Knee surgery is so much easier now than it was 20 years ago, they said.
Think how much you'll enjoy being able to take a walk in the park, they said.
You'll be so much happier and healthier afterward, they said.
Yeah, well, maybe. Eventually. I wanted to believe all that, and I don't think I did enough research before plunging into this project. I certainly hadn't counted on living at my daughter's house for two and a half weeks after surgery! As for pain... I really don't like pain.
Let's just say it hasn't exactly been a walk in the park.
However. As of today I'm back in my own house, with a laptop and Internet access, and maybe in a couple of days I'll get back to regular posting. (Along with paying for the final cover of Salt Magic, entering all the edits on Language of the Dragon so that I'll be ready to shove that book through formatting and KDP when Cedar finalizes that cover, doing a sort-of-last edit on A Child of Magic so that I can inflict it on beta readers... things pile up when you lose a couple of weeks, don't they?)
Now that pain pills are no longer fogging my brain, I hope that I'll be able to get back to plotting Tangled Magic, which is languishing as a collection of disconnected notes made just before surgery. I miss writing. I want to get back to work.
For today, though, I think I'm going to be a wimp, lie down and listen to an audiobook. The new knee is complaining loudly about what I've put it through already, and I don't seem to be very good at concentrating through pain. Yeah. Total wimp. Definitely flunking Stoicism 101. And I don't even want to think about the prospect of going through this all over again with the other knee!
Just like having a baby...in 18 years, you forgot all about the pain! HA Sure hope you do start feeling like your 'former' self (see I didn't say OLD SELF!).
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear I'm not the only one who finds herself a bit miffed at the medical community's oh don't worry approach to surgeries. ;-) And you've reminded me of the second knee surgery my late husband had many years ago. He got cocky. Been there, done that, don't need to tell me how it goes. Grumped at nurses afterward who wouldn't let him go home immediately. Didn't want anyone to help him get in and out of the back of the pick-up truck I hauled him home in (luckily, a good neighbor spotted us and MADE him take his help to get up a few steps into the house). Yup, he'd been through this before and didn't need ANYONE to tell him how it went. And then the pain kicked in and he eventually thought something was wrong, called the nurse, who asked if he'd been taking his pain pills. Nope, he hadn't, and now the stuff he'd been given at the hospital had worn off. He got a lecture from that nurse (thank you!) and became a bit more contrite, taking his meds and following the guidelines he'd been sent home with. I can't remember how much time had elapsed between surgeries, maybe a year or two, but man, yes, he really did forget a lot about it. I suspect you won't though! Bet it feels great to be home again, even if you still don't feel like doing much but taking pain pills and listening to an audio book. Don't set yourself back by rushing things. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's great to be home! (And I expect it's nice for my daughter and son-in-law to have their master bedroom back.) For now, I'm happy to pet the cat and look out onto a very green back yard in between chapters of A Vision of Light. (Three weeks. No window. A blade of grass looks beautiful to me. Heck, even oak pollen looks beautiful.)
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed by your late husband's ability to forget the post-surgical pain and his attempt to get on without taking the pain meds. Clearly some people have a much tougher approach to life than I do!
Let's just say he had a stubborn nature plus was a doctor's son so not cowed by the medical community and their dictates. And it was difficult to convince him of much until he experienced it for himself. Not a good patient, always trying to speed things up, as a patient, he had absolutely NO patience! I sometimes wondered if these bouts of independence bordering on stupidity had something to do with his idea of manhood and not looking weak. I often wondered if there were things in his childhood that could explain these episodes in an otherwise lovely and caring man. Well, we ALL get a little grumpy I think, when we don't feel well! And memory is not as fail-safe as we would like to think. Trust me, the "attempt to get on without taking pain meds" didn't last the day!
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