Fun-packed Friday

Ok, maybe that was overselling it a bit but it has been as fun as any Friday 2 days after a surgery can be.

As you can see from the bright-and-peppy TV of the previous post, I felt good this morning. I had a good night's sleep and managed to give myself a decent wash in the downstairs bathroom, not without the aid of Hubby I might add. As pathetic as this may have sounded to pre-op me just a few days ago, it's actually been fun to spend time with him and have him look after me. There is humor in the basic things we've been forced to share in the past few days. Moment-by-moment I am reminded (although I always knew it before) of what a wonderful relationship... friendship... we have and how I just plain enjoy who he is and spending time with him.

Hubby got up and brewed some coffee, then made me oatmeal with glazed walnuts and bananas for breakfast, getting my day off to a yummy and healthy start. Then, somehow the morning passed, doing what exactly I've forgotten. I seem to remember Hubby working a bit from his laptop and me mentally checking in-and-out of such intellectually stimulating Travel Channel shows as "The 10 Sexiest Beaches" and "Top Ten Owned Islands". Then there was a lunch of 1/2 a turkey sandwich lined with English Branston Pickle, and a bowl of low-sodium beef barley soup.

At around 2pm, however, the dreaded time came - time to change the dressing on my holes! After making Hubby run through the process like preparation for a military coup, I hunkered down on the couch, hugging a pillow for dear life, and bared my buttocks. Then followed a process of poor Hubby gingerly picking away at taping and dressing, and a strange moment of pain mixed with tiggling as we negotiated some dressing stuck to my groin and inner thigh (both of which are very sensitive even under normal circumstances). Although I made a meal of it, yelping and groaning like an abandoned puppy, Hubby did a stellar job of cleaning me up and now, replacing the scary looking 6x6 blood-soaked gauze. are 3 relatively-tame bandaids. I guess I have some surface stitches after all (something the surgeon did not mention) and so I suppose these will need to come out at some point? Who knows, nobody ever mentioned anything at the hospital. I hope they just dissolve or something but Hubby seemed to think they weren't the right type. Groan. Something else to look forward to.

Anyway, getting through this made me feel much lighter - both metaphorically as well as physically. My leg is literally 4 inches narrower without all that gauze and taping! So , to reward myself, we took a trip to Starbucks. This time I actually got out of the car and we enjoyed our coffees sitting in the store, like two regular people, as if one of us hadn't just had a surgery less than 48 hours before. How cool is that? My progress is so far thrilling, even more so since I'm not pushing or forcing myself to do anything.

This evening, Hubby continued his culinary caress by delivering a candle-lit dinner on tv-tray - Teriyaki chicken, brown rice, and steamed veggies. It was delicious and nutritious! Again, my Hubby is quite literally the best a girl could wish for.

Also, I started to back-off my pain meds a little today. Instead of taking 2 pills every 4 hours, we're up to 4.5-5 hours now. It gets pretty tough toward the end but I'm planning to keep stringing it out as long as I can, then eventually go down to 1.5 pills, then 1, and so on.

Surgeon's office called this afternoon to reschedule my follow-up appointment. Instead of being 3 weeks out from the surgery, it's going to be 2 weeks - so the 26th. Hopefully I'll be off to PT at this point too. My co-surgeon said to me that I could be doing 10 minute stints on the eliptical trainer and recumbant bike as early as this. I'm being a good girl and staying on my crutches even though I could probably switch to a cane already, eagerly anticipating proving my worth for a PT referral at this appointment.

Tonight I'm pretty zonked. I'm going to sleep well I can tell, and am looking forward to another day of positives, progress, and spending time with Hubby.

Later...