Day 722

Finally the first week of recovery is coming to an end.  Got a glowing report from the doctor and I'm good to go.  That is starting the real recovery.  I can go for walks for the next few weeks and then I can go back to the gym and walk on the treadmill and lift 10lb weights.  Also some body weight exercises are fine.
I'll take it slow and steady until the sixth week, which is when I can start ramping up to get back to my previous workouts.  That'll take another month or so.

Breakfast: Oatmeal, blue berries, and banana.  20oz of cold water.

Lunch (or second breakfast): Two pancakes.  I took a friend (my driver this last week) to "lunch" but it was still early enough that we ended up eating breakfast.  I ended up getting a couple of pancakes and a scramble.  The pancakes were more than enough so took the scramble home in a doggy bag.

Dinner: Went to friends for a BBQ and we had hamburgers and hot dogs (actually brats).  There was also a broccoli salad and baked beans.  I also broke my fast and had a soda.

So after the doctor visit I went for a walk as the weather was awesome (figures it's the last day of my vacation).  I walked for 30min and I'll keep that up for the next few times and then up the time some until I get to the three week time.  Then I can go back to the gym and continue my cardio workouts as I build up to the final week of my recovery.  For now though just happy to get this behind me and start moving forward.

Day 721

It's the start of the new week and two days left of vacation.  Tomorrow morning I'll visit the doctor for the follow up on my surgery and it should go just fine.
I got up a bit earlier than I have the last few days but other than trying to sleep on my side, everything is pretty much the same.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with blue berries and Greek yogurt.  Drank my 20oz of cold water for the first time in a week.

Lunch: Went to lunch with a friend ( cabin fever finally took over).  I didn't drive but we went for Philly cheese steaks.  I had a 6" with mushrooms and an order of garlic fries.  It was quite good.  I didn't eat all of the fries so brought them home to eat later.

Dinner: Made a mixture of ground turkey, the garlic fries from lunch and broccoli, then put it all into two burrito shells.  Quite delicious.

Fingers crossed for a good report tomorrow.  I'd really like to be able to drive again.

Day 720

Feeling more of that cabin fever.  Gotta remember that I'm following doctor's orders and no driving.  No matter what.  Wow this is almost as hard as convincing myself that eating better is good for me.

Breakfast: Oatmeal and blue berries.

Lunch: Decided to make some burritos with ground turkey.  Don't have a lot of ingredients but was able to dig through the cupboards and come up with some spices.  Turned out pretty good.  I added some black beans to the turkey to make it more filling.  So made some scrambled eggs and turned it all into burritos.

Late afternoon: Smoothies again.  I'm really liking my blender.

Dinner: An old standby, pot sticker soup.  This time I stir fried broccoli and mixed that into the soup with sausage (1).  It did satisfy me to a point but for now it will do.

Late night snack: Blue berries mixed with some Greek yogurt.

So I did go for a longer walk today but not that much longer.  I really wanted to feel my body and see if it was going to act up or go with it.  I'm happy to say that it was a normal walk and nothing bad happened when I got back.  I think I'm healing quite nicely and I hope the doctor agrees on Tues.  Now I just have to wait it out for a couple of weeks before I can get back to the workouts.

Day 719

So it's now been four days since the surgery and I'm feeling quite good.  It seems though that I might need to drink LOTS of prune juice as things are stagnant.  We'll see how it goes later in the day. 

Breakfast: Oatmeal and blue berries with...wait for it...prune juice.

Lunch: Pot sticker soup mixed with corn and quinoa.  The quinoa had broccoli, cauliflower, and sausage added to make it more filling.  Some more prune juice.

OKAY, I can stop drinking the prune juice (in the quantity I was previously).  Everything seems to be back to normal.  Yay!

Dinner: Sweet potato fries and pot stickers.  The last of the quinoa.

So after the prune juice kicked in I went for a walk.  Still not walking too far but I needed to do that instead of continuing the vigil in front of the computer.

I'm feeling a bit of cabin fever due to not being able to drive until Tues.  I may have to call someone to take me somewhere, any where.  Ah well tomorrow is another day and I still have a couple more days of vacation to go.

Day 718(Post surgery day three)

So I'm feeling much better this morning.  At this point I'm going to hold off on the pain pill as I really don't feel much pain.  I was going to go out and hang with a friend but decided to stay in and keep the current schedule of sitting with some walking around the condo. 
I did walk up to the mailbox and picked up my mail for some extra exercise.  I'll probably do some walking around outside a bit later in the day also.

Breakfast: So made a breakfast burrito.  Three eggs, some bacon, the rest of the quinoa, some tomato, and salsa.

Late afternoon snack: Smoothie.  Again putting that blender to good use.

Dinner: More quinoa this time mixed with sausage, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

So I didn't go for another walk.  I did feel better during the day but still felt like I should be going very easy.  I didn't feel the need for a pain pill at all and I expect that will continue tomorrow.  I am a bit concerned due to not having had a, hmm how do I put this diplomatically?  Let's just say I've been drinking prune juice to help stay regular.  Not too concerned yet but we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Day 717 (Post surgery day two)

In a bit of pain today so once I eat something I'll take a pain pill.  It's manageable pain just over the threshold of annoying so the pain pill will help a lot.

Breakfast: Three eggs and some of the quinoa from last night.

During the day I made a smoothie.  Finally broke out the blender I bought a couple of years ago to make smoothies.  I got three glasses out it but not sure how healthy that was.  I made it with one of the protein drinks and orange juice along with some strawberries, blueberries, and a banana.  Also threw in some plain Greek yogurt.  I will say it tasted great.

Dinner:  Hamburger on a ciabata bun with an egg and guacamole with some tomato.

So I did end up taking two pain pills today.  I took the one in the morning.  I noticed when getting out of bed in the morning that the pain was definitely there.  I then felt like it was coming back in the later evening so I did take another one so that I'd be able to sleep in comfort.  I figured it might be an issue.

So tomorrow we'll see how it went and if I need another one at that time.  I'm hoping not, but.......

Day 716 (Surgery day one)

My day started at 5am.  Went through the pre-surgery stuff, mostly talking as it turns out.  Then after a couple of hours of that it was time.  They took me in this really white room with lots of interesting machinery standing around and two or three nurses.  The knock-out guy starts giving me something and I respond that it's starting to get fuzzy and then they are talking to me saying everything went great.  I'm like WHAT it's over?  Sure enough it was an hour and a half later and I have no recollection of that time or what happened.  Weird and cool.

So went home later in the morning and then I could eat.

I had a ham sandwich with a small amount of potato salad (probably a couple of tablespoons worth).  I wanted to be careful and not over do it since I hadn't eaten other than the hamburger the night before for about 60hrs.

Later in the day I had an apple.  I also made a smoothie with mango and banana.

Dinner: Pot stickers and quinoa with sausage.

I'm not in a lot of pain ( took a pain pill during the day) but we'll see how tomorrow goes.