AuburnChick's Adventures

Hey y’all!

I hope your Monday is finding you refreshed and ready for a new week.

Let’s do a weekend recap, shall we?

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Friday

I’ll start with Friday since I was off of work recuperating from Thursday’s surgery.

Friday morning, I woke up when the Mr. let Gambit out to pee at 3:45. Yikes! So early! Our little guy is old, so he just cannot hold it as long as he used to.

The first night, post-surgery, wasn’t as terrible as I’d anticipated. I set timers to stay on track with my medicine, which kept the pain level tolerable.

These pain meds always make me itch, so I found myself scratching frequently throughout the night.

Take a look at the bruise on my hand. This is from the first iv the nurse put in – the one that wouldn’t allow fluids to drip because it was near a valve.

I have bruised easily for most of my life, and with the skin being so thin on the top of my hand, I was not all that surprised. It looked worse than what it felt.

Here’s what it looked like Friday afternoon . . .

After I got up, I read my First 5 devotion. We are studying Jonah right now.

Then, I got started on my NY Times games.

I don’t pay for a subscription, so I only play the free games. The Mr. and I like to compete against each other. With the recent app update, they created a Friends option. Rebecca and I are friends on all of the apps, so naturally, I invited her to join me.

I love puzzles and word games. These are great ways to keep my brain engaged.

With some of my games started (I have to ruminate on them sometimes because the answers don’t always come to mind quickly – if at all), I set them aside and listened to a couple of podcast episodes.

I also made my first cup of tea since Wednesday. It was delicious.

The Mr. had prepped Gambit’s food bowl for me, so when he let Gambit out of the bedroom around 6, I fed him. We spent the next hour or two watching the sun rise.

I also texted with Rebecca. We’ve been friends since 2006. She’s one of my dearest friends. She’s also an early riser like I am, so texting at that time of the day was perfectly acceptable.

I dozed in my chair a lot Friday. Pain medicine always makes me so sleepy. I can’t wait until I don’t need them so I can free myself of the cloudy funk I’ve been in since Thursday.

I iced my shoulder and neck all day following the 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off routine as instructed by the discharge instructions. I had a nerve block, which was administered into my neck. I remember being unable to turn my head without pain for almost a week after my first shoulder surgery. I wanted to see if I could cut down the length of time of the soreness, so my timer was constantly going off with reminders. Good thing I’d discovered how to label each one because I would have driven myself crazy trying to keep everything straight.

I watched another episode of the first season of Survivor while the Mr. was at the grocery store. He does our big weekly trip each Friday.

You know the saying, “It takes a village . . . “?

Well, Friday, it took a village to care to my needs.

Super Sis stopped by to bring me a package of fresh dill. It’s been difficult to find because everyone in town is making pickles. Tis the growing season!

Then, later in the day, I got a hankering for sliced tomatoes, which I intended to put on a bagel with melted vegan cheese. The Mr. called his mom, who has a garden, but she didn’t have any. She was headed out to Kroger and offered to pick up a couple for me. She brought those by an hour later.

With people texting me all day, I felt very loved.

The Mr. and I watched the opening games of the College World Series. Now that Auburn is out of it, I’m not very interested, but since I was stuck in my recliner, I didn’t have much choice.

The rest of the day was spent fighting sleep. I don’t know if my body was getting rid of the anesthesia, if it was finally releasing the stress brought on by months of pain from the injuries I got back in September, or if it was the pain medicine I’d been taking every four hours, but y’all, I felt rough.

I kicked the Mr. out of the den around 8:30 p.m. and called it a night.

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Saturday

I slept as well as one can expect post-shoulder surgery wearing a sling, sleeping in a recliner.

I itched all night long – probably a side effect from the anesthesia as well as the strong pain medicine I’d been on since Thursday.

The Mr. let Gambit out before sunrise, and then he (Gambit, not the hubby) grumbled at me for two hours – begging me to feed him.

I was too groggy to get out of my chair until 7:30. Lol.

I actually did feel refreshed when I finally started walking around. I may have gotten caught up on my sleep.

I got him fed, my morning meds in, and saw a text from Rebecca, who was checking in on me.

Friendship, y’all. This is friendship. 🩷

My hand looked a little better.

The Mr. was still asleep, so I made a cup of tea. Caffeine, y’all. Priorities!

When the hubby got up, he brought me a bowl of watermelon. The goal for Saturday was to get me to poop. I’m know . . . TMI . . . but that’s how I roll around here so, um, yeah.

Anesthesia and pain medicine do a number on my body; getting back into a “routine” is always challenging for me.

Before reaching for constipation meds, I wanted to try to handle things naturally.

I tried eating another half bagel with the toppings I’d been craving . . .

I made a Watermelon Mint Mocktail . . .

It needed a lot more mint because it tasted like watermelon water.

I even made a batch of Homemade Dill Pickle Gatorade.

It was quite good!

I had mentioned, a few days ago, seeing this recipe on Instagram. I’m resharing the screenshots.

The Mr.’s mom was out and about and picked up the apples we forgot to purchase yesterday.

What did I say about a village?

I dozed a little Saturday afternoon while the Mr. watched baseball. Then, it rained. Hello summer!

I did a sink full of dishes since the dishwasher was full of clean dishes that the Mr. hadn’t had time to put away. Washing dishes with my left hand was interesting and very slow-going, but I got the job done.

I watched one more episode of Survivor before turning out the lights.

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Sunday

Sunday morning, my medicine reminder went off right before 5 a.m.

I decided to stay awake. I really love sunrise.

I texted a Father’s Day message to Chicky’s husband. He is the sweetest young man. I also texted Rooster. We are incredibly blessed to have both of these guys at the helms of their little families.

Gambit was more than happy to snuggle with me once he got up.

Then, I settled in for some game playing.

I made myself a cup of matcha. It was the first I’d had since before my surgery. Doing everything with my left hand was a lot slower, but I managed! There’s not much that will stand between me and my matcha.

The Mr. cut and peeled an apple for me after he got up. I love a good honey crisp apple.

Then, we watched church from home. I was nowhere near ready to brave an excursion outside of the house.

I munched on another half a bagel.

The sermon was so good. I took notes in my app.

After church was over, God blessed me by allowing my plumbing to finally start working! It may not seem like much, but this was yet one more hurdle to overcome – one I definitely counted as a win!

I’d decided to try to stay off of the strong pain meds to further clear my system.

Ugh. The pain really started revving up, but being the stubborn person that I am, I dug my heels in.

Before baseball got started up, we decided to remove the thick bandaging from my surgery and get me into the bathtub. The last time I’d showered was Thursday morning before my surgery. I had been instructed to wait three days before resuming bathing.

The padding extended down my arm past my bicep.

I grabbed my waterproof sling and my foam bath.

The Mr. had to help me with everything. Fortunately, we are pros now, so we didn’t have a bathroom full of water and bubbles when we finished.

We got our first look at my incisions. They were almost identical to the set I sported on the left side. I think the bicep tenodesis incision is a little longer. It was done as an open incision instead of via arthroscopic means.

I felt like a new person after putting on a pair of clean pajamas.

The rest of the day was spent reading and watching baseball. I have my first physical therapy appointment Monday morning. I’m dreading it because I remember the first one after December’s surgery. I nearly threw up from the pain. The surgeon, however, is very insistent with his protocol. Waiting longer isn’t part of his regimen.

Good thing I’ll be home all week. I’m going to need this time to gain my strength back and get used to the discomfort that will company being up and about again.

What’s on tap for your week?

Filed under: This-n-That |