FINALLY! Something interesting to write about, part 3

This is part three. Please go back and read part one and part two before proceeding to achieve full congnitive understanding.

Ah sweet recovery! Nothing but ice cream, unlimited television, lots of sleeping, and all in pajamas or even less! Sure, its not all that glamorous. I haven't had ice cream in about two weeks and shudder to think what would happen if I tried. I have spent a lot of time in significantly less than pajamas and I have been watching more than my share of television plus sleeping a lot as well. But, there have been problems.

Of course, spending your time in a hospital is not fun. Constant interruptions during the day and in the night to draw blood, take blood pressure, what-have-you. The IV tube in your arm is always getting in the way. And then, there is the PainBall.

What's that, you ask? Well, I didn't know. When I awoke in my recovery room I had two little tubes protruding from my abdomen, leading into a little black fanny-pack thing. According to Tegan, who was told by the surgeon, this thing constantly leaks numbing medication into the wound for several days. It must be cutting edge technology because for the first day every nurse and orderly that woke me up exclaimed in confusion whenever they saw it. It didn't instill lots of confidence in my mind.

Plus, whenever I had to get up--I was told to walk three times a day at least--I had to keep up with this thing as well as the IV stand. It was challenging and annoying.

Tegan spent two nights in the hospital with me (Tuesday and Wednesday). Big, huge thanks go to Marsha who came over to the house Tuesday night in the swirl of decisions and confusions to watch our girls. She kept up with our two girls plus her two boys and (I doubt it) got some sleep. Tegan stayed with me and woke up early to get the girls ready for school the next morning on Wednesday. My parents dropped everything and drove up from Georgia, arriving on Wednesday, to help Tegan with the girls as well.

I stayed in bed a lot, didn't eat any food of any sort until Thursday afternoon. I was restricted to clear foods, gelatin, broth, all kinds of yummy stuff. I am still sticking to that mostly, because my body just isn't ready to handle more than that yet (as I discovered to my dismay this past Sunday night and yesterday morning).

Some things that had to be reevaluated due to my sudden surgery and general disappearance:

1. My NCAA tournament office pool was quickly reevaluated and some people were left out because we had to go to paper brackets at the last minute. But, many people did participate and Flip is doing a great job of keeping up with things in my absence.

2. I had to forgo the company bowling outing that was scheduled for last Friday. I hear from Shirtless that it went very well and he is the proud owner of the most awesome bowling trophy ever! Way to go S!

3. The upcoming trip to San Francisco to celebrate our 10th anniversary will have to be postponed. I will be (according to the doctors) fully recovered, but I don't know how ready I will be to walk a lot in SF, eat seafood, or generally enjoy the trip like the two of us should. So, we are canceling reservations, trying to get money back with our sob-story, and trying to decide when we can find another time this year to reschedule. A major disappointment, but this is one experience that we won't let slip through our fingers.

My faithful office friends came to visit me while in the hospital. I got to celebrate the release of our project files with the ritual gong-banging. If I had been feeling stronger I might have take out my frustrations on the accursed gong, but it was good to know that the project is wrapping up well. Other friends brought me a wonderful assortment of unexpected gifts that really cheered me up on my next-to-last day in the hospital--a LotR Frodo action figure, a DVD of Roadhouse, and a nice Spiderman poster autographed by Tobey himself. I am surprised that I didn't swoon from weakness.

So, what's next? The doctor told me not to not to lift anything heavy for a week and I should also stay away from work for about a week as well. I got out of the hospital last Friday and have been doing pretty well. I can move around fairly well and haven't taken any pain reliever stronger than ibuprofen so far. But I did try to eat regular foods a bit too fast and paid for it on Sunday/Monday. I had even planned on returning to work for a few hours yesterday before my stomach and everything told me to take it a bit easier.

So, right now I am trying to finish our tax report for 2004. After that there is laundry and other stuff to do. I have a bit of pain when I bend and twist, and my scar is certainly beautiful to admire. I return to the doctor on Monday to have the staples removed and I don't want to think about that very much.

Right now I am trying to focus on eating the right kinds of bland foods and looking forward to my first cheeseburger and doughnut.

I hope everyone out there is doing well.