Keeping it Real

Just six hours or so after the shower milestone, I'm in a bit of a slump. The fever is back and I'm pretty sore. I tried to stretch out the time between pain meds - plus I've worked it pretty hard today - trying to impress the Physical Therapist with my Olympic-class crutch work, doing all the exercises I had been doing before, plus the ones she showed me today. Well, what a shock that I've had a bit of a setback.

These are the times to remember the up-ticks in your progress. Maybe even keep a diary so when you're down you can remember when you were up. It's really silly of me to have been thinking I was a few gimpy steps away from being back to normal this soon (just two days) after surgery. The hospital discharge papers said "out of work four to six weeks." Maybe it was six to eight weeks - I'm too sore and fevery to go look! Anyway, I was thinking I'd make it in for to six days. So I've gotten a bite of the reality sandwich - I'm not going to let it get me down. I've been through a post-illness recovery before, many years ago, and I should expect the ups and downs. Lesson learned.

If you're heading toward a hip replacement or a surgery of any kind, I think it is important to be realistic. I kind of let today's high-points go to my head for a few hours. The pain and the fever have reminded me otherwise. That's OK. In some respects, I can control a few things along this journey, but in others I'm just along for the ride. As we used to say when I was in the TV business and the ratings would come out, "Don't get too high on the highs - and don't get too low on the lows." Keep your head on straight, keep smiling. There are a lot of snake-oil salesmen out there peddling postive attitude stuff, but keeping the right mindset is important. Let's see if I can practice what I preach through the rest of his evening, through more pain and fever!