Return of the Blog! One week of recovery.

Dear readers, we knew this would be a difficult surgery and the recovery would be harsh for the first few days or, in this case, the first week. Today, a week out from the surgery, I am just finding the focus and the energy to communicate with you, my dear readers. I am leaning on Grammarly for the wording as it is hard for me to think of the correct word, spell it, and then type it in.

So, the first question is about my recovery; it is about balance. Pain vs painkillers vs nausea vs nausea drugs. The hearing is gone (forever) on my left side, but as my doctors suspect, the hearing was already crushed by the tumor, and while I have to be careful when I move my head, the balance, too, seems to be long lost. So, I skipped the vertigo and loss of hearing. We, Linda, and the nurses at the hospital managed to get the balance in the first few days and to keep it up most of the time. Late at night, the balance was often lost, and it was miserable, but with multiple options, we soon stopped the pain (me, often sleeping off the heavy painkillers and taking an anti-nausea for the hard painkiller). The head still agues and needs more basic painkillers, and thrush (I think) is visiting my mouth. The movement of fat from my belly to my ear (so many jokes!) left a new mark and soreness. I am using a walker to be safe, and I am very attentive to proper procedures and staying in my walker. I am on stool softeners so that I don’t push when using the restroom, and this means the facilities need to be nearby (more jokes about brain pressure from defecation go here).

Exhaustion and healing are the main remaining issues. I am tired and sometimes more exhausted, and then the day is full of difficult choices, making it hard to go on. Every choice is a use of energy that will run out before the day ends. Nights are a change of location and the effort to sleep in my bed. I am not sure if I sleep or just pass out and wake up hours later. I wake tired and force myself to put on my slippers, stand without using my walker to balance and start again.

I am improving, and the hard drugs have been avoided for 24 hours. The pain is moving to the background. While the exhaustion and lack of energy make for a dull day, I am hopeful by the second week, it will be a more long-term recovery, and I can manage again.

While this is a short blog for me, it took an hour. Focus is purchased now. Thanks for reading!