Exactly 12 weeks

It is now exactly 12 weeks since I had my op – gosh, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun (I must have said that before I’m sure). Anyway, time for an update on who I am what I have turned into and where all my marbles went over the last few weeks….

I have reached a pretty good point in my recovery I think (Lynne take note) and I am cutting all pain meds down steadily except the nerve ones. On the subject of the nerve pain pills, I intend going to the doctor when this lot runs out (about a month) and trying a lower dose of them too as if I am late with a dose I am getting nowhere near such severe symptoms. My scar is looking really good, very nicely healed and hardly red at all – I am pretty proud of it which, as those of you who know me well might be a surprise, considering how I feel about at least one of my other scars. Anyway, it is, as hubby puts it, very impressive – it’s still numb in a few places, but doesn’t stop it looking – well, impressive! My walking is getting better all the time. I am still using two sticks but mostly as a balance aid and find that I can get around most of the house without them (furniture is useful). Because balance is such a big issue, I still have to be really careful about falling – I always fell over a lot, but it didn’t really matter if I bruised my knees before – now, I cannot afford to displace my hardware, so falling is a big no-no. I wouldn’t dream of going out the house without the sticks and am still using the wheelchair a lot. We took a trip into the local big city last weekend and had Tapas in the old brewery courtyard, spent all afternoon in town and generally did something a bit more normal– it was fab! Most of my swelling has finally gone. I still have the nasty bit on my side but that is much smaller and my preggo belly is just about gone – I think pretty much everything else that’s left now is just flab!

Interestingly, with so much more of the swelling gone, I have found for sure that lots of my jeans don’t fit the way they used to. You don’t realise how much the shape of your back alters jeans - well, you just think of them as leg covering, don’t you? I expected to ‘gain more waist’ on the side where my ribcage touched my pelvis, when they stretched it out, but somehow I didn’t expect to get shorter on the other side as that was straightened! So, this means that where I used to wear jeans to fit the left side (they would be all squashed in on the right side) they now fit neither side. Shopping will be called for when I feel all the swelling has gone and as soon as I can get my jeans on without the grabber thingy. Now, that would be embarrassing – taking your grabber thingy into the changing room – imagine if it was one of those communal ones…*

*…actually that would be cool if you were trying on tops – you could own up to alien probing, shark attack, or all sorts of other things with such an awesome scar!