Skip to main content

First day after surgery

Captain's log, Stardate 11.24.2005

Mucho thanks to the terrific prayer warriors lifting me up. Surgery was supposed to be at 3 p.m., but for some reason I didn't get into the surgery suite until closer to 4.

I had minimal nausea coming out of anesthesia, but I felt like I could have slept for a week. The mean recovery room nurses (probably anxious to actually leave work the day before Thanksgiving, the buggers) seemed extraordinarily brutal in the way they sat me up in an attempt to get me mobile and out of their clinic.

I slept on the drive home and arrived wide awake a little after 8 p.m. I guess that's not so unusual since I had slept most of that day away under the influence of drugs.

You have not known real fear until you have an aching leg suspended before you, two crutches biting into your armpits, a sloping driveway under you, and a sudden realization you are tipping backward.

With a blood-curdling scream worthy of Halloween H2O, I alerted half the neighborhood of my imminent demise. However, my husband whipped out a hand and caught me before I flailed to the ground.

Our dog Snickers, so vicious at warning the postman that this house is her kingdom, retreated with her tail down at the sight of my clunking crutches. Useless guard dog. I want my money back.

The painkillers wore off today, so I took ibuprofen and Tylenol. The ibu is making my stomach ache a bit, but the combo is working fantastically to reduce the pain.

However, there's great news--Robin told me about something Colleen Coble told her: 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (plus honey to make it palatable) in one cup of warm water morning and evening. I just took a cup and my stomach feels wonderfully better! Thanks, Robin and Colleen!

Please pray the ibu doesn't make my stomach too upset. At this point, it's the strongest painkiller I can take.

There's no blistering so far! Yay! I've been doing massage and "pumping" my foot to increase circulation in my leg and hopefully move the fluid out of the joint so the blistering doesn't happen this time. Please continue to pray.

During the time I'm not sleeping like a lazy cat in the sun (I swear, I've never spent so many hours of the day comatose), I've gotten writing-related things done. I listened to several recorded writing workshops on MP3. Looooooove my iPod.

I am also doing research for my next book, which involves a massage therapist. It's interesting, although a little hippie-ish in their claims of spiritual communion between therapist and client. It's helping me to better understand my heroine's character, since she has her own backstory but also the right personality to be a massage therapist. I think she will be very intriguing and complex.

Well, that's my update. The real test will be tomorrow when the drugs from the surgery completely wear off and I'm on just the ibu and Tylenol.

Thanks for praying!

Comments

Anonymous said…
oooh glad you posted. and that it went well. still praying for you. love you girl.
Anonymous said…
Glad it went well! Hope the recovery is smooth
Mirtika said…
Catching falling wives...hubbies are supposed to do that! :)

Glad you have a great hubby to care for you, and that Colleen had a tummy remedy. (Take those pain pills with non-spicy, non-greasy, mild food, okay?)

Rest a lot, listen to your great music, and God speed healing for you. :)

Mir
Pammer said…
I am so glad to see your post. I thought if I didn't see a post i was going to call and bug your hubby for news. :0)

I'm glad things seem to be going well. I will continue to pray for you.
Don't feel bad about your dog. My dog barks most viciously at little squirrels scurrying around in the trees than she does at a true threat. :0)

I am quite sure I told you about the apple cider vinegar too, but after tasting Noni, you probably aren't too hip on any of my remedies, are ya? Teehee.

Hugs and love ya!
Unknown said…
Praying for a quick, painless, and 100% successful recovery, girl!

Popular Posts

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Excerpt - A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS by Nicole Seitz

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.05.2009 Update: Sorry, this giveaway is closed. A Hundred Years of Happiness by Nicole Seitz A beautiful young woman. An American soldier. A war-torn country. Nearly forty years of silence. Now, two daughters search for the truth they hope will set them free and the elusive peace their parents have never found. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, a young mother named Katherine Ann is struggling to help her tempestuous father, by plunging into a world of secrets he never talks about. A fry cook named Lisa is trying desperately to reach her grieving Vietnamese mother, who has never fully adjusted to life in the States. And somewhere far away, a lost soul named Ernest is drifting, treading water, searching for what he lost on a long-ago mountain. They're all longing for connection. For the war that touched them to finally end. For their hundred years of happiness at long last to begin. From the beloved author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass...

Z Sales Meeting

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My trip to Grand Rapids: My trip went so great! I’m hoping I remembered people’s names correctly. I arrived in Grand Rapids around 3 in the afternoon, and Joyce Ondersma (Author Relations) picked me up at the airport. I’d met Joyce last year at ICRS and she’s a wonderful person. She has glorious red hair that I totally envy. We had dinner with Sue Brower (Senior Editor) and Sherry Guzy (Marketing Director). I also met Marla Bliss and Karwyn Bursma (Marketing Director for Fiction Inspiration) and Joe Questel, who’s part of the Sales department. We had these Bang-Bang shrimp appetizers that were a blast! (heheh) They were really spicy but really good. I fought Joe for them. The day at Zondervan was fabulous. First I was shown to a separate “author lounge.” Now isn’t that just way cool? They actually had my name on the door—well, underneath John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian church (I had gone to Menlo Park Pres a few times when I was in college) ...

Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...

I GOT A 3-BOOK CONTRACT WITH ZONDERVAN!

Captain's Log, Supplemental My agent called me today with the great news! Zondervan has contracted me for another three books! Right now, they’re all stand alone books—not a series. The first book is slated to release May 2010 and is tentatively titled The Year of the Dog (they’ll probably change it). It’s a women’s contemporary novel. Here’s the back cover blurb from my proposal: Tessa Ota, a professional dog trainer, is having a bad year. While moving ahead with renovation plans for her new dog kenneling and training facility, Tessa needs to move in with her disapproving mother and her antagonist sister. She convinces her ex-boyfriend to take her dog for a few months … but discovers that his brother is the irate engineer whose car she rammed a few weeks earlier. Charles Bretton has enough problems. His mama has just shown up on his doorstep all the way from Louisiana, and his brother has to move in with him after being kicked out of his apartment—with a dog in tow. And guess who...