Post Surgery Week 2: Graduation Day

Thursday, June 6

The last week has been a haze of a monotonous routine.  Three rounds of PT exercises every day, TED stocking ordeal, breakfast and morning meds, lunch and afternoon meds, dinner and evening meds, and very short walks as many times as Nurse Nudge (Ed) allows me.  And - always - elevate and ice.  I can’t recall ever spending so much time simply lying flat on my back, but it’s what is prescribed, so there you have it.  I’ve finished just two books (and about halfway through a third) because, well, when you’re flat on your back and taking narcotics, it’s hard to stay awake.

The monotony has been broken up by the thrice weekly PT appointments, something I dread and look forward to in equal amounts.  The dread is because I know they’ll hurt;  the anticipation is because I know they help.  Gestapo Lindsey keeps the pressure up without making it miserable.  In fact, yesterday she allowed me to get on a stationary bike!  Yay!  Who cares that I couldn’t make a full rotation?  There’s something to be said for getting about 2/3rds of a rotation in, and then going backwards for the same amount.  The full thing will come in time.

Visitors and calls and cards and emails have helped immensely.  Rick and Leslie came over on Saturday afternoon with my favorite dark chocolate, plus some of the most decadent chocolate chip cookies ever.  We managed to go to our favorite coffee house, Keith’s, on Sunday morning.  We love the live music featured on Sunday mornings - mostly rock and folk and pop - so we usually stay for the full enchilada (two hours), but since I was about ready to fall off my chair after twenty minutes, we just managed a half hour.  And still:  wonderful.  

Sam and Raffael came over Sunday afternoon, bearing the perfect book gift:  “The Feather Thief”.  Seven-year-old Sam’s contribution was to fill all the bird feeders in our front yard.  His contribution to the conversation went something like this.  Ed was just saying “and Judy is on a lot of drugs”, a sentence that Sam ended with “and also, did you know that the Rockies have won seven games in a row?!?”  Later, after Sam and Raffael left for a play date, Kathy, accompanied by Hank, one of the best dogs in the world, brought over a yummy dinner.  Not to be outdone, a few days later Rome brought over another yummy dinner.  I may not be getting much exercise, but I’m definitely getting lots of good vittles.

All in all, it feels like I’m making progress until I wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. each day in immense pain.  These are the times when I bottom out.  The pain is next to unbearable, but somehow I get through it.  I have taken to getting up then and taking yet more Tramadol.  The PA for Dr. Miner - Heather - has offered to give me a stronger narcotic, but warns that then my mornings will be worse.  Sigh.  She says that this too will pass.

And that leads me to the big news of the day:  today was graduation day!  My two-week post-surgery appointment, with Heather.  Gone is the tape covering the incision, replaced with just a few steri-strips.  (Rhonda, one of Dr. Miner’s assistants, says that the remaining Betadine will only take another decade or two to wear off.)  Heather gives me license to ditch the TED stockings.  Hallelujah!!!  And even better yet, she clears me to walk without the walker or crutches or cane, and she tells me I can walk as much as I want, as long as I increase at a reasonable rate.  My range of motion is already near my six week goal:  extension goal is zero degrees, and yesterday in PT, Lindsey helped me get to four degrees.  And flexion?  the six week goal is 120 degrees, and yesterday I was at 118.  I still have tons of work to do, but it sure is good to see progress.

So even though I woke up in tears because the pain was so miserable last night, it’s really a celebration day.  You might even call it a bonus day.