Just a quick update to let you know I am alive. I came home from hospital after 6 days and bypassed rehab completely. Apparently they were short of beds and they started me on exercises while I was still in the surgical ward. I was up and dressing myself at 3 days. I did go through a nightmare ride with pain management. The anesthetist didn't really understand fibro pain. I got a spinal injection of morphine instead of a general and that was supposed to cover all my pain needs for 24 hours. After 12 hours I was climbing the walls and begging for my own meds back. Instead I got a morphine pump and still was withheld my normal meds and sleep aids. I didn't sleep for about 3 days until they pulled the pump, put me back on my normal meds, but the on-service dr couldn't believe I still needed sleeping pills so wouldn't give me a full dose. To be fair to the anesthetist, who came to see me later, she really didn't understand how pain works in fibromyalgia, that the pain is in my brain not really in my muscles. I just wish these folks had looked at my medical history, spoken to my GP even, to understand that I had been on the regime for years and that they couldn't just start playing around with pain meds because they thought some arbitrary dose was sufficient. They also dispensed the meds at their convenience and since I am so dependent on several of those drugs, a three hour delays could make me cranky.

I also loathed the hospital. The nurses with few exceptions were super. The food was horrible. I had friends bring me fresh fruit because there was none on the menu and few veggies either. One day I ordered nothing but sandwiches and they were a bit concerned, but I had my fruit and tomatoes. Nothing to drink but coffee, tea, juice or water. The beds had very thin mattresses on a metal base and I had that to add to sleeping problems. That was also my reason for jumping at the option of going home. My nice soft adjustable bed let me sleep for 10 hours straight and also to elevate my leg to reduce the edema.

I am slowly working on the knee, trying to balance bed rest healing and exercises to gain flexibility. It already feels so much better to stand on than the old knee. I am eating out of the freezer. The Imp is delirious to have me back but she doesn't understand why she can't sit on the right side of my lap. On the other hand we have had many games of fetch and lots of petting and cuddling,