't gain back the weight that I've lost recently. My goal now is to try to pick up some extra shifts at work or to get a part time job so that we can pay off some of our debts and get caught up on a few things that are behind. Honestly I'll be happy with just returning to some kind of normalcy in our lives. And some sleep, definitely some sleep. Wish us luck as we hope to finally be moving forward.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.