So if you don’t know already, I have been holed up in my house for the past six days recovering from knee surgery. I am under house arrest, if you will. I have not set foot outside for 140 plus hours, I cannot get out of bed myself, and I have been living on rice and Percocet. Don’t worry–I’m not addicted.

Life is good, guys!

I was always a relatively active person. Sitting in bed all day is rather torturous for me, especially when I am rather delusional from the drugs and my leg feels like two holes have been drilled into it (because two holes have been drilled into it!!). But from these six long days I’ve learned how to cope and make the most out of my situation.

If you are in my situation, or if you just enjoy reading about me wallowing in a pool of self-pity, read on about these tips I am going to share with you. Hopefully they will help.

Eat small frequent meals. Little meals throughout the day keep your tank more consistently filled, while big meals can make you feel stuffed and nauseous. Make sure to include lots of complex carbs, protein, healthy fats, and vitamins in your diet because you are not able to move around as often. And above all, just listen to your body.

Cover your crutches if you have them and get up often. Moving around on crutches gives you underarm pain, so cover them with a sock or a hat. Also, it gets dull when you sit in the same place for three hours straight. Sitting around all day without periodically getting up causes weak legs, weight gain, a bad back, and a stiff neck. For me, whenever I get up there is this throbbing pain in my knee and a hot, searing pain on the incisions, but these pass within a few moments. Moving around is refreshing, albeit on crutches.

Stock up on books, movies, and games. I was never one to sit in bed all day to have a Netflix marathon. I don’t even have Netflix. (I’ll be sure to get backlash from that.) But with my given circumstances, I’ve learned how to distract myself with this amazing book series my friend just introduced to me called A Court of Thorns and Roses. Movies and games do just as good of a job to distract you from pain and boredom, too.

Pick up on new hobbies. You are going to have a lot of time on your hands, so experiment with new hobbies. Do some origami. Or knit. Or patch up that one year old hole in your jacket. Whatever the case may be, your time will be more well spent.

Surround yourself with friends! Entertainment from books, movies, and games is nothing compared to real human contact. When you are stuck inside your house for a few days, friends brighten your day more than you can imagine. They can be your emissaries to the outside world.

Of course, not all days are going to feel like frolicking in a field of daisies. There will be times when you want to drown in that pool of self pity, but please don’t! All bad times will pass.

I also apologize for the janky stock photos in this post. I can’t really move around and take my own photos right now.

– Katie