4 Days Post Op - Ouch but Hopeful

Today is Friday, 4 days since my surgery. I'm definitely improving, but am still in quite a bit of pain, especially at night. Sleeping is difficult. I'm supposed to sleep with the huge foam wedge strapped to my legs to keep me from crossing them while I sleep, but the wedge went out the window (almost literally) the first night I was out of the hospital. The thing is just too big for me (probably designed for a 180 pound man, like most medical contraptions). And being strapped to anything while trying to sleep feels a little too much like torture to me. So I've replaced it with a pillow between my legs and have been compliant with instructions to sleep on my back. The result is that I snore like a sailor and wake up frequently stiff and in pain. I've become able to bend my bad leg at the knee, so that gives a little "variety" to the experience, but really the only "relief" I get is to make the struggle to extricate myself from the bed and use my walker to get into the bathroom. And I get to take 10 mg of Percocet every 4 hours. So sleeping is rough and I do a lot of moaning and groaning during the night. I'm sure if a recording was made and released publicly, I'd be kicked out of Telesma and any other musical project, just for the embarrassment factor for everyone connected to me!

I'm still annoyed at MDIPA, my health insurance company, for caring more about their bottom line than the health of its card-carrying, premium-paying members. But one positive thing is that they are paying for (minus my $20 co-pay) excellent home physical therapy that my surgeon insisted upon. HomeCall is the company that was recommended to me, and Whitney, the therapist that came yesterday and will come again today, is wonderful, caring and knowledgeable. Some of the exercises are difficult, some easier, but I am determined to do them twice a day, as advised, so I can be back on my feet and fully recovered within the 5 or 6 weeks that this is going to take. She also pays close attention to the meds I take and any interactions they may have, plus she changes my bandages, and will remove my staples either next Thursday or the following Monday, depending on the condition of the wound. She said everything looks good though; not much swelling, some bruising, and very little drainage. More than you probably wanted to know.

The best news I've had is that my father, who was diagnosed with colon cancer right before my surgery, has been told that there are no signs of metastization. We'll know next week what treatment he is looking at, but this is such a relief to me. We are so close, and he has always been so reliably healthy -- a runner for decades, a 75 year old who goes to the gym everyday and takes his health (and vitamins and antioxidants) very seriously. The thought of losing him or of him suffering was more than I could bare in the days before my surgery. To say I am relieved is quite an understatement. Thanks to everyone for their prayers for him and for me!