On the Seventh Day, Even God Rested

Seven days post-operative. Yesterday was a hastily-arranged visit with Dr. Mokris' assistant, TJ, just to look at the incision and talk about some other issues like fever and GI upset. It was good to have a professional look at the incision and say it appears fine, because to me it's swollen and hot and very uncomfortable. There's a lot of upside to leaving the hospital as soon as you possibly can, but there are downsides, as well, including the fact that you're suddenly in charge of deciding when/if the train has gone off the tracks.

Turns out what's swollen and hot and uncomfortable to me is pretty normal to someone who sees this every day - so that was a good report.

Pain continues, but it's not really horrible. It's bad, of course, far worse than just the bad hip I had before this... but nothing that in and of itself should be shocking. My insides hurt more than anything. Imagine a canvas bag containing your internal organs, just about everything you've consumed for the past several days, and several hundred glass shards... then lace it up real tight. That's how I feel from the neck down. Oh, heat to 101 degrees and stir constantly.

Again, though, TJ says this is normal and I do believe him. He also helped me adjust my expectations for this relatively new, minimally-invasive surgical technique. "The incision is a lot smaller than it used to be," he said, "but we still do an awful lot of banging around in there."

Indeed. My leg looks like I've been in a motorcycle accident... bruising is nasty from the hip to the knee. Being on blood-thinners leads to more bruising, which helps fuel the fever, by the way. But those meds are necessary to prevent clots. Again, I'm lucky this is an era where medicine can do more than ever to prevent that terrible side effect.

Sleep was OK last night... I'm just kind of tired of being propped up in bed with a mass of pillows, trying to be cheerful. But I'll keep at it! I'm trying to stretch out the time between pain pills, trying to eat and drink healthy and helpful stuff.... doing all the exercises the Physical Therapists have instructed.

I've been thinking lately about people stuck in bed forever... or for more than a week or two. Maybe I'll write more about that when I'm feeling better, but this experience has certainly given me another advanced course in empathy. Anyone with mobility issues... I've been thinking about those folks a lot lately. My sentence is brief. I'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Living this way 24/7 takes courage and support that I can't quite get my mind around. I hope this experience makes me a better person, somehow better to understand and appreciate people in tougher spots than mine.

My goal for today is just to take it easy. I don't want to set any records, don't need to take the world by storm, don't even care if I make my way outside. I just want to rest, to get feeling stronger and better as soon as I can.