Which is to say my follow-up appointment with the surgeon is tomorrow. Hopefully news will be good, but I will deal with it whatever the news may be.
Today I sneezed several times, and they are close to being nothing more than just annoying regular sneezes now.
And I went for a walk and took some photos at the river. Here’s one of them.
For some reason I felt off yesterday. I was tired, maybe it was nothing more than that.
But then I slept surprisingly well. When I pull a shirt over my head today (to take it off, not because I have some “pulling shirts over my head” kink) I no longer do it slowly because the fabric feels weird going over my surgery zone. I can sneeze, and it only flares for a moment, and not much at that.
I can turn and stretch, and I don’t immediately get reminded I had surgery.
I’m healing. I am impatient, and I just want to be better, as I said yesterday, but I think there is an actual end in sight now.
Hopefully, the surgeon won’t tell me otherwise when I meet him in two days.
Here is a very nimble cat. I will be this cat soon.
I am tired of not feeling normal. I want to feel normal again, to sleep like I used to, to not feel sore if I turn a certain way.
That’s all.
I know it the recovery will be complete soon, I’m just cranky and impatient now. The heat is not helping.
I want to be this cat.
Today I went birding and the temperature rose from 26C in the morning to 32C in the afternoon. We ventured on a long loop around Campbell Valley Regional Park.
Good: A lot of the park is forested and provides nice shade.
Bad: all the other parts where the sun beats down on you mercilessly.
I felt by the end of the afternoon I had maybe miscalculated how ready I was for something so taxing. I’m OK as I type this, but tired and aware that I probably won’t sleep great again tonight.
And I also realize that unless something starts changing significantly in my rate of recovery, I may not sleep great for weeks to come. I don’t sleep terribly, but I never really feel rested. Somewhat surprisingly, I also never feel like I’m dragging through the day as a result. Why, I don’t know. But today was the closest I’ve come to wanting to just lay down in a nice shady spot and stay there for a while.
I did get a few nice bird shots, though (coming soon).
In the meantime, here are some of the trees that provided welcome shade:
Specifically, last night I found I could sleep OK if I laid on my back, with the covers pulled away from my chest, like if I was an Egyptian mummy, except not ancient, mummified and in a sarcophagus. On my side was still uncomfortable. The covers on my chest were uncomfortable. But on my back, like a mummy, was OK.
While my energy and general wellness continue to improve, sleep has been, by far, the most vexing part of my recovery. I don’t know if this is typical, abnormal or somewhere in-between. I suspect it’s pretty normal. After 22 days it’s also now pretty annoying.
At least in a few more days I should be able to roll onto the side that got cut up without risk of opening anything up.
I make this sound kind of terrible, but it’s not, it’s just what it is. I think writing about it helps me to manage the bother. Also knowing the surgery may have staved off something much worse down the line helps, too!
In the meantime, I took a walk to Sapperton Landing today to get some exercise in. I’m up to 103 intensity minutes for the week, woo. Next week I could theoretically hit the minimum, 150.
The weather was quite nice. Here are a few shots I took on my Galaxy S26.
Three weeks ago I would have been typing this from a hospital bed, pumped full of painkillers and oblivious of what was to come, existing in a weird daze, both aware and unaware, occasionally looking out the window to my left and noting the sky changing colour.
Today, 21 days later, I am feeling mostly normal.
Mostly.
The area of surgery is still sore, but every day now it feels…tighter. This is both good, because it means it’s healing, but also in a way bad because at certain points it’s made sleeping somewhat uncomfortable again.
The Big Stitch–the incision where the surgical instruments would have gone in–is starting to become noticeably less puffy, though it still feels weird. I could look up what it is I’m feeling (folded muscle, fat, etc.) on the internet, but those kinds of searches always seem to lead to a page saying IT’S PROBABLY BLACK DEATH. Plus, I see the surgeon in six days, I’ll just ask him then.
No cat again, instead this photo I took by the hospital lane way this afternoon:
Last night was an anomaly, my sleep was bad, due to stress, but not related to the surgery! And I think the watch made it sound worse than it was.
Regardless, yesterday was a slothful, stressful day and potato chips and pie were involved. The pie was yummy, though.
Today, I went for a long walk in pleasant late spring weather and as I type this mid-afternoon, I’m around 13.3 km total, which is already more than I’ve walked any day since going under the knife. And the more I walked, the less I felt the little aches and soreness from the surgery and incisions.
I begin to entertain the idea that I actually could try running in a week. We’ll see.
I also successfully stopped two sneezes by plugging my nose. Sneezing probably still hurts, so I’ll keep doing this.
In all, today is probably the first day that has a real whiff of normality to it. Things still aren’t normal, but it’s starting to feel tangible, possible. Yay for that.
No cat today. Instead, here’s a wild hydrant I saw on my walk:
Three things:
To celebrate my intensity minutes, here is an intense cat:
Also, dreaded sneezes.
Last night the itchiness/numbness eased enough that I had a relatively normal sleep again after the one-night hiccup. Hooray for that.
The reason for the change, at least in my trying-to-be-logical mind, is: healing! The surgery area is reaching a point where everything is starting to stitch back together, and this is making the area feel tight. Not in a painful way or anything, but it feels different, less surgery-y and more like sore muscles?
Dreaded sneezes: Sneezing still lights up the whole area like an atomic bomb and I hate sneezing. I sneezed once today, that was enough. I should add the discomfort from the sneeze fades after a few seconds. The knowledge that a sneeze is imminent is, in a way, worse than the actual sneeze itself.
I have an appointment now with my surgeon for a follow-up on June 18th, just one day short of four weeks post-surgery and when I may potentially be on the cusp of full recovery.
In that spirit, here is an energetic cat, plus a potato:
And yes, I plan on doing daily updates post-surgery until I feel what passes for “normal.” I’m actually hoping this will be soon!
But it will not be today.
Three things:
No cat today, but enjoy my right arm, post-CT scan:
Good news: My Garmin watch gave me a decent sleep score last night (76/100) and all stats were rated fair or better. More importantly, I felt I slept better.
Not as good news but also not bad news, really: Today I started feeling off and at first it was hard to determine why. Fatigued from yesterday’s birding? Maybe? But as the day went on, I realized that it’s probably just my body continuing to heal and the unexpected consequences of it. After the surgery, an area of my chest has been numb, due likely to some never damage, but in the past few days the healing has progressed to where some of these areas are starting to get more sensation back. Combine this with moving almost completely off all pain relief, and I am suddenly feeling more pain again. Over the next few days I’ll moderately increase the Tylenol, mostly to help with sleep.
Today’s cat is fabulous.
Not the itch to do things I can’t quite do yet (like running), but an actual physical itch. Specifically, my chest is starting to get itchy. At first, I thought it might be the chest hair growing back on the left side that was shaved, but the itchiness of that already came and went–though it could be back. I don’t shave my chest often enough to know how this goes.
Rather, this just seems to be the chest generally feeling itchy and I think it’s a sign of recovery, actually, with sensation returning in areas that were numb following the surgery. It also seems to kick in more when I’m moving about.
Today, I went birding and didn’t feel particularly limited, except when holding my camera up for an extended period with the telephoto lens. Then I’d get a little tired. Overall, it was fine.
I also had more improved sleep last night after a bit of a tactical error–I hadn’t taken into account the removal of the sutures leading to some temporary discomfort in bed, so it was back to DRUGS for one more night (one Extra-Strength Tylenol, plus the heated beanbag).
In all, a good evening and day as I officially pass the halfway mark of the shorter full recovery window (four weeks)1The longer one is six weeks. I like to think I’m not going to require six weeks..
