I woke up in the recovery room to the nurse’s beautiful smile. I thought I was dreaming at first but you don’t dream when under anesthesia. At least I don’t.

Well, that beatiful smile set me up for a very good day in post-op after my total knee replacement surgery at St. Michaels hospital in Toronto. Surgery by Dr. Atrey, who was referred to me by a skier friend in Collingwood who had both knees done. Could this be a skiing by-product? Well, not for everyone.

So after I had a nice conversation with the nurse, she was replaced by another who was assigned because she had more tolerance with nonsensical rambling. She was very young, just a couple of years older then Sydney, my granddaughter, who is in 2nd year nursing at UofT. And did I ever ramble! We talked about Sydney, and then I went on to tell her my life story; 3 times. I couldn’t stop talking, but she explained to me that this often happens when coming off OR drugs. By the way, all the nurses and other staff I encountered were exceptionally great and I told them so.

After the freezing came off they moved me to the final recovery room where they gave me more pain killers to get me home – a 3 hour drive back to Collingwood. Chantal drove of course, because I’m not allowed to drive for 6 weeks. And now Chantal is waiting on me hand and foot for the next few weeks.

I have my 5×7 pass for Blue Mountain. Kept it because it’s a great motivator to get some runs in hopefully at the end of February, or March, if there’s snow.

So now, the physio therapy starts, and hopefully, there won’t be an episode 2.