Day 4 after surgery- 3/2/2010

So, yesterday was a productive day- one full day without any meds at all. In the morning, Chuck and I went to the dentist- cleaning appointments! So, I've gotten my insides reworked, and my teeth cleaned... I'm like a refurbished old car! So after the dentist, we came home, and I did some work on my taxes on the computer.  I coughed without holding a pillow; that's the last time I'll do that! Holy moly! I did some light stretching and light yoga.... below I describe in detail what I tried.

After that, Chuck decided he had an idea for dinner, so we took a trip a trip to the grocery store. By this time, I was walking a bit slowly; my incisions were starting to get quite a bit more tender.  I fought through it, but I felt like a little old lady walking slowly with my little grocery cart.... all I needed was a cane and some boy putting away groceries to shake my cane at to really complete the picture... lol. So really, though, I was starting to get really tired.  We finished gathering groceries Chuck needed to make dinner, and we came home.  I sat down on the couch and popped in Harry Potter The Half-Blood Price, while Chuck made dinner.  (It was actually dinner for the next night, since he was making ravioli, which should really be cooked from frozen.) So I rested during the movie with an icepack on the big incision, which really helps take the edge off.  I only use ice sparingly, because the incisions really need bloodflow to continue to heal.

Since the dinner Chuck was making was for the next day, he mixed me up a Shakeology ( http://bit.ly/BB_Shakeology ) for dinner.  We went for what was suppose to be a short visit over our neighbor's house and turned into an all night catch-up session! Their three little kids (6, 3, and 1) were prepped ahead of time on how to hug me, and they were so adorable.  They leaned in very gingerly and barely touched me with their arms; it was so cute. (Their mom told them if they hugged me too hard they'd send me back to the hospital! lol)  They made me a really sweet Get Well Soon card too!  They're so funny when they play, I had to hold a pillow against my stomach from laughing so much.  The visit was really really nice, and we got home around midnight and went straight to bed for a good night's sleep, where I actually slept in pretty normal positions, instead of just like a corpse!

Exercises:
Stand up tall with feet together and arms straight at sides.
While taking a deep breath, lift arms straight out to the sides and end with them extended straight over head.
Exhale the breath and slowly lower arms back down to sides.
(Repeat 3 times)

Stand up tall with feet together and arms straight at sides. 

While taking a deep breath, lift arms straight out to the sides and end with them extended straight over head.

Exhale the breath slowly and bend at waist with a flat back with arms slowly separating out to each side and head still looking straight ahead (simulating a swan dive motion). Keep legs straight and strong and together. Let back round over and arms hang.
Take a deep breath, straighten back so that it is parallel to the floor and 90-degrees to your standing legs and extend arms straight down (perpendicular to the floor and parallel to your legs).
Exhale and round the back and let the arms hang.
Take another deep breath slowly, and reverse swan dive- lifting the head first, then the arms, then the back until you're standing up straight with arms extended over head.
Exhale the breath and slowly let the arms down to the sides, still standing up tall.
(Repeat 3 times)