Many have shown concern and written to ask about my recent knee surgery. I thank you for all your concern and tell you the whole experience really benefitted from my work with Personal Safety Nets.

The surgery truly was actually enjoyable from the perspective of camaraderie between the various specialists in the surgical suite (research shows that when the teamwork among the professionals & including the patient is positive in nature, results improve too), the process they followed, and just how interesting it was to watch, on the screen, the work of the surgeon.

And, then I had this fantastic support network that came into play. Trying to follow the guidelines that John Gibson and I wrote about was humbling. It wasn't easy to remember that the planning had to be done early to be effective. I'd done my best to figure out what I might need post-surgery, discarding all the stories of folks who had this surgery and returned to work within a couple of days. So I sent an email to a fairly wide group of family, friends and neighbors, saying what I thought I'd need and asking that those who could (ok to say "no") let me know which things they might like & be able to do, and when. Then I made a schedule (having asked forgiveness ahead of time for possibly not needing what someone offered) and we went forward. Thanks to this, I was really able to keep my knee elevated and iced 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, for a full week. Generous people fixed or brought me three meals a day, went to the grocery store, etc, then took me to the physical therapy a week post-op.

At the PT appointment I was told I needn't return, the healing had gone so well! And I attribute this to being in pretty good shape ahead of time, the teamwork in surgery, and the wonderful support I got afterwards that allowed me to be a model patient. At this point, I'm back in yoga, in the gym, and in the pool. Biking next week if the weather permits. The last job I had to do was to thank everyone who'd helped, with food, time, prayers, or offers.

So, my friends, though I couldn't actually have known for sure that this is how it would actually go, that's why I hadn't made a big deal of the surgery. The pieces were in place ... and I feel extraordinarily fortunate that it went better than planned.

The only other surprise to me was how foggy my head and thinking were as I was healing. I took very few of the pain meds beyond ibuprofin (but I did take every bit of that that had been recommended). All I can figure is that the spinal anesthetic had an effect, as did the energy devoted to healing. Hmm...