So! As per usual, I have been tardy in posting. My apologies. It's been a pretty busy time of late and on the whole a great period. I made it out to the fair city of Vancouver... well, mostly Surrey, which is at least equally special. Also Abbotsford. Let's go with the fair Greater Vancouver Area, shall we?
The trip was absolutely fabulous. I want to start first by thanking my hosts and cousins, Mike and Melanie, for putting up with me for 4 sleeps. You two are amazing and inspirational! I certainly hope that all I gleaned from you, particularly this weekend, I will successfully apply to any future relationship I am in. One can't do much better than to copy y'all!
I also want to thank Ryan for throwing the birthday warming... er... houseday... well, some combination of birth, day, house and warming party anyhow. It was great to interact with you, with Mike and Mel, all the guests in general, and particularly an old college pal, Matt! What a surprise it was to suddenly have his head in my face, staring me down, and to think, "what is this weird face I see? Wait a minute... looks familiar... Matt!" Ahhh, such good times to be had when you encounter people you knew 15 or so years back and hadn't been face-to-face since!
I also met up with another dear friend, Margaree. We cruised through Gastown, Chinatown - I am now massively addicted to Red Bean Buns, which I need to hunt down here in Saskatoon - and False Creek. This was Saturday, before the party. We then made it out to the party, and had an extraordinary time.
Sunday, we walked over to a church that Mike, Melanie, Rob and Clarice were wanting to check out. Little did I know this was Pentecost weekend. I heard a rousing tale of the birthday of Christianity, which is yet another whack upside the head to my faith. Mind you, as with the rest, a good whack upside the head. I definitely have had a number of instances whereby my faith has gained clarity. Yay, God for that!
Other than church, Sunday became a bit of a wash. I was hoping to do something with a couple other cousins, Clay and Monty, either Sunday or Monday. Offsetting that would have been hanging with Margaree some more. But neither happened on Sunday, which squashed Monday a bit. So a nice, lazy Sunday it was, which probably was a good rest period for me and Mr. Hernia.
Monday was a very late breakfast with Clay, Monty and shy little Riley, Monty's son. What a fantastic time it was for all of us! I think Mike, Melanie and I had not seen Monty since their wedding. 7 years goes by way too fast.
I then headed out to Abbotsford, where I enjoyed doing laps around the lake, doing elderly exercises, learned to make sushi and jammed, all under the watchful eye of Margaree. What a great time, especially considering that she had been getting sick Saturday night and had to leave early. She was pretty sick Sunday, which leads to the miracle of the weekend: while at church, worship leading, her illness completely disappeared! As soon as it was over, it returned with a vengeance. Yay, God again! Anyway, she apparently was well enough to do the aforementioned tour-guiding of Abbotsford, which meant a lot to me. Thank you so much, Margaree!
I flew back Tuesday, so not much to report there, aside from the sensation that I was coming down off a big-time high. Getting home felt like rock-bottom. As far as the hernia was concerned, I am not sure if all that walking was REALLY good for it, and my subsequent lack of walking on return has made it feel worse, or perhaps all that walking wasn't much good at all and I have been paying for it since. We'll find out today or tomorrow, because I went for a 5 or 6 k stroll today. So far, so good... which seems to indicate walking is a very good thing. I hope so!
As some of you may know, I desperately need to get back to being more active. I'd love to be able to once again justify my old nickname "Energizer Bunny." I do think that, given time, I can achieve that goal. But it will take time and patience. Of the latter, it will take a LOT for the next week or so.
Now that 2 weeks have gone by, I expect that I will begin to feel much less pain as well as see signs of improvement in terms of the bruising and swelling in the area. This is danger time: less pain and visual reminders of the injury means more likelihood of overexertion. Thus, more care a patience will be required.
At the hospital, before the surgery, I proposed to the doctor that maybe after three weeks, running would be ok. He said it would (the mesh will have fully adhered, so I can't undo the surgical repair at that point), but that it would be unlikely that I will want to because of the pain. I suppose that then means this next week won't be so pain-relief/swelling/bruising friendly. Hmmm...
Oh well. We shall see! I'm definitely itching to run... it's what I've missed the most during this injury period. I feel like a big ol' lazy schmuck right now... I can't wait to feel like an active, vigorous schmuck instead!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Milestone #2 (for blog purposes) on the road to recovery: the first shower!
Today I was finally able to shower post-surgery. Yesterday, I removed the original bandages from surgery and got a look at what was happening below there. Shocking. Today, in removing my first bandages, it was even more shocking. The bruising has spread like crazy, and is definitely showing a wider range of hues. I will take this as a sign that, as lightly as I am trying to take things, I am still overdoing it. An example: simply lifting and moving this little laptop of mine, I definitely can feel it in the surgical region. So I'll have to concoct a different way of approaching entertaining myself. Any ideas?
But to the point at hand: I am now well-cleansed! I was scared I may shower too long, and cause some sort of wound/taping issue, but... so far, so good. It feels great to, in the horribly misquoted words of Radiohead, "get the stink off." I was able to, almost universally, use new product to achieve this goal: and here is my verdict on these side-notes. First, Herbal Essence shampoo/conditioner RULES. Axe bodywash also RULES (I returned to both after experimenting with Axe shampoo, which is crap, and Zest body wash which might be good if it wasn't so darned runny and thus, wasteful). I also tried the axe body scrubber thingie and well... I will reserve judgement for now, but attempt #1 was not heading down the right road. Anyway, love or hate, everything accomplished the goal of cleaning my personage, which is the main thing anyway, right?
There was one problem that I had failed to consider: proper drying of the incision site. I know all the technicalities of doing it, but the problem is because it is in the groin region, there are too many nooks and crannies and such to effectively "dab" dry. The option of choice ends up being, dab as much as possible without disturbing the injury followed up with a period of air dry. Then, apply the bandages. We'll see how successful this plan is.
