Day Eight: The Worm Turns

Or Fortune’s face has turned, or something like that, because I feel a lot better.

It’s partly attributable to the pain meds, but in a strange way. I took them, and had the same night’s sleep as the previous two nights—fitful. And my pain level remained the same. Instead of this making me more impatient, I was intensely relieved. I realized that, in the words of Aimee Mann, “this is how it goes” for this story. It’s going to take longer than I wished and hoped to get back to normal. And, instead of this thought driving me to distraction, it brought me comfort. Likewise, all the things I kept thinking about as reasons to be grateful (and there are so many) suddenly transformed from items to beat myself with to thoughts that brought me comfort.

Right now, I feel pretty much at peace with the healing process. But mindful that there will be more bumps in the road.

I also figured out a shorter walk—one that takes only an hour. Yesterday. Today, it took 50 minutes and I felt much stronger. Progress!

I also think that I forgot to give a couple details that may (or may not) be interesting:

1. I have four incisions. One in my sternum, and one in my belly button—these are the two places that hurt (but inside more than on the surface). The other two places are in my side. Sometimes, gallbladder surgery only requires one incision, but four is not unheard of.
2. When I got home from the hospital, I was anxious to see how much I weighed—I can hear all the girls laughing already—I mean, I had gone 24 hours without food AND had lost an organ. Imagine my dismay to see I had GAINED 6 pounds  (which I have now lost—what that 6 pounds was I do not like to imagine).
3. I know this sounds crazy, but I swear I could feel my other organs sloshing around down there in the first few days afterwards, like they were stretching out with all that room. It didn’t hurt—but it felt weird.
4. My stomach has settled down now, but for a few days it was like a party in there. Anytime I ate anything, it was LOUD. Not painful, just noisy. One night, as I was laying on the sofa (reading) and Beloved was across the room (working on his laptop), I looked up and said, “Do you hear that?” He looked up and said, “are you serious?” It made me laugh.

Also, a big shout-out to my friends Joel and Joel, who made me homemade cookies! Joel stopped by as a surprise to deliver them on Tuesday night, and it really cheered me, just spending a few minutes chatting and laughing. I almost pulled a Lyndon Johnson and asked if he wanted to see my incisions, but I refrained. Just.