Recovery
I hate sitting still. Like, really, seriously, deeply hate doing so. When I am teaching, I am always on the move. When I am on the phone, I walk around the house. Even when I am asleep, I tend to move around, tossing and turning while cheerfully snoozing and hoping I'm not hitting my lovely wife.
My desire to be constantly moving is probably a big reason why the past five days have been so hard for me. As (hopefully) you all know, I had a laparoscopic varicocelectomy on the left side done last Wednesday afternoon. (By the way, I love how the name of that procedure just rolls off the tongue. Before surgery, the nurse asked me if I knew what I was there for and I gave the full name. She seemed slightly surprised. Anyone who knows me, though, will know that remember things like this is just part of who I am.)
The surgery involved having three small incisions made in my abdomen. One through the navel for the laparoscope and then one on each side, a few inches away from the central incision, for the tools to be placed. (Gretch only had two incisions for her laparoscopy, incidentally.) This meant that walking and bending were pretty much out of the question for the next several days.
I spent the first twenty-four hours or so lying on the couch while waiting for the anesthesia to wear off. I slept through several classic episodes of Doctor Who while either Gretch or our friend Mike kept an eye on me. Because of the drugs, it didn't bother me much that I wasn't moving around much.
Day two was spent much like day one: lying on the couch or on the bed, sitting up occasionally, watching Doctor Who and pushing pain meds as directed so that I could recover and heal. I got up to go to the bathroom, but Gretch essentially forbade me from doing much else moving. By the end of day two, I was starting to get a bit stir-crazy, but since moving was painful, I had to deal with it.
Day three is when my desire to move around really got going. Remember, I hate sitting still! Gretch chastised me every time I stood up and lectured me about moving around too much. I convinced her that I was fit enough to walk to the mailbox and back, but that was all I could do. Day four (yesterday) was even more difficult. I felt much better and I really wanted to get off the dang couch. I went to the mailbox to put some letters that needed to be sent out, then later to get the mail. I have been decreasing the frequency of my pain meds (once every six hours instead of every four when I am awake), and I have been trying to walk around the house some. But I still have to try to stay in one place. I can spend most of my time sitting up, at least, which is an improvement over lying on my back for hours on end. Actually, it is easier to stand upright that to sit, but I need to get my abdomen used to a sitting position again.
We are now on day five and my biggest concern is that I make the classic rookie mistake of thinking I'm all better and do too much. (Insert a meaningful look at my dad who did just this not too terribly long ago.) I feel better and I don't want to spend the day lying on the couch. But I am going to push past my urge to get up and move around because I need to fully recover! I'll keep taking my pain meds as needed and as directed so that my body does not get stressed and I can actually heal.
Tomorrow will be the true test, though. Gretch and I have an annual tradition of going to the Arthur Cheese Festival and I don't want to miss out this year. But if I feel like it is too much, I will sacrifice our tradition so that I can get back to work on Tuesday. Besides, I miss my class and I want to see what all happened while I was gone for three days!
Thanks, once again, for all the warm wishes, food, and prayers on our behalf!
My desire to be constantly moving is probably a big reason why the past five days have been so hard for me. As (hopefully) you all know, I had a laparoscopic varicocelectomy on the left side done last Wednesday afternoon. (By the way, I love how the name of that procedure just rolls off the tongue. Before surgery, the nurse asked me if I knew what I was there for and I gave the full name. She seemed slightly surprised. Anyone who knows me, though, will know that remember things like this is just part of who I am.)
The surgery involved having three small incisions made in my abdomen. One through the navel for the laparoscope and then one on each side, a few inches away from the central incision, for the tools to be placed. (Gretch only had two incisions for her laparoscopy, incidentally.) This meant that walking and bending were pretty much out of the question for the next several days.
I spent the first twenty-four hours or so lying on the couch while waiting for the anesthesia to wear off. I slept through several classic episodes of Doctor Who while either Gretch or our friend Mike kept an eye on me. Because of the drugs, it didn't bother me much that I wasn't moving around much.
Day two was spent much like day one: lying on the couch or on the bed, sitting up occasionally, watching Doctor Who and pushing pain meds as directed so that I could recover and heal. I got up to go to the bathroom, but Gretch essentially forbade me from doing much else moving. By the end of day two, I was starting to get a bit stir-crazy, but since moving was painful, I had to deal with it.
Day three is when my desire to move around really got going. Remember, I hate sitting still! Gretch chastised me every time I stood up and lectured me about moving around too much. I convinced her that I was fit enough to walk to the mailbox and back, but that was all I could do. Day four (yesterday) was even more difficult. I felt much better and I really wanted to get off the dang couch. I went to the mailbox to put some letters that needed to be sent out, then later to get the mail. I have been decreasing the frequency of my pain meds (once every six hours instead of every four when I am awake), and I have been trying to walk around the house some. But I still have to try to stay in one place. I can spend most of my time sitting up, at least, which is an improvement over lying on my back for hours on end. Actually, it is easier to stand upright that to sit, but I need to get my abdomen used to a sitting position again.
We are now on day five and my biggest concern is that I make the classic rookie mistake of thinking I'm all better and do too much. (Insert a meaningful look at my dad who did just this not too terribly long ago.) I feel better and I don't want to spend the day lying on the couch. But I am going to push past my urge to get up and move around because I need to fully recover! I'll keep taking my pain meds as needed and as directed so that my body does not get stressed and I can actually heal.
Tomorrow will be the true test, though. Gretch and I have an annual tradition of going to the Arthur Cheese Festival and I don't want to miss out this year. But if I feel like it is too much, I will sacrifice our tradition so that I can get back to work on Tuesday. Besides, I miss my class and I want to see what all happened while I was gone for three days!
Thanks, once again, for all the warm wishes, food, and prayers on our behalf!
Comments