I think what I am learning the most is just how many little adjustments need to be made when dealing with something like a surgery. Something as simple as, "how do I dry myself off correctly down there?" and "maybe I can't use my laptop for a while because I a) can't lift it b) can't stretch far enough to use it if I don't lift it closer c) can't sit for any real amount of time to use it at a desk. Curious. Also curious is how driving was not too bad, but rolling down the window was excruciating!
Well, that is all for now I suppose. I will hereby try to do even less today, and go about enjoying my return to cleanliness. In all truth, I wish the same for you all.
:D
But to the point at hand: I am now well-cleansed! I was scared I may shower too long, and cause some sort of wound/taping issue, but... so far, so good. It feels great to, in the horribly misquoted words of Radiohead, "get the stink off." I was able to, almost universally, use new product to achieve this goal: and here is my verdict on these side-notes. First, Herbal Essence shampoo/conditioner RULES. Axe bodywash also RULES (I returned to both after experimenting with Axe shampoo, which is crap, and Zest body wash which might be good if it wasn't so darned runny and thus, wasteful). I also tried the axe body scrubber thingie and well... I will reserve judgement for now, but attempt #1 was not heading down the right road. Anyway, love or hate, everything accomplished the goal of cleaning my personage, which is the main thing anyway, right?
There was one problem that I had failed to consider: proper drying of the incision site. I know all the technicalities of doing it, but the problem is because it is in the groin region, there are too many nooks and crannies and such to effectively "dab" dry. The option of choice ends up being, dab as much as possible without disturbing the injury followed up with a period of air dry. Then, apply the bandages. We'll see how successful this plan is.
I think what I am learning the most is just how many little adjustments need to be made when dealing with something like a surgery. Something as simple as, "how do I dry myself off correctly down there?" and "maybe I can't use my laptop for a while because I a) can't lift it b) can't stretch far enough to use it if I don't lift it closer c) can't sit for any real amount of time to use it at a desk. Curious. Also curious is how driving was not too bad, but rolling down the window was excruciating!
Well, that is all for now I suppose. I will hereby try to do even less today, and go about enjoying my return to cleanliness. In all truth, I wish the same for you all.
:D
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Post-surgery blogifyingness
Hello again! It's been ages. But I felt like, now that I will be off for a few weeks due to hernia surgery recovery, I ought to share some of my thoughts, insights and learnings from this reflective time.
So as it stands, I am in day 2 of post-surgery. From what I am told my recovery seems to be doing very well. After surgery, when I had to sit up, stand up, do the whole walking test thing, it seemed the nurse was massively surprised by what I could do so quickly. Here's where my brother questioned the legitimacy of such claims: He wonders if they always say stuff like that? I don't know... I've never had surgery before. :)
I do think that, with other stuff that had happened leading up to surgery time, that perhaps it is symptomatic of my pain-threshold. I am beginning to think maybe I have a pretty high one - not as big-time as some others I know, but probably above average. I wonder, is this a good thing, or is it bad? I suppose what I am getting at is, perhaps I need to take more seriously some minor hurts, while others might need to be on the floor, rolling around in agony before it can be taken as legitimate injury. Any thoughts on that?
Anyway... I have been pretty mobile already! I am making a conscious decision for today, at the least, to be as immobile as possible. I'll have to do a lot of conscious decision-making regarding how active I become, and how quickly I do things. I'm pretty much an all-or-nothing guy, so I'm going to have to err on the side of "nothing" for a while. Which is to say I will still get up here and there, just really minimize it.
So this week, there isn't a lot of plans until the weekend. This recovery period has allotted me some time to get out and travel, see some dear friends and such. I am SO excited to get to Vancouver next weekend! My dear cousin Mike and his wife Melanie just returned from their sabbatical in France, so it will be awesome to see them. Apparently, it is also a mutual friend's birthday/housewarming party weekend, so that'll be fun. I can't wait for the weekend, to see lots of great people and a whole bunch of great sights. Hernia recovery permitting, of course.
So as it stands, I am in day 2 of post-surgery. From what I am told my recovery seems to be doing very well. After surgery, when I had to sit up, stand up, do the whole walking test thing, it seemed the nurse was massively surprised by what I could do so quickly. Here's where my brother questioned the legitimacy of such claims: He wonders if they always say stuff like that? I don't know... I've never had surgery before. :)
I do think that, with other stuff that had happened leading up to surgery time, that perhaps it is symptomatic of my pain-threshold. I am beginning to think maybe I have a pretty high one - not as big-time as some others I know, but probably above average. I wonder, is this a good thing, or is it bad? I suppose what I am getting at is, perhaps I need to take more seriously some minor hurts, while others might need to be on the floor, rolling around in agony before it can be taken as legitimate injury. Any thoughts on that?
Anyway... I have been pretty mobile already! I am making a conscious decision for today, at the least, to be as immobile as possible. I'll have to do a lot of conscious decision-making regarding how active I become, and how quickly I do things. I'm pretty much an all-or-nothing guy, so I'm going to have to err on the side of "nothing" for a while. Which is to say I will still get up here and there, just really minimize it.
So this week, there isn't a lot of plans until the weekend. This recovery period has allotted me some time to get out and travel, see some dear friends and such. I am SO excited to get to Vancouver next weekend! My dear cousin Mike and his wife Melanie just returned from their sabbatical in France, so it will be awesome to see them. Apparently, it is also a mutual friend's birthday/housewarming party weekend, so that'll be fun. I can't wait for the weekend, to see lots of great people and a whole bunch of great sights. Hernia recovery permitting, of course.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)