More on Recovery

 One thing they reiterate after major surgeries is getting up to walk. After abdominal surgeries, this can be a special kind of torture because it’s impossible to not irritate that sensitive healing area even a little bit unless you happen to have one of those slow auto-standing chairs my grandma had (and if you’re not wealthy, you probably don’t). Gallbladder recovery didn’t need the months that the ovary surgery did; it’s only been a little over two weeks and I’m getting around mostly normal at this point. I stuck to forcing myself to walk and avoiding the nightmare of blood clots but the minute I heard that’s yet another surgery and DAYS in a hospital, pushing my tender abdominals seemed like the much more desirable level of torture.

All the same, with the stomach flu preceding my surgery, I feel like my stamina and cardio have suffered greatly. I wanted to get back to crafting and computer work ASAP but instead I found it physically hard to be able to do as sitting up and sitting still have proved difficult. So today, I gave up on the notion of that and… did housework. Mind you, I’m still weeks from being okay to do any heavy lifting, but I vacuumed and mopped (sorely needed without my twice weekly routine not happening for a month; that’s to do both as vacuuming was still something I could do for the past week as long as it was short). It wasn’t super thorough, as I wouldn’t be able to completely clear off the floors, but I did get to focus on high traffic areas and the moderately accessible areas I could shove around with my feet. Some hangers I ordered came (I had 8 or so shirts that sat on top of the hangers in my closet without hangers and a bunch of those cheap clothing store ones I wanted to swap out) so I did a little closet cleaning too. I was dripping sweat like I had a rain cloud following me around and I can feel the ache of the efforts but I also feel like this was a valuable step in being able to rebuild stamina. And I’m going to make it a point to focus on getting moderate to vigorous exercise a few times a week to rebuild my stamina again.

I’m also going to attempt to test my stamina with sedentary but creative and critical thinking elements that I sorely miss too. 

The weight loss slowed significantly: only down a pound in the past month, but it’s somehow relieving that my diet went a little off the tracks and I didn’t see weight gain. I also know from experience that surgical recovery is a terrible time for dieting. People assume because they aren’t that hungry or have dietary limits that that’s a good time for it but no, you NEED those nutrients because your immune system is working overtime to heal the substantial invasion and changes. Trying to keep up an ambitious weight loss plan during not only slows healing but could increase risk of complications. 

So please do your already struggling body a favor and don’t underfeed or overwork your body. This also means that even if you’re feeling great, don’t go against the doctor’s advice to wait for those weeks or months before you’re cleared for tasks and attempt to do more than recommended. If you need examples, things like hernias, fissures, painful keloid scarring, muscle strains, blockages (in arteries, ducts, etc) and infections. These are things your body might not even give you any indication they’re happening until it becomes another major issue. That could require yet another reparative surgery. Keep in mind, scarring vastly limits their ability to avoid surgical complications and some doctors even refuse to attempt anything but emergency surgery if the scarring and fusing and issues are too complex, so even a ‘simple’ repair can cause problems for surgeries you might need later.

I’ve started to get back into my dieting again, started the day with cream of wheat and had a chicken and green bean lunch. Tonight my dad is making burgers with the new indoor grill my sister got him for Father’s Day but if that’s a little carb-y (my dad’s cooking usually is) I could actually use that today with the workout that housework gave me. I’m not ready for going back to ambitious food prep; my dad does not air condition this sweltering house and trying to spend hours prepping would wipe me out, if not cause me to pass out altogether, but I did get bagged salads to last the week. Cream of Wheat, oatmeal or egg on toast for breakfast, dinners I’ll just have to be flexible but mindful with until I can structure that again. The salads can land around lunch or dinner too.

I may need a couple weeks or even a couple of months to slide back into the balance of creative and physical and get back on track but honestly, it just feels really good to be semi-normal. Stomach flus always make me wish I was dead and this one left me drained for days instead of the 24 or so hours I could heal from them when I was healthier. No idea where I even got it but my nephew got sick too so it’s super likely we both got it at his graduation. Go figure the one time I’m around people, they can’t keep their germs to themselves. All the same, I’m glad my recovery hasn’t gone south so far and that I’m on track again. I wouldn’t at all call this a square one since I didn’t gain weight, my blood pressure is actually normal again and in a few months, my primary is doing labs to make sure the liver enzymes and cholesterol have stabilized since.

Dare I hope this means I can move on and get fit and healthy again. I had been really making progress in my late 30s before it all took a turn for the worse and set me back so much worse. Still, I’ve held on to hope and believed in myself and the doctors I worked with and have found my way through quite a bit. Of course, I’m cautiously optimistic but I’m in my 40s and that can be a dirty transition for a lot of us so I’m doing what I can to prepare for more obstacles but also doing what I can to avoid them. Genetics, my friends, isn’t something you can run from. I’ve had more than one dear friend die in their 40s suddenly. One from a sudden heart attack on his return from an out of town job, one who was otherwise very healthy then died suddenly in her sleep from a pulmonary embolism. We don’t get to prevent everything but at least when I make the effort to try, I simply KNOW I did all that I could with what I knew. Guilt is not something you want to bring into an already troubling situation. I don’t think advanced old age was ever a goal for me, but I would like to hope that going forward, the time I do have might have some quality of life worth sticking around for. I have done a lot of suffering and there may be more but I will do my best to eke out every bit of enjoyment I can and never belabor myself unduly. One life, nothing else, so precious.