Exorcism

The neck, as they say, has been exorcised. The surgery went well, took less than 45 minutes (or so I'm told), and I'm recovering nicely. Most of the original pain that has been plaguing me since this whole thing started is gone. There are days when it comes back, but it goes away after a bit of time. Most days I quietly medicate myself to deal with the new and improved pain that is associated with the surgery and rest/nap/sleep the day away. Truly, other than the 6" gash on the front of my neck I'm doing quite well.

The first week of recovery was quite relaxing. My mom was in town to make sure I did what I was supposed to be doing (i.e., nothing) and took care of me and the animals. There was a lot of time spent laying on the couch watching tacky daytime television. (And for all you out there, the morning talk show on Fox is heinous!) Mom left shortly after my first follow up with the nurse last Friday. All is well. I'm right where I should be at this stage in the recovery; the incision is not infected, the pain I'm having is consistent with what everyone else experiences and the amount of pain is also pretty much what everyone else who's had this done has reported at the one week mark.

I'm almost to the 2 week mark and most days I feel really good with very little pain -- if I stay on the couch and don't try to do anything more involved than reading a book, or watching TV. But if I try to straighten up the house, or go out to a lazy lunch, or get something new to read at Borders, then all hell breaks loose and I'm wiped out for the next 24-36 hours. Seriously, on Saturday I went to this totally awesome Sushi Bar with Neil, the Major and several other friends. We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table, so everyone went and tooled around the mall, while 2 of us stayed near with the pager looking at several of the kiosks. All I did was stand idly, and then eat dinner. I slept ALL day on Sunday with one brief trip out to Target, and then woke up at 11 on Monday.

I had planned on going back to work on Monday the 26th, but at this point that's just not going to happen. I can barely manage 2 hours of minimal activity, so right there we've got my commute to and from work. Other than this minor set-back, it appears that all is well. I have no intention of pushing myself too far, and I'm going to take as much time as I need to recover.

Speaking of, I think blogging has taken it's toll -- so it's off to happy nappy land on the new comfy sectional sofa. Ciao for nowzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...