Time for an update!
The visiting nurse made her final visit today. I am officially able to be on my own. I have been assured no matter how I feel, I’m doing really well.
All four of my incisions itch. The big one down my chest, the medium one on my shoulder and the two smaller ones on my left leg. I dare not scratch but oh, how badly I wish to claw at those incisions!
My chest still hurts. I can’t pick anything up. It’s an interesting cocktail of sensation. My guts are in knots because it appears I have picked up a case of The Stomach Virus That’s Going Around. Garry has it, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that I have it too, but the timing could be better. Keeps things lively in an unpleasant way.
It turns out what’s been making the chest pain worse is my computer. Not the computer per se. It’s the picking up and putting back that’s making my sternum hurt, so now I have to ask Garry to hand the computer to me, then put it back when I’m done.
It’s almost as bad as needing help to go to the toilet. Okay, not quite that bad, but bad enough. And this is my ultrabook, the lightest computer I own. Not counting the tablet which is under-powered and runs Windows 8, a hateful operating system that renders it even more useless than it would otherwise be. Seriously useless.
But — I digress.
I am getting better. I can’t see the changes from one day to the next, but I can see the differences from week to week. I’m a lot stronger than I was, but it’s infuriatingly slow.
Impatience has always been my nemesis. This time I have to find patience. I can’t let myself get stressed, can’t push the process. It takes time for bones to heal, for a new valve to settle down, for a reshaped ventricle to work properly. It’s only three weeks since I came home from the hospital. It will be at least another seven before I can haul a laptop without help.
I’d heave a sigh, but it would hurt.
Share this:
Categories: #Health, Humor, Medical, UPDATE!
JUST ONE OF THOSE CRAZY THINGS – WHEN THE BONE DOESN’T KNIT 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Patience is a virtue and blah blah blah ….. I hate being confined by ANYTHING and I imagine the fact that it is your health just adds to the frustration but do take care of yourself even if it is annoying.
LikeLike
Sometimes I wonder — often, really — if I’m ever going to feel normal again. Ever is a long time, though, so I have to have faith.
LikeLike
It may be slow progress, but it is progress nonetheless. Keep going.
LikeLike
Thanks Rich. Not having a choice somehow puts it all in perspective 🙂
LikeLike
True.
LikeLike
thanks for the update – my thoughts are with you as you heal up – and I wish we could “push the process” of healing– 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks!. Maybe this is the lesson in patience I’ve needed. Sure is a hard way to learn!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on teenstodayproject.
LikeLike
Thanks for the reblog!
LikeLike
you’re welcome!
LikeLike
Get well soon!
(Cribbing is a good sign …)
🙂
LikeLike
Thanks 🙂 I’m working on it!
LikeLike
You sound like you are doing good real good. Hang in there the ned few weeks you’ll just keep getting stronger. Be gentle with yourself.
LikeLike
It’s a long road, but I have my traveling shoes on 🙂
LikeLike
Your impatience strikes me as a good thing, or at least a mixed blessing. Better to struggle forward and even complain than to sit and wait for things to get better. (I’m the patient type who sucks it up–also a mixed blessing.)
LikeLike
Right now, for this particular recovery, I’d be better off sucking it up. It’s going to be a long, slow process and trying to make it go faster is more likely to slow me down than speed me up. Sometimes, there’s really nothing to do be let the healing commence.
LikeLike
Can I commiserate with you on getting a stomach virus? I woke up out of having a C-section with pneumonia so I understand the frustration of not needing a bug on top of everything else.
Also, patience is not one of the virtues I have either, so I hear you on that too.You want to get better NOW dammit! But your body ain’t listening. Would be great if it did, wouldn’t it?
Sending you good vibes from all the way over here.
LikeLike
It’s the “insult to injury” factor. You’ve already got problems. Seems pretty unjust to get yet another.
Thanks for the good vibes. Sure can use some!
LikeLike
My wife had open heart surgery in 2006 with a mitral valve replacement, tricuspid valve repair and the the installation of a pace maker. The full healing process for her took six months. So be aware that it takes considerable time to completely heal. You are and will continue to feel better every day.
LikeLike
Thank you. I needed to hear that. People keep telling me I’ll be find quick as a wink. And I don’t feel fine or even close to fine. I can hobble around the house, get up and down the stairs (slowly), take a shower and dress myself … I can sort of snap a picture, but I admit my heart’s not in it (no pun intended). I have to keep remembering to be patient. Thank you very much for telling me something I can believe!!
LikeLike
I’m just happy that you’re well enough to grouse a bit; that’s always a good sign, right? Meanwhile, I wish you peace, both digestive and spiritual!
LikeLike
The impatience is also a sign I’m getting better. I’ve passed the miserable-silently-weeping-lump-in-the-corner stage and am now the annoying-complaining-lump-in-the-corner. Progress!!
LikeLike
Wishing you patience but also a speedy recovery. In the meantime, I look forward to more of your thoughts on this blog.
LikeLike
Fortunately, thinking is the one thing I still CAN do. Not good for much else, but at least the brain works 🙂
LikeLike
It is so lovely to have you back on here, Marilyn, and to see the short pieces becoming ever-longer! I think you have made remarkable progress in three short weeks – am most impressed! – but I am concerned about the withdrawal of medical support so soon.
I can totally understand the impatience.
Can’t speak for you (obviously!) but, for me, being told to keep calm and not get stressed is an immediate stressor in itself. That might just be because I am a contrary kinda gal! But the words, ‘Calm down!’ almost invariably bring out not just my Inner Fishwife, but the Inner Merewife and Homicidal Meat-Cleaver-wielding Wife as well. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you!
Hope you are soon free of what a colleague so picturesquely once called The God Be Joyfuls! Ah! he was a master of macabre irony, that man! The colleague, I mean, not God! xxx
LikeLike
1) The God-Be-Joyfuls (GREAT name!) make me start looking for that cleaver!
2) Don’t tell ME to to calm down grrrrr 😦
3) The nurses weren’t doing anything much anyhow except checking my blood pressure and cheering me on. Hopefully soon I’ll have at least a doctor or two. That would be helpful!
LikeLike