Medicine Head
Well, for being a minimally invasive procedure - in fact, non-invasive if you presume invasive means cutting - the recovery from this procedure (a ureteroscopy with stone manipulation) is horrible!, way worse than my gastric bypass surgery or recovery. Why? This horrid stent that was left inside of me is very uncomfortable. It causes spasms of pain almost every time I move, and the medication only minimally reduces the discomfort. I'm loaded up on Ditropan - an overactive bladder medication - that is supposed to stop spasms of the smooth muscle, but it's not doing the trick. It helps a little but mostly just makes me dizzy. I have Vicodin to rely on for the pain. So, I'm dizzy and dopey. It hurts to sit or walk, so lying down is best (which is convenient, seeing as I'm all doped up.) I can't drive, and I'm going stir crazy. I feel like I have to pee every two minutes, but hardly anything comes out. But, if I resist the urge to go, it hurts even worse, so I'm chained to the bathroom. I'm trying to do some onlne holiday tasks like ordering cards and making wishlists and such, but my typing is a little off, so I may end up registering my son for something at Amazon that is utterly inappropriate. Thank goodness for FMLA, or I'd probably get fired for missing work. I'm too dizzy to even read! Pay per view, anyone?
I go back to see my surgeon on Wedsesday - hopefully he'll remove the stent then. Oh, and won't that be fun? More pain, more bleeding. Yay, yah, yah. Oh, at least he got both of the stones out during the procedure, so hopefully this won't be an issue again.
Off to return to my drug-induced haze. Please join in my online pity party - your comforting words and sympathy will be most welcome!
Open, Close, Open, Close
The windows, that is. Such is life on the Central California Coast in our home with no air conditioning and tons of southward-facing windows in a living room with a cathedral ceiling. 7 a.m., wake up and the heat is on, it's cloudy and dreary outside - windows closed. By 10 a.m., the clouds break, the inside temp hits 71 - open the windows. Within an hour, the inside temp drops to 67 and the heat kicks back on - turn off the heat and close the windows just a bit. By 1 p.m. the sun is shining brightly and the temp inside is back to 71 downstairs and 75 upstairs - open upstairs windows wide, turn on exhaust fan upstairs, open windows and close curtains downstairs to keep out bright sunlight. By 3:30, the sun has begun to disappear behind the building evening clouds, the outdoor temp is bask into the lower 60's and the interior temp is dropping downstairs, but not upstairs - close the downstairs windows. 8 p.m., outside temp is now in the 50's and we're finally able to close the upstairs windows (except in the master bedroom, which is always at least 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the upstairs.
Doesn't this sound like fun? This is the price we pay for living in a land without winter. Don't even get me started on summer - the sun only comes out between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and during those four hours the temp climbs into the 80's in our house. And somehow, it still never really gets warm emough to swin outdoors here. Just can't get used to it. Oh, and if you ever some to visit, make sure you bring every piece of clothing you own - you're likely to need all of it within the course of a day!