14 January - Five days post-op

It’s Saturday afternoon, five days post-op.  How am I?  That’s the question that comes most often our way.  Let’s see.  Monday was surgery day.  Tuesday was good, still on the happy meds and surprised by energy and general condition.  Wednesday not as perky.  Got home around supper time and that about did me in.  Thursday and Friday were okay- I thought I would have more energy than I do.  Here’s the inventory.  I can walk a bit, but not for long without getting fatigued.  We have room to walk in the apartment and I haven’t ventured out yet.  I was quite crampy the last couple of days and that made life quite uncomfortable.  My abdomen was distended, but that seems to be improved today.  The catheter is working and output is respectable.  We are coping with leg bag and the night bag and the connections (just a few oaths here and there).  I made a better effort at getting cleaned up today, change of pyjamas etc.  I shaved so I’ve given up the possibility of a Hemingway look.  Today for lunch I had a peanut butter sandwich and two clementines.  I’m drinking lots of fluids, but haven’t reinstituted wine for happy hour yet.  Why not, I hear you ask?  We thought it might be wise to be off the heavy painkillers first and I’m okay with that.  We are encouraging people to give us another week before visitors (unless related by blood J ).  Same with phone calls- I’m still not up to conversations but I’m sure next week will see even more improvements.  I go in on Wednesday to have the staples removed from my incision and then on the 23^rd, I have the catheter removed.  Big changes then!  My general impression to date- they weren’t kidding when they said it would take a while to recover.  Healing takes time.  I’m  very fortunate to have this much behind me and that things are going well to date.  If there is some improvement each day, I’ll be happy with that.  I’m pretty good at pacing myself.  I sleep well and that helps.  I’m not much of a television watcher, so I’m getting my year’s supply at the moment.  Did see the premiere of my favourite show, CBC’s “The Republic of Doyle”.  It was on the evening I got home, beautiful scenery of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and great to see Russell Crowe as a guest star.  Barb and I also watch “The Big Bang Theory”.  No doubt we’ll watch The Golden Globes on Sunday.  There are a few other retirees like me who have new iPads, so I’m looking forward to trying that out soon- maybe we’ll have a little beginners’ group going.  We had 16 cm of snow during the week, but that's mostly gone now.  Tomorrow we are expecting a cold snap, sub-zero temps.