Sit down. Relax. Put Your Feet Up.

On Wednesday Dennis had some arthroscopic surgery on his knee. His knee has been bothering him for a while now, and has been getting worse and worse to the point where he stopped going to taekwando a few months ago, and though he kept playing basketball, he was not enjoying himself as much as he usually does because his knee pain was bothering him too much. It was time.

All went well. The surgeon went in there and cleaned up and smoothed out the torn up cartilage and drained the fluid. This should really help. The surgery was pretty short, but it took forever for Dennis to wake up after. In fact the guy who had his surgery after Dennis was awake and sent home before Dennis woke up. The nurse said that is typical for folks that don't drink - she calls them "cheap dates." Cheap dates' bodies aren't used to drugs so they are more sensitive to them. When he was finally awake enough to understand, the doctor sent Dennis home with strict instructions to keep his foot up for 72 hours, and not to remove the dressing in that time.

(He was looking a little too forward to having his feet up, of you ask me.)

So for three days Dennis sat on the bed or his massage chair in his office, supported by a dozen pillows - the lap of luxury! He had the remote in one hand (managed to get through the 2nd season of 24), and his new iPad in the other one (downloaded a ton of apps). He was surrounded by a tall stack of his log cabin magazines, his cell phone, my laptop, and food and drink were brought to him in bed.

He was loving it that first day, milking it for everything he could. It was the life he always wanted - spend all day in bed with all your toys around you, being waited on hand and foot, and having all the time in the world. Sweet. That is really Dennis' idea of a vacation. He always says how nice it would be to stay in bed all day and do nothing but watch TV and eat - no where to be, nothing to do. The good life.

Well, that enjoyment lasted for a whole day before he got sick of being stuck in bed. He would see something that needed to be fixed and it would bug him to no end that he couldn't just jump up and get it done. He would sit in his office where he could see the kids playing in the backyard, running in and out leaving the back door wide open in the heat. He called me from his cell phone a few times to tell me to tell them to shut the back door. He got sick of sitting in the same position, and was dying to just roll onto his side. He knocked his water over several times trying to reach his crutches, and then had to wait for someone else (me) to clean it up. One of his employees quit while he was out. And Mr. Two-showers-a-day was dying to get in the shower again!!

Sitting with his feet up just wasn't what he thought it would be. The fact is, Dennis is a doer. He just likes to get things done and as much as he thinks about how great it would be to do nothing, the fact is, he is just not cut out for a life of leisure.

So when that 72 hours was up, exactly, to the hour, that wrapping was off! It was really quite silly that his entire leg, from his thigh to his heal was wrapped because when we unwrapped there were just three tiny incisions on his knee - nothing a few little band-aids couldn't cover. I guess it just made it look more impressive to have it all wrapped up like that. After watching that final hour of 24 (the suspense was killing him more than the need to take a shower) Dennis finally got his shower, and came out feeling like a new man. He tossed the crutches, and got dressed and went to Costco. Yes, Costco (his favorite place). He is there right now and I am worried about him. I remember being very pregnant with the twins and going to Costco thinking I would be just fine. But when I got all the way to the back of the store I was so tired and miserable that the thought of having to walk ALL THE WAY back to the front of the store made me want to cry! It might as well have been a marathon!

(Hope he doesn't over-do it, because neither of us wants him to have to do this again.)

Welcome back, my able-bodied, fully-active (kind of), and freshly-showered husband!

** Well, he came back from Costco, and even though he toodled around in the cart, he over-did it and is back with his foot up again... for just a little while longer.