Hit and Run

"Help!!!....Get the make and license number of that truck!!"

Honestly, people tell me I am looking "great", but I feel like some  poor crumpled piece of roadkill....like a truck hit me. I look back to last Sunday and Monday when I virtually "held court" with family members and visitors commenting somewhat smugly to one and all that I felt no real pain. I should have remembered from my gall bladder removal that it takes a few days for the body to react to the trauma of major surgery. Tuesday and Wednesday have been physically trying to my body and soul. If some back-alley thugs had inflicted the same wounds as the surgeons they would have gone to jail...however the surgeons went a step further and sewed me up. Seriously..... there was a major-league team in that operating room. Dr. Tovar is reknowned for his meticulousness and focus on the patient and he expects the same from his team. He likes to win, and you do that by reducing the adverse odds leading to compromise or failure.

Surprisingly, the days, difficult or less difficult, go by quickly. Recovery is in minutes, then hours, then a day at a time...and it will be one week, in about five and one-half hours, that I was wheeled into the surgery room.

I have found myself almost totally self-focused......pain, silly exercises, pills, recording temperatures and noting BM's on a chart (I kind of like that because I make a happy-face to indicate that personal triumph) are part of my day. Walking around the yard with Sue (aka Nurse Ratchette) in miserably cold conditions has been a thrill, and I seek out rays of rare sunshine like a lizard to warm me on my rest stops. There haven't been many in the last few days so I proceed with my walk doing breathing exercises. Sue and I call these excursions our "Bataan" walks. I beg her not to bayonet me if I fall and can't get up.

Suzanne Aimee is an Angel....I know this with all my heart. No one can recover from this surgery alone...that is impossible. Sue will be my companion and caregiver throughout this trial. I'll make every attempt to be less grumpy as we find a balance between my desire for independence and her desire to heal me. 

I think I will start painting tomorrow....some rolling California hills, studded with oaks, patches of golden poppies and blue lupine dotting  grassy meadows in the foreground....and light blue skies with Fragonard clouds.

Stephen