MONDAY MENTIONABLES - The Act of Returning To Normal

I'm BACK! I've been recovering from a surgery I had last Monday, and I promised my family that I wouldn't do ANYTHING but rest and recover. So, this blog, along with everything else, was set aside for a week.

In that week, I've gone through an interesting recovery. My surgery was to remove my Gall Bladder and my Ovaries. It was done laparoscopically (this is a hard word to spell!), and so I've got 5 small incisions on my abdomen. The first 2 days after the surgery, I was in so much pain, because of the air they used to blow up my stomach so they could work on it. The air had to go somewhere, and it came out through my shoulders, arms, and neck. Talk about pain! Wow. Then, my throat was damaged quite a bit from a scope I had done, and then from the air tube during the surgery. So, my throat has gone from painful, to congested, to scratchy, etc. After those first few days, the aches and pains lessened, but then the incisions started to hurt. Everyone says that day 3 and 4 are the worst, and those are the days that I just felt all around yucky. After that, I spent the next two days very sick to my stomach. After that disappeared, I had the bowel problems that come with every surgery. So, each day or two, it's been something completely different. It's been a week, and so I've got people asking me if I've recovered yet. How do you know when you've recovered from surgery? Is it when you can get up and move around for most of the day without problems? Is it when your bowels have recovered their normal functions? Or maybe when your bruises have faded to that awful yellow color?

My recoveries (I've had a "few" - from 14 surgeries in the last 3 years) have been interesting. I've learned that when the doctor tells me that I'll feel ok in 3-4 days, that I've basically got to double that. So, I'll feel "better" in around 7-8 days. But "better" doesn't mean normal, at least for me. The pain might be mostly gone, along with the bruising and bandages, but I'm not usually back to normal for quite awhile. Normal for me means feeling all the way better, and being able to do whatever I want to do with no side affects. It always takes some time for me to feel like I'm back to my normal self. Today, for example, I woke up with some pain, and took a pain killer early this morning. I had something to eat, and then got ready for the day. I felt pretty good. I didn't do much today - just some computer work, some reading, some visiting, etc. But, by about 4:00 pm, I was back to being exhausted and hurting. So, no... I'm not back to normal yet.

If there is one thing I've learned from all of the surgeries and recoveries, it's this... listen to what your body is telling you. Make sure you take the time that is necessary for your recovery, and REST. If you don't, and you try to push things along too fast, you won't bounce back as well, and that can cause problems. The dictionary defines recovery as "the act of returning to normal". All I'm saying is the returning to normal takes time, so be patient.