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

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...

New book idea a la Captain Caffeine

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.14.2009 So my husband, Captain Caffeine, had lunch with a few friends a few days ago. And they asked about my writing, and if I’d been on Oprah yet. (Yeah, right) They then discussed NYT bestselling books, and why can’t Camy write a NYT bestseller. (Sure, let me just open a vein over a blank page and it’ll come right out.) So Captain Caffeine came home with ideas for my new NYT bestselling novel. First it starts with vampires, because Twilight is so hot. But not just any vampires. This one’s an Amish vampire. And he’s not just an Amish vampire, he’s a cop in disguise, infiltrating the Amish community to protect a witness. (Hmm, that storyline sounds familiar ...) But wait! There’s more! To add more conflict and stick with my brand of Asian fiction, we introduce the Tibetan monk! Who joins the Amish community to get away from the pressures of monkhood. But in reality, he’s protecting the Chinese princess on the run, trying to escape from her father’s Hong...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...