April 15 - Man in slow motion

So much happened today and I am a wee bit run down. Sorry if my enthusiam is tempered but I wore out the victory gong yesterday.

I had a steady stream of health care professionals this morning. It started with PT in moving around with one leg and I used a walker to hop across the room to my comfy chair. I talked to the chaplain and we discussed a member of his church who had also been down the multiple surgery path to end up with an amputation and his life back. I had some more therapy to build the puny runner's upper body to lift the mass of jello out of the chair and then back to the quivering sitting position.

There were two other ladies I talked to, one was the case manager and the other was a chaplain. We can all understand how many people have difficulty with this operation, I wish they didn't have to have the debilitating depression or anxiety than comes with an unexpected or planned procedure. If there is time, becoming educated about how lives are enhanced from the procedure offers the kind of real hope that has real meaning.

All day I received flowers, emails, cards and some visits. Our friend Nancy dropped off some Godiva chocolates, and these have managed to vanish into thin air. Judy and Mike sent a beautiful floral arrangement and Carleen brought flowers to me that have a story best left for later since I can "hardly hardly" as my dear old dad was fond of saying.

My good friend Betsy stopped by in the evening with a 24" x 36" greeting card created from a check print signed by my coworkers with comments, so it's recycled. I should say I have a Scottish ancestry and being green and being, uh, economical (aka cheap) are the same wee beastie.

Betsy also brought some killer chocolate cookes that seem to be chocolate injected with chocolate, dipped in chocolate and then infused with a double chocolate emulsion. I could only manage one and broke out in hives that spelled H E R S H E Y across my forehead in neon colors.

Leg is doing okay. Last night one of the nerve blocks pulled up stakes around midnight and I was given an oral med pain killer. I had my pills for tonight and they are kicking in...these cause the fuzzy thinking I am so familiar with and it will take me as much time to write the next few lines as it did to write everything preceding this sentence.

My doctor's assistant stopped by and we discussed the dressing change tomorrow, the shrinker, and the possibilty of doing some impatient rehab to help me prepare to function with my prosthetic. Nothing specific for the healing leg, this would be balancing, lifting the quivering mass of jello out of the chair and then dropping it back without missing the target and kissing the floor with my broadway backside.

It's nearly 4:30 a.m., so naturally this popped into mind from the movie Witness:

Eli Lapp: 4:30. Time for milking.
(John Book played by Harrison Ford is trying to milk a cow)
Eli Lapp: You never had your hands on a teat before.
John Book: Not one this big.

I'm up because every so often a staff person comes in to check the vitals so I thought I'd wrap this post up. It's going to be another action-packed day on Thursday so I should get some sleep, which I am doing better at tonight. Pain level is between 3 and 4, nothing bad considering my procedure.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

- William Shakespeare

I am one lucky man.