Irish wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:56 pm
wap wrote: ↑Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:11 pm
True dat. Hope you're having a good day today, dude.
Thanks man, sorry I missed this. Actually had a relatively bad few days but better today. The ups and downs are crazy.....I want my progress to be linear but it just isn't going that way. The swelling and numbness are worse than I expected. I feel like I was shot up with a 3 week dose of Novocain and my neck feels like double its normal size and stretching. My tongue feels numb and foreign.
Still, there is so much to be thankful for and there is a ton of improvement in areas.
I took my first normal dump a few days ago. That felt really good. I was on pain killers that were binding me up a lot. ( I am on nothing but Tylenol and Advil now). The stool softeners help but it creates a weird excretory experience where half of what is in there is still hard as a rock and the other half is loose. Taking good, satisfyingly emptying shits is one of the great unsung joys in life after you haven't for a while.
I had my first non-liquid meal yesterday. My wife makes awesome pot roast and i reduced the juices down to a kick ass, rich gravy, served with Mashed potatoes and Red Lobster Cheddar biscuits (drenched in butter so that I could swallow them). A little slice of Heaven for someone who has been subsisting on Soups and Smoothies for 3 weeks.
I mowed the grass a few days ago and I straightened up the garage yesterday. I have been taking care of the pool and periodically making dinner for the fam. I plan on going in to the office for my first semi-full day tomorrow.
All in all, I am able to do much more than I could have reasonably expected and I am grateful.
I hope you are progressing nicely as well, olde friend.
Glad your day is better today. I totally get the frustration of non-linear improvements but all my doctors and nurses warned me that there would be stops and starts and good and bad days, and they were right. Do what I do. Think about yourself today and how you felt 2-3 weeks ago and the progress will be easier to see.
Boy, can I relate on normal
ing. Mine didn't last as long as yours but for 4 days I was completely bound up in the hospital while they were insisting I eat 3 times a day. I was so bloated that for a day or 2 my belly was more painful than my chest incisions. Finally took one of those weird gooy mud butt dumps 4 days after surgery then had several bouts of diarrhea the next day thanks to prescription strength laxatives. One episode came while some friends were visiting me so they got an earful
. You are so right; the first normal
was beyond gratifying.
The more your life gets back to normal, and it sounds like you're picking up some of your old chores, which is cool, the better you feel.
As for me, I had an appointment with my cardiologist this afternoon. Most of the news is good, some not so much.
The good:
-He said my heart sounded good and lungs sounded much better and clearer which meant that...
-He took me off the diuretic effective immediately. No more panic peeing!
-I can also stop wearing those stupid tight compression socks that go up to my knees.
-In 2 weeks I can probably get off the anti-inflammatory drug I'm taking, so that'll be 50% of my prescription drugs gone.
-Cleared to go in to work this Saturday to work our physical inventory. It was a goal I set for myself so I was pleased to hear that he though I was well enough to do it.
-Cleared to go back to work full time in 2 weeks.
The not so good:
-I'm on Coumadin, which is a strong anti-coagulant that I need to be on for 3 months to make sure I don't develop any blood clots on my new valve. Because of the many and nasty side effects I have to have my blood monitored frequently to make sure I don't have too much coumadin in me. At the right balance my blood should take 3 times longer than normal to coagulate. This is done with a simple finger poke, similar to a diabetic's blood sugar test. Well, today, after trying 2 times, no clotting could be detected. At all. Fuck me if I get a simple cut. So I had to go to the lab at the hospital to get a regular blood draw, after the cardiologist's nurse just finished taking blood, so I got 2 finger pokes, one of which is still bleeding a bit 2 hours later, and 2 blood sticks in each arm, which are probably also still bleeding under the gauze.
-Found out I can't drive for another fucking 4 weeks, which means I have to rely on others (wifey) for all my transportation to various doctor and hospital visits.
So I can go back to work in 2 weeks but can't drive for 4, so I have to figure out transportation for those 2 weeks. And no, I don't Uber or Lyft, so if wifey can't do it I'll have to call a taxi.