Sleeping On My Side Again Post-Surgery

 

It’s only day three, post-surgery, and I was able to sleep on both sides tonight (alternately, of course!) without experiencing pain or soreness.

 

I think that’s probably a record for panniculectomies.

 

I walked 11,000 steps yesterday in my back yard during the day, had my first shower, and got to sit out in the sunshine shirtless for over a half hour. (Getting my Vitamin D the natural way these days is a joy!)

 

 

With Friends Like Mine…

 

After my shower while I was waiting for my pajama bottoms to wash and dry, I had to think of a way to get around without catching my drains and plugs on kitchen handles and other possible places, so I put on a t-shirt and hung the plugs and drains on a hanger, which I hung on the front of my shirt.  I looked pretty dorky, but it worked… When I shared this image on FB for laughs, one guy jokingly protested, “TMI! TMI!”

 

Another wrote: “Looks like the lobotomy went well.”   The same guy had mentioned my “lobotomy” earlier, and has kept it as a running joke ever since. Yesterday when I finally posted the laugh-out-loud funny photo of Lisa and me mugging in our new bike helmets, he wrote something like, “Got two-fer-one lobotomies, I see!”

 

IF these guys read this (this is a test!) and IF they give me permission to use their names, I will update this section so you can befriend them and start enjoying them, too, if they aren’t already Facebook friends of yours.

 

… It’s Easy to Stay Light-Hearted and Upbeat!!!

 

I’m all for sharing the bright/potentially humorous side of post-panniculectomy surgery, too, because I know a lot of people do research online and read a lot of concerning things.  I hope my experience shows you that everyone is different and that you should take as little trepidation in with you as you can, because mindset and attitude (and a sort of resigned fearlessness) can help you get through the “worst” of it (if “worst of it” there be).  I didn’t experience even a fraction of the discomfort that I was preparing myself to put up with, and I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it can drive you crazy to do that… and it’s a useless “borrowing of trouble” that you may as well not borrow. Deal with what’s real after the fact and you’ll be a lot better off!

 

I’m ordered to wear a seriously stiff binder around my middle for at least a month. I can only take it off to shower (and later, to bathe, like soaking in a tub after the tubes come out and the skin totally closes up). Yesterday I was able to get a first look at myself without an apron of skin taking up so much of my frontal real estate, and I like what I saw. I’m definitely going to have to be getting some new jeans and pants.  Probably some new shirts, too, but I’ve already bought smaller shirts, so they’ll suffice…

 

In Other News

 

I reconnected with Nancy Graf, an old API friend, last night on a video call. We got each other laughing so hard I was glad I’m as far along in my healing process as I am, because laughing that hard any sooner would NOT have been fun!

 

She told me I ought to re-create the scene from my book FLOATING AROUND HOLLYWOOD AND OTHER TOTALLY TRUE TALES OF TRIUMPH where I shoved long Christmas wrap tubes into my mouth, slapped my hands together and barked like a seal to get a rise out of KNIGHT RIDER producer Clyde Phillips when I was temping for him on another show (EDDIE DODD, a pilot). She thought that story took the cake and has called me Walrus ever since.

 

Since I’m bored out of my gourd, I did my best, but the tubes I found wouldn’t stay in my mouth, so I had to prop them up against my aquarium hood and take a selfie of the look.  No ability to clap or bark; it was all I could do to get an image.

 

Well!!!  I sent it to her and she says she’s going to frame it.  She laughed herself silly.  So yes, I’m sharing it here, too. If it provides a laugh, I’m all for sharing my silliness!

 

Recreating the Walrus Look

Nancy sent me this li’l guy last year for my Critter Corral-themed living room, of course!!!

 

This is the best I can do while recovering from surgery!

 

I have so few options: walking, writing, reading (which takes too much brain power right now), and taking funny photos. If you’re along for the ride, you’re stuck with me just as I am… goofiness and all!

 

I can’t pet my goats or sit with them because of tubes and bulbs.  I have to stay away from them until I’m whole and healed again. (They don’t understand…)

 

I’m going to take a couple photos of the new outdoor cat today, I think.  It’s getting friendlier and sits out in the open now. Yesterday when I was sitting in a chair outside, I put a bowl of cat food right next to me, and then kept my arm down near the bowl while it ate. When it was finished, it sniffed my hand, arched and raised its tail, and walked under my chair, letting its tail rub my hand.  So, we’re getting there slowly.  That was a vote of confidence, plain as day.  But I think it has been mishandled because it’s still skittish about being petted, so I’m not forcing the issue. It must make the first moves. I want it to feel in control of its own fate.  That’s what cats prefer.

 

All typos are free post-surgery

 

I’m typo-ing like crazy post-surgery. I’m doing my best to catch and correct them all, but no doubt I’ll find some as soon as I hit publish. And I may still miss some.

 

I have a t-shirt that reads, “I CANNOT BRAIN TODAY. I HAS THE DUMB.”  That is precisely how I feel right now. Fit as a fiddle, hale of wind and limb, but I has the dumb. My brain isn’t fully back online yet.  (That’s my excuse anyway, and I’m sticking to it until I feel 100% in the brain pan again.)