This week was the first week that I was physically back in the office. My work has been great about being flexible. I know that lunches were still gonna be a crapshoot with my stomach issues, so they allowed me to work remote in the afternoons. It was actually good to be back in the office. It kept my mind active and distracted from things. Also, I had wonderful support from long time friends in the office. I have one co worker who I've known since I pretty much started work many years ago who has offered up great advice relating to her own experiences with surgery. If anything it was therapeutic. But everything she said made perfect sense. Basically that no matter what kind of surgery it is, it's still a major surgery. It's something that your body has to recover from. We tend to live in a "want it now" society, and I guess that's the mindset I had coming into the surgery. But the fact of the matter is that I have to give my body some time to heal. She also mentioned how much random stuff happens to the body when it's trying to adjust. So maybe Im not going completely crazy.
As for the ankle, it has gotten progressively better each day. It's still pretty sore, but feels stronger. Couple if things I'm noticing. So at the 4 week mark, it's still pretty numb in places. Primarily on top of the foot closer to the ankle. Also tapping the right side incision still causes the nerve to shoot weird electrical stimulation through the foot. It's not painful until I accidentally hit it hard, but just a weird sensation. The redness below the incisions has gone waaaay down, and the scabs have finally come off. The one thing is that I'm still not sure if it has fixed my original problem. It's still early, but I feel soreness in that same area. I'm guessing its mostly due to the surgery, so I'll give it a chance to heal.
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| 2 Weeks |
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| 4 Weeks |
It has gotten a lot stronger. I've begun to increase my workouts...while at first I was a little hesitant on the elliptical, I've now expanded it to 30 minute sessions, instead if 3 minutes. Because if the nerve, the foot tends to get pins and needles after my sessions. It's not debilitating or anything, just annoying. The other thing I've done the last couple of days is started to mix in some runs on the treadmill. The ankle is still not ready for prime time, but since the treadmill surface is still light, I've been giving it a go. I've only maxed out at 1 mile, but considering I'm only 4 weeks out if surgery, I'll take it.
As for my other issues, I'm still having patchy sleep. Per surgery I was going to bed a 1 am and waking up at 8, these days I'm trying to get ahead of the sleep and have been going to bed at 10 pm and waking up at 5 or 6. Unfortunately I'm not asleep for that duration. Usually I woulda fall asleep by about 11pm and then I ALWAYS wake up st 2:30am. I just can't get that blasted hour out if my system. Then depending in what my body wants to do it'll either wake up every hour on the hour, or just random give me times to sleep. I think Im averaging around 5 to 6 hours a night of patchy sleep. But I guess it's better than the 3 that I was getting before.
My stomach is still a bit on the tweaky side. I've been starting to increase my food intake, bit by bit. At this point I'm not sure if it's acid or trapped gas, but I do know that I can't eat anywhere as much as I did before without my stomach feeling like I just hit a local chinese buffet. It's a little difficult considering I want to increase m workouts, but am only able to take in about 1000 calories a day. Yesterday I was able to up it a bit, but still not anywhere near normal. At least I've been able to get off the soup and crackers diet. Just have to eat slower, smaller bites and many more times throughout the day. I'm hoping that I'm getting better versus the fact that I'm just on Prilosec. I've got only 5 or so more doses, so hopefully when i stop it I'll continue to improve. Who knows? Maybe my stomach shrank after the surgery?
The one thing that still kind if bugs me is that I am still getting some of those anxiety feelings. They arent as plentiful as before, but still feels weird when it happens. They tend to show up as either shortness if breath or a weird twitch in my chest. I'm scheduled to have a stress test done in two weeks just for peace of mind. Lately it's only been happening while I'm exercising, so it'll be a good test to have done nonetheless. It may still be stomach as well.
Well that's pretty much my update for the week. Next week I'll be going into the office full time, so hopefully it'll be a good distraction for me...and hopefully my stomach will hold out through lunch time! Gotta just keep in mind that everyday is jut a little better and just to have a little patience.
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