Sunday, November 28, 2010

Return to Real Life

It hasn't been the easiest two weeks, but Ken has made it so much more bearable than it could have been. He has waited on me hand and foot and handled all of my post-op care. He emptied and recorded my drain tubes (not a pleasant task), made sure I took my pills on schedule, cooked for me, kept my water bottle full, drove me to my doctor appointments, brought me coffee, washed my laundry (even paying attention to my special-care clothing) and brought me anything I wanted or needed so I didn't have to get up. He made sure I was as comfortable as I could be at all times and took my doctor's orders very seriously and literally wouldn't let me do ANYTHING. And his constant encouragement and kind words have helped tremendously with the psychological and emotional parts of my recovery.

The road to recovery is long and I'm not there yet, but I have finally returned to the land of the living. I'm finally feeling steady enough to go for walks, take showers standing up, help out around the house and even drive. Restrictions were lifted as of this past Thursday, but I still wasn't ready to do many things. I think I just needed to get the pain pills out of my system. They did NOT make me feel good. They masked the pain for a while, but the side effects made me feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. Now I am taking Aleve for the pain and while I'm still in a good bit of pain, it is so nice to not feel like I'm going to vomit or faint at any given moment.

I return to work tomorrow so I must drive back to Spokane tonight. It's bittersweet. I've never had someone take such amazing care of me. I'm going to miss seeing Ken every day and being there when he gets off work. I really enjoy living alone, but it is sometimes too quiet and too lonely. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine, being able to go out and do things and see friends. I've felt like I've been under house arrest or in quarantine for much of the last 2+ weeks. I hope I don't have too much to catch up on at work. There shouldn't be much because I wrote extensive notes and delegated all the daily tasks to others in the office. I just have this sneaky suspicion that I'll have to fix a lot of mistakes and do things that everyone else forgot about (or chose not to do). On top of that, I'll be training a new employee. I hired an accounting tech who starts my first day back. Should be interesting.

I feel so lucky to have Ken in my life. I know we'll return to our schedule of seeing each other a few days a week (weather permitting), but I just feel a little sad and miss him already. Two years ago today was our very first date and it's been a wonderful two years. I couldn't ask for a better man!