Are you Meta?

I'm sure you all have been wondering how I'm doing since my last post. The good news is that the recovery process is going well. The bad news is that I'm not good at recovery. Recovery has been one of the most challenging processes I have undergone. I am off all the recommended pain killers, and generally, I feel like I've been punched in the gut but maybe 80% less intense. If I press on my abdomen, it feels stiff and hurts, so I don't do that. I fear that I might have a hernia, but I don't feel anything pushing out of my abdomen, so I'm probably worrying about nothing.

The most annoying part of my body mending itself is that I suspect that I'm still low on hemoglobin. I say that because if I go from the top floor of the residence to the basement, stop long enough to switch out laundry (but not carry it upstairs, still can't lift more than 10 lbs) then, walk back to the top floor of the residence I have a heartbeat of 130bpm and can't catch my breath. It happens when I walk from my car to the house (not a far distance) and when I walk around the neighborhood. There is a hill on the other side of the viaduct that I like to stroll, and by the time I reach the top, my heartbeat is 150bpm. I know I'm out of shape, but I can't be THAT out of shape. The heartbeat and breathing have been pretty consistent, and I'm unsure what to do about this issue. The surgical residents told me that it could take one to three months to get back to normal. It seems that my hemoglobin will take three months to get back to normal. I'm sure I'm low on iron(which goes in hand with low hemoglobin, as I understand it), but I don't want to take the supplement because I felt very anxious when I was taking it before. I'll revisit iron levels with the oncologist on my next visit.

The worst part of all of this resting is the nightly self-injection of Lovenox. It's a blood thinner used to prevent clotting. It took me a LONG time to get used to doing it. The first time I had to administer it to myself, it took me 15 min to finally push the needle in and inject the drug. Eventually, I switched to letting the tip of the needle sit on the skin and struggling with shoving it the rest of the way. Now I have the hang of it; I still hate it, but it's easier. It's a weird thing to do and, I'm just a big baby about it.

One of the interesting things about all of this is that I don't like foods I used to love. Worse, some foods still taste fantastic but don't sit well with my stomach. I also find that the packed feeling I used to get presurgery has returned. I suspect that I don't have enough fiber in my diet, and I have introduced a twice-daily regimen of Metamucil. Nothing makes you feel old like walking into a drug store and walking out with a giant container of Metamucil.

Look at this video.

I am confident I am not their target demographic. Is it possible to make Metamucil cool and not make me feel like I'm 80? I await some rebranding. The rest of their youtube channel is not encouraging; check it out at your own peril. They are a cute couple. Is “Meta” the secret to a long happy relationship? Maybe.

After reading all of that, I bet it seems that I'm not doing so well. But, honestly, on balance, I'm doing pretty well. All of the feeling good gives me a false sense of confidence that I can do more than I can. You'd expect nothing less from me, right? I overdid it Thanksgiving week. Not too bad, but we had a minor crisis and some things I wanted to do for a while.

So here is the rundown on Thanksgiving week. We had the in-laws stay with us for the week. I love when the family stays with us at the compound. It is one of the reasons why we chose to buy a more spacious domicile. I think I shocked everyone when I wasn't in bed sleeping all day. We ventured out to a couple of touristy destinations. The next day I would be wiped out. So much so that I slept most of Thanksgiving day, as well as ruined the mashed potatoes. The strategy was to drive separately to whatever destination and leave if I felt I needed to get some rest. It worked out pretty well, except when it didn't like when the refrigerator went out.

So, the fridge went out Tuesday night before thanksgiving. That would happen. Of course, there was no way of getting parts until Friday, but I did my best and looked for an appliance repair shop on Wednesday, and of course, no one in town stocks Samsung parts. After ordering the parts, which I thought would fix the problem (they didn't work), we still needed something to keep the food cold for the thanksgiving dinner. There has been a need for a small basement fridge for a while now, so we went to Ikea, and they had an ideal small basement fridge in stock. So after running around looking for Samsung parts, I had to figure out how to transport a refrigerator from midtown to the house and still not lift more than 10lbs. Special thanks to Ben and Michael for helping get the job done. At least we had something to keep the food cold. All of that activity wore me out. After overdoing it with our exploits on Friday, I realized that the replacement parts would not work. So after looking forward to relaxing after a busy day, we dragged ourselves out to a store to buy a new refrigerator. We finally agreed on the fridge after MUCH debate, and now we are waiting for delivery. I hated the one we had, so it worked out, but I didn't want to spend the money on it; who does, though?

As for my bowel movements, the Metamucil has helped keep things moving along, and everything is consistent.

Wow, over 1000 words. Hopefully, you've stuck with me through this saga of a post. Thanks for reading; keep the prayers and good vibes coming; it helps.