On the road again ...

Last night I drove for the first time since my surgery. My Saturn VUE, which had been parked in my garage since June 25, was back on the road again. And all went well! It felt good to be back driving. No surprise to anyone who knows me, my first stop was at Starbucks.

I finally felt as if I turned the corner Sunday/Monday. I wasn't feeling tired all the time any more. I had energy to do things that had seemed too taxing before -- like reading and typing. Things that required me to sit up for long periods of time. And I felt my reaction time was good enough to be out on the road again.

Nothing is worse than waking up from a good night's sleep and feeling exhausted before you get out of bed. And each day I never knew if I'd feel like that or not. I had a similar feeling when I had pneumonia in 1998. I knew it would pass with time. Just wasn't sure when.

I had an eye appointment at 11 a.m. yesterday, but I opted not to try my first post-surgery drive with dialated eyes. Thanks to my mom for dropping me off and Jean Gross from Point of Grace for picking me up on our way to our birthday lunch.

While the doctor was examining my eyes, he quickly adjusted my chair so it reclined -- and in the process really aggrevated my incision area. OUCH! After he did it, I mentioned to the doctor that I had recently had surgery and was still moving slowly. He thanked me for telling him. But he still adjusted the chair back to its original position just as quick as the first time. OUCH again!

I learned my lesson. Next week when I go to the dentist's office, I'm going to ask that they adjust my chair in slow motion. Or maybe I'll bring my pillow and put it over my stomach to cushion the blow. And get my point across visually.

The best way I can describe the incision "pain" is to think of what it would feel like if you had a piece of duct tape stuck across your lower region. So every time you move, it pulls on your skin. The more the incision heals, the more pain I feel down there. But I can tell my muscles are getting stronger as I do heal.

And all the other surgery "issues" I had have taken care of themselves. I've weened myself off of stool softeners without taking all 100 pills!