Hiya,
I don't think I am the only person who 8 weeks post op thinks they are much better than what they really are. Listen to your body the nurses said, trouble is mine only talks to me when it hurt and I've overdone it. Monday this week after my first fishing competition since the op and I was feeling fine except aching back and shoulders, which I had fully expected and took this as a good sign the muscles had been woken up. That meant I was going to be able to fish another match on Wednesday again with help from friends carrying all the heavy stuff.
Tuesday I walked to the school that employs my wife and enjoyed the sun and BBQ before cheering on the olympic torch. It was actually very good fun, though the apache helicopter gun ship circling directly overhead was my highlight!
Wednesday arrived and the fishing started well, but there were too many fish infront of me and by the end of 6 hours I had caught 97lbs of carp. Still I felt OK and went home happy until I found out that my mother in law had fallen over and badly damaged her hand. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance and had an operation. Just another thing to go wrong and upset the family. MIL (who is very nice) was going to look after my girls the weekend when I was taking Wendy away for our anniversary, as a result we had to cancel the weekend away. Still there will be other weekends.
Thursday, wanted to help Wendy, and so in the morning I did the vacuuming (Jan would be proud) and cleaned the bathroom without any real problems, other than a couple of twinges and a few rests in between. Afternoon and appointment with my consultant where I hoped to find out what went wrong, Wendy could not come with me due to having to do stuff that MIL would have done and that someone else should have done but wouldn't! Saw my man only 20 mins late, and the first thing he asked me was " How are you doing....psychologically?" Who me I thought, Mr positive? Well I understood his question because I had been rather angry and upset in hospital after the operation went wrong. To be fair he was really good, the first time we have talked openly about stuff, he explained that I had an adhesion from the first op (rare) that then squashed the bowel and caused all the problems. He said "You have to realise that chemo, radiotherapy, and 3 operations will have taken a massive toll on your body. Of course he could see I was still not healed and still no where physically back to normal and he said you'll have to come back in 3 months and we did not discuss any next steps as it is far to soon. Baggy is sticking around for a wee while longer then.
Friday, woke up feeling like I had been punched in the stomach by Mike Tyson, in fact just like back in hospital when it is a hard job to sit up and get out of bed. So I guess my tummy muscles are complaining about the housework, nothing more serious I hope. It is so damn difficult to get this rehabilitation right, and doing nothing is no good either. Still a rest today and no fishing the weekend will hopefully do the trick. MIL back home today with arm in a sling and I told her to give up the stunt lady work.
That's about it really, I've typed this sitting in the garden and saw 2 peregrine falcons fly high overhead, and a number of butterflies in the garden. Nature can be so therapeutic, at least to me it is.
Tight Lines
Tim
