2/7 Post Surgery Ramblings

In an attempt to revive this site yet again, I've discovered not 1, not 2, but a total of 3 different blogs I've used over the years at varying rates of consistency. Or with zero consistency, if we're really being honest here, because it's me and I've never been one to keep up with anything to save my life. There's quite a few gems tucked back in the archives, but I think it's probably for the best they stay hidden there.

In other news, I'm very slowly working my way back to being a normal human again since my surgery. Last night I was able to sleep on my side for the first time in 2 weeks and it was GLORIOUS. I've always been a side/stomach sleeper so to be forced to sleep on my back I feel like I haven't had a good night's rest in ages at this point. I still can't quite get comfortable in bed, I'm probably at least another month away from being able to sleep on my stomach again, but I'm getting there. Slowly. I'm still a little shocked at how well I did bounce back. To be fair though the surgery was incredibly minimally invasive, and although there were still 5 incisions they were all incredibly small. I believe he said 4 of the 5 were 1 centimeter or less, and only one was 2 inches long. The incisions themselves are healing phenomenally with the exception of one at the top of my abdomen, it's constantly getting brushed against and irritated because of where it's placed and I feel like it's never going to fully heal over.

Speaking of never healing over, I'm mildly devastated that one of my cartilage piercings closed up after my surgery. Obviously all jewelry has to be removed for procedures, including ear piercings, and my 2nd cartilage piercing has never quite healed right so in the LESS THAN 36 HOURS it was out, it's started to close up. I'm so sad. The first time it happened was with my knee surgery in 2006, and I was able to "gently" force it back through. (I use the word "gently" very, very loosely. It hurt. A lot.) But this time there was no saving it. When I originally had it done, somehow it was pierced at a weird angle and it's impossible to replicate it to easily put the earring back in. That's probably the least important thing I could complain about, and it'll finally give me the excuse to go get it done again the right way and hopefully have it heal correctly this time.

I've been living in leggings and sweatpants for the last 3 weeks and while it's insanely comfortable, the list of things I'd do to be able to put on a pair of jeans and feel a little more put together is rapidly growing. I also keep having to remind myself that despite being able to bounce back from everything that's ever happened to me physically quite well, I literally have holes in my abdomen that need to heal up. They sliced through ALLLL the layers of muscle and while I'm not actively in pain, it's going to be a while before I can actually do things the way I used to. I'm still struggling to do basic household chores like lugging laundry up and down the stairs (although to be fair, at the rate I normally do laundry that's not a new struggle and those bags are always heavy), and I can barely push the vacuum. It's frustrating to say the least, and there's not much I can do about it yet. I still have about a week and a half before I go back to work, and once I am back I'll still have light restrictions on what I can do which is ALSO frustrating.

Moral of the story: stay on top of your health, kids. I've been living with this.....thing....in my abdomen for lord knows how long, and I knew something was wrong but I just didn't do anything about it until it was nearly life-threatening. I've had problems bending over and pressure in my lower abdomen for a handful of years now but I just attributed it to being overweight and my jeans were too tight, or that the uncomfortable pressure was from my IUD. Nope. Not even close on either part. Had I done the smart thing and gotten it checked out when I started feeling like something was wrong I could have planned the surgery out and made time for everything to fall into place in a way that it didn't inconvenience anyone. But no. Because I was too stubborn, I had to wait until the pain was bad enough to send me to the ER and ended up with an emergency situation that needed to be taken care of RIGHT NOW.

I fully intended for this to be a happy introduction back into the online world, but unsurprisingly it turned into bitching about what's wrong in my life. Again. I guess the good thing that came of this (other than having the....thing.. removed) is I really needed time off from work. I got so burnt out this holiday season and we were struggling big time to fit in everyone's PTO at the end of the season. Not that I can really call this a "vacation" by any means, but lord knows it's been so nice to have some time away from that place and attempt to decompress a bit. My Etsy shop has also been getting a pretty good re-vamp to look a little better and get things more organized both in the listings and pictures as well as offline. So. Y'know.