Last-minute prep

Recipes

Last night I bought a cookbook with post-surgery recipes, and since I bought the Kindle version, I was able to look through it last night. 

My post-surgery diet has five stages.
Stage 1: Water, 1 oz. per hour. This starts as soon as I'm able to swallow after surgery and lasts less than a day. 
Stage 2: Low-sugar, decaf, non-carbonated clear liquids, 2-4 oz. per hour. This also lasts less than a day. 
Stage 3: Low-sugar, high-protein modified full liquids, 4-8 oz. per hour. This starts before I leave the hospital and lasts at least until my three-week post-op appointment with my dietician. 
Stage 4: Lean soft or ground food. I don't have much information about this stage yet, since they don't want you to self-advance your diet. I'm guessing this begins at my three-week post-op appointment, and it lasts 4 or 5 weeks.
Stage 5: This is my lifetime maintenance: lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes, healthy fats and low-fat dairy.

The cookbook I bought last night was written with stages 4 and 5 in mind — meaning the recipes should taste good pureed. This morning, I've searched for more recipes online and bookmarked several sites. 

The guest room

My dear friend Joe is coming down from Maine, staying Friday through Monday. There are lots of positives and just one little drawback: we have to clear the guest bed, which is where our clean laundry lives. Yesterday while I was at work (getting as much done as possible for my month away), my husband Paul worked on laundry. I have an overflowing basket of clean laundry waiting for me to put away.

Railings

Last night Paul called his father and asked for help putting up the railings on our stairways. They were taken down for painting before we moved in two and a half years ago. Our house is a multi-level, with half a flight of stairs going up to the bedrooms from the living room, and half a flight going down from the kitchen (and then another half flight going down to the basement proper). As I sit typing away, Paul and my father-in-law are finding studs and hanging railings so I'll have something to hold onto after surgery.