Preparing the House for Homecoming and Recuperation

Since we were gone until a day before my surgery, and since I only had a couple of days from the time my surgery was scheduled to leaving on our trip, I didn’t have much time to prepare. We have a 3 story house with bedrooms and bath (with a walk-in shower) on the top floor. On the middle floor are living areas, kitchen, and a half-bath, and in the finished basement is a living area, open bedroom, kitchenette, and a small bathroom with a walk-in shower.

Since I’m not confident at all that I’ll be able to climb stairs for the first couple of weeks, I’m taking over my husband’s office on the middle floor. There’s a comfortable daybed in his office, so I’m planning to sleep there for the first week or two. Even though I’ve been reading a lot (the Delphi Forum being very helpful: http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/main.asp?webtag=onourfeet&nav=start&prettyurl=%2Fonourfeet%2F), I’m just not sure when I’ll be able to climb up to the bedroom, so I’m planning on spending at least two weeks on the middle floor. My understanding is that I can’t shower until my stitches are removed, so I guess I’ll take sponge baths in the half-bath on the middle floor, and I’ll wash my hair in the kitchen sink. It’s not my idea of cleanliness, but unless I can climb stairs sooner than I think will be possible, it will have to do.

Other than moving my toiletries and lots of comfy, loose clothing down to my temporary quarters, I really can’t think of much else to do. My husband, Stan, is retired, so he’ll be with me all day every day and will be able to get anything from upstairs that I need. From what I read on the Delphi forum, I don’t expect to have lots of appetite at first, but if I do have a “hankering” for something special, Stan will fix it, order out, or go get it!

Our family room has a wonderful couch with a chaise at one end, so I think I’ll try to spend a good bit of time there every day watching TV, doing my exercises, and reading. I have lots of regular books, plus my Kindle is loaded up with plenty of mysteries, so I hope to be able to read as much as I want without feeling guilty that I ought to be doing something useful!

Is there anything else I should do? It’s all happened so suddenly, and I’ve had so little time, that I feel slightly unprepared, but at least I haven’t had a lot of time to worry, so maybe it’s all for the best!