Recovery

I thought it would be fun to share some of my experiences with the operation and aftermath. Now that I am home, it will start to get old pretty soon to hear how well I am doing, but for all of you who were not there, this is how I remember most of it.

 

Tuesday

For some reason more than a few people wanted to call me or see me “one last time” before the operation, because, hey you never know…. Never know what?! “Well, what if you don’t wake up from the anaesthetic?” WTH?..WHAT?! Well, thanks for putting that thought in my head, now I can worry about dying, much appreciated! 

Ehhm...., maybe next time?

Wednesday

Woke up nice and early (as always), no stress, but had the lingering sensation of “what if this is my last sunrise, etc..” Decided that all that fear stuff is not for me and got ready to go the clinic with Yumi. Arrived on time, got changed, picked my dinner (good advance planning guys!) and followed the doctor into the theatre. Last thing I remember him saying is, this will work within 1 minute. Might as well have been 1 second. Next thing I know I am awake. I kept my eyes closed and felt around under the blankets, but that creeped me out, so looked around and saw that I was in a room with orange walls with tubes sticking out of parts that had no tubes sticking out of them before and that there’s not really a hippo taking a nap on my lap, just a lot of pressure. Everybody was really nice to me and Yumi was there fairly soon to see that her BBQ cleaner was still in one piece. The physio wanted to see if I could be walking around by 16:00 but two near fainting spells later I was not going anywhere. All that changed by 20:00 when I was cruising the hallways with the nurse, my man bag of fluid bags. I did the Bellybuster shuffle for 2x25 meters in about 35 minutes, and was completely winded by then. Back to bed. Pffff.

 

 

 

Thursday

My Wednesday ended at 01:00 and my Thursday started at 03:00, who needs sleep anyway?! I read a great book “naked at work and other work related fears” and found out that laughing makes me cry and that I am a lucky devil to not feel ANY pain while that happens. Either those drugs were amazing, or I have the restorative capabilities of a starfish (yay, I could be superhero starfish man!). Early in the morning the nurses came to take the catheter out and that’s when I learnt that embarrassment is not stronger than pain, you just want the nurse to make it go away. Modesty? What modesty? Get your friends in here, take pictures for all I care, just GET.IT.OUT! The rest of the day I spent Facetiming, Skyping, going on walking dates with nurses, charming the socks off everyone and eating ice-cream. The reverse psychology of friends and family on me worked very well, I think they have never had a more well-behaved patient. I had enough energy left to make it to 20:30, do some physio work, eat some more and then give it a rest. I slept through the night almost completely

 

Could be worse, I could be Aquaman.....

 

Friday

I woke up at 5:00 and was so stoked about going home that sleeping was no longer an option. Took another shower, nurse came to take out the drains and that was not a fun experience, but not nearly as bad as I thought. Then the physio came and hurt me something fierce, stretching my skin back into place and then Yumi came to pick me up. I will take it as a good sign that all the nurses walked me to the car and made sure I was comfy. What a great experience. Getting home was equally great, with Yumi picking the most comfortable route and having everything at home ready to keep me comfortable and on the road to recovery. Extra bonus: our garage door got fixed super fancy and the heating works again right in time for the cold spell coming up. Finished the night on the couch with Yumi watching Black Sails before sleeping in my own bed and waking ready to take on the world after another good night’s sleep. (if the world can take it a bit slow for now, that would be great)

 

Awesomeness at 63%....

 

Thanks everyone for being so considerate, loving and supportive, it makes a big difference. I will do my best to recover like a good patient and be healthy (and awesome).