Journal - Recovery

Well, the days since my surgery have passed by in a blur so I hope I can remember all the pertinent details.

The day after surgery, Wednesday the 12th, I woke up pretty early, about 6 or 6:30. You’d think I would have slept in. Well they had given me a pretty strong pain killer, one that I’ve used before for painful eye infections, and it has an odd effect on me. They make me very drowsy but at the same time I don’t really sleep very well. So anyway I got up early and ate a pop-tart, which settled on my stomach pretty well after the nausea of the previous day. I messed around at the computer for a couple of hours and then was ready to go back to bed. I slept for two hours, got up for two hours, then back to bed for two more hours. Other than that I don’t really remember much about that day. Joni ran to Kearney to pick up some eye drops that I needed for my left eye and I got those started.

Thursday was uneventful as far as I can remember. My stomach was getting back to normal but I was still kind of drowsy and listless from the pain pills. I think that was the last day I needed any pills though, it wasn’t hurting much. I managed a shower but couldn’t put my head under since I was still bandaged up.

Friday it was back to Omaha for my follow-up appointment with Dr. Feilmeier. He removed the bandage from my eye, which felt really good. It was a tight pressure bandage with a thing wrapped clear around my head to help hold it in place. He took a quick look and said everything looked as it should. It was a quick visit and we were on our way home. I was supposed to call my boss and let her know when I might be returning to work but I didn’t. I was still undecided as to what to do about that. The doctor said I could go back as soon as I felt up to it and I really didn’t know when that might be. That evening I showered and was able to wash my face and hair. That felt pretty good too.

Saturday and Sunday were bad days. I felt really depressed and just didn’t want to do anything. I tried working on a couple of audiobook reviews I needed to do but that didn’t go well. I watched parts of a couple of football games on Sunday but neither one was very interesting. It was just a bad couple of days. I think I spent most of those days playing a game on the computer since that was the only thing I could find that would occupy my mind for a while. I put on the Sunday night football game and that was a good one; a pretty exciting game. I started feeling kind of normal again during that.

By Monday I was feeling better but I don’t really remember what I did that day. Oh, I finally called my boss and told her I would try a short day on Thursday. I told her I couldn’t work Friday because I had to see the doctor again but if Thursday went okay and the doctor didn’t see any problems on Friday then I would resume a normal schedule on Saturday.

On Tuesday the 25th I woke up feeling really good and I had a pretty productive day. Joni and I went to Kearney and did some final Christmas shopping. After we got home I finished those two book reviews I had been working on and wrapped some Christmas presents. We have a couple of windows that leak pretty bad in the winter so I got those washed up and taped up the seams like we always do in the winter.

Wednesday was even better. This was the day we were supposed to get our big blizzard. I woke up that morning with an itch to clean house. We made a quick trip into Kearney to pick up a few cleaning supplies. I think we got back home at about 11:30 and the snow was just beginning to fall in earnest. We had picked up lunch in Kearney and brought it home so after we ate I started working. I washed dishes and straightened up the kitchen and then vacuumed. After that I broke out the Clorox wipes we had picked up in Kearney and disinfected the house. We’ve had an unusual amount of colds and sickness so far this season so I really wanted to try and stem those a bit. I wiped doorknobs and light switches and faucets and handles and knobs and buttons and surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom. It felt good to do that. I think a cleaning ritual like that can wipe away sickness from your mind as much as from your house. All that time it was snowing like crazy and school had let out so Adam was home early. By Wednesday evening I was already having second thoughts about going back to work the next day and had all but decided that in the morning I would just call in.

Thursday morning there was a lot of snow on the ground but I saw that the plows had already cleared the roads so I figured I didn’t have a very good excuse to stay home. Getting out of the driveway was a little rough, but from there on it was okay. The parking lot at Walmart was a real mess as I had supposed it would be and it was a hard day. Lugging those shopping carts around is hard enough, but dragging them through the snow is much worse. The cart machine we use can normally push 20 carts at a time, but in the snowy mess we were only getting 6 or 7 on each trip. Even then it kept getting stuck and I would have to pull and pull on it to keep it going. In the meantime, every time I managed to get some carts out of one of the racks in the parking lot I was scooping out the snow and chipping the ice away to make the next trip a little easier. Luckily it was a relatively slow day or we wouldn’t have had enough shopping carts. All of the reserves sit outside and were buried in snow. I worked from 10am to 3pm that day and I was definitely ready to go home. I’m glad I went though because one guy called in leaving only three of us. With three we could get by on a normal weekday, but it was such slow work in the snow we were having a hard time keeping up.

Which brings us to today, Friday. I saw Dr. Feilmeier at 11am this morning and he said everything looked fine and we made an appointment for one month. On the eye chart today I breezed right on down to the 20/20 line with no trouble and got 2 out of 5 letters on 20/15. Oh, we had called ahead of time to make sure Dr. Feilmeier made the trip from Omaha and obviously he did. He said the interstate between York and Grand Island was very bad and traffic was crawling though at 15 or 20 mph. I had noticed on Thursday when I went to work that the interstate was closed, and it was still closed when I went home. So I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day off and tomorrow will be back at work. Hopefully the parking lot will be in better shape by then.

Job 1:21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ESV

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.