Day 4-6: Pushing Through

Daily Tip: If you have friends or family that love you, hopefully they will offer to set up a meal train for you! This will save your life, as the first week is a nightmare no matter how much you plan!

Pretty much the same routine here. Minimal movement (turning over, bathroom breaks) because anything that isn't elevation causes extreme pain as the blood begins to run down to the surgery area.  Couple that with freshly cut bone, displaced nerves, dozens of stitches and foreign metal objects in your body and you start to wish you had a catheter instead.

Icing and elevation--so critical at this point. I've been icing and elevating continuously--only de-elevating for the restroom. It's so important for the healing process and to minimize swelling.  

The first week can be described as dicey, because both my husband and I are settling into the new norm.  I need constant assistance. I'm lucky that I have a spouse that works from home, but he DOES work--so fitting in breakfast, lunch, dinner, bathroom trips, water refills in the middle of business meetings has been really challenging. We did some pretty decent meal prep (or so I thought) but the stresses of all of this made it nearly impossible to get a cooked meal in.

A lot of people may say, "let us know what you need"--if you're comfortable, I totally say tell people ahead of time to bring you a meal in that first week or two.  If you are reading this and you're a person that knows someone that will be having this surgery (or any for that matter), just put in your head now that you will find out what day is best to bring a meal and just take it!!  The folks that have just dropped by a random meal have saved our lives.

Tomorrow is post-op visit #1, so the first chance to get a look at the incision and x-rays! Also my first jaunt out of the house, so we'll see how that goes!