Farm Stock

When I woke up in the recovery room, the nurses had me breathe into a device to help me from developing clots in my lungs. I was to do this every hour 5-7 times per hour (although I originally heard it as 17 times per hour which seemed like an odd, arbitrary number to me!). They encouraged me to "do the best I could" that first time. And I did. I realized it was better than average when the nurse pointed out that they wanted me to inhale up to 1000 units and I inhaled to 2500 units. "Whoa," the nurse said. "She's not going to have any problems."

The day after surgery, I had to walk. In fact, I had to walk 3 times that day to get some important reward, which I honestly can't remember now, but I think was along the lines of "sip some water." For the first walk, they told me, it was ok to just walk to the door of my room. I got there and said, "I can keep going" so we went out the door and down the hall a little ways. Dave encouraged me not to go too far, as this was an "out and back" course and we needed to save energy for the return. I made some lame joke about a negative split and turned around sooner than I probably had to.

Two days after the surgery, I had pretty much explored the entire fifth floor of the hospital in my red reindeer pajamas and after one 25 minute walk, wondered if this counted as "real" exercise.

Three days after surgery, when I finally got my IV out, nurses and technicians were cheering my first ambling without the equipment (nurses and technicians I did not know) and some even inquired how I liked my first meal since the surgery that day. (Apperently, I had loudly expressed some enthusiasm about my first meal earlier in the day)

Yesterday, I went for my post-op meeting with my doc who pointed out that we were meeting on the day that the majority of people just get out of the hospital. He also said I could start driving again, a full week earlier than he had said on my discharge papers. (Hooray! School will be much easier next week).

So, I have been feeling pretty hardy. I *am* a hardy person, much more farm stock than thoroughbred. Nonetheless, I'm not quite 100% yet. I decided after yesterday's appt I could go for a walk around the 'hood at lunch. Originally, I planned to do about 1.5 to 2 miles. As I came to the end of my block (oh, let's say about .1 miles from my house) and noted that I was lightheaded and fuzzy, I decided one full block would be plenty. Then 25 minutes later as I shuffled back to the house, I decided yes, that was plenty. (.3 miles in 25 miniutes is not a PR, dontcha know). Last night, I woke up at 2 am in a wee bit of pain and had to take my first vicodin in three days. Waking up this morning was fun!! (Yes, Elizabeth warned me!)

I can't complain. Really. I feel like I am doing exceptionally well. However, I'm still on the mend. I still might give that walk another go today and and see if I can improve on yesterday's time. I can always take a nap and/or catch up on Food Network. Friday afternoons are a real blast around here!!

Finally, I'd like to end this blog with a prayer for some of my extended family. There are sad things afoot in this world and people are making decisions that seem pretty selfish, but also seem, quite frankly, naive, unsophisticated, and reflective of a life lonely and unlived. My prayer is for the children, all the children of this world, who don't understand adult decisions and blame themselves for not being good enough, smart enough, or pretty enough to keep their parents' marriage together. We (as adults) all know their thoughts are not true. Let us hope that the adults involved help the children figure it out, too.