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June 3: In Stow at Judy’s for my rehab.


June 2: Another tough night of pseudo-sleep, and then waking up and just feeling like I got hit by a truck. Man, mornings are just the worst right now. Had to reach for the pain med almost from the moment I awoke. Now speaking of pain meds, being that I’m about 2.5 weeks into post-surgery, I’m starting today to make a concerted effort to gradually ween myself off of this narcotic pain med that I’m on. My prescription calls for 1-2 tablets every 6 hours. Every since I’d been out of the hospital I’ve been taking like 2 tablets in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 2 at night. So from the get-go I tried to stay under what the prescription advocates for a typical day. Today I’m going to go on 2 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon and 1 at night. Then tomorrow I’m going to see how I feel and maybe lessen the amount based on today’s pain level. 

It’s kind of funny actually, the way they want you to describe how much pain you’re in. Like they want to know how much you hurt based on this arbitrary 1-10 scale, 1 being hardly at all and 10 being brutally terrible pain. Now I believe that this scale is so…person dependent for lack of better words. Like my 5 could be someone else’s 8. You see, it’s really dependent on the person and their level of pain toleration. So when I’m telling my nurse this past Wed that my pain level in the morning is like a 5 or 6, in actuality that could b a 8-9 on someone else’s pain scale. And I’m not saying this to be a smart ass or a hard guy. I just think my toleration of pain is higher than a layperson’s because I’ve been through, and I’ve used to some pretty heavy duty pain situations in my lifetime, some from sporting activities where I’ve pushed my body into some seriously painful areas, and some from actual situations where I’ve hurt myself and had no pain meds to deaden the pain. Hell, when in my 20’s I broke my ankle up in the mts. out in CO, and had to hike out for 10 miles. THAT hurt! I’d call that an 8. So for instance, a 10 to me would be just indescribable. I mean I couldn't imagine a 10. A 10 to me is like loosing an arm or leg for God’s sake!

Even that first day out of surgery, I’d say I was at a 7 or 8 without my pain meds - and that was right after I had my chest split open like a lobster shell. So anyway, if I can tolerate a 5-6, and I want to gradually acclimate to a bit more pain and a bit less meds. If I can get that morning pain into the 4-5 area, I think I’ll be fine. And I say all this for two reasons: One, so I can get my bowels back to normal without all the prune juice and raisons, and two, just because of the mere fact that I don’t want to become dependent on a narcotic medication for every ache and pain I’m experiencing.

Now today was one of those super sleepy days. I’d work for a couple hours and then nap for a couple hours. I just couldn’t get to the point to where I felt up and Adam for the rest of the day. Finally, around 2 PM, I just had to do something, so I did a walk to Aldi’s to buy some dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has become my go-to guy in the evening to replace a nice glass of red wine or a beer. Plus, it’s heart healthy. So I rousted, got dressed, got my little day pack, and did the walk to Aldi’s. The temp was a bit hot, in addition to some fairly moderate humidity. So those two thing coupled with my feeling pretty tired combined to make this a somewhat challenging walk. I just didn’t feel too strong today. And with this walking thing I’m currently doing, I have to purposely walk slowly so as to keep myself in the RPE 3-4 range. That in itself, trying to walk slowly - like at about a 2.5 mph pace - is not easy! 

So I made it to Aldi’s, bought my dark chocolate, and then took a longer way back to Judy’s. Probably got about 3 miles in, but boy I was tired. I mean I was tired to the point to where I just stripped back into my shorts and plopped on the couch for another cat-napping session. Later in the day Vic brought over some great dinner for Judy and I. Judy’s back went out today, so now there are two gimps stumbling around the house! She’s laying on one side of the couch and I’m on the other. Hope we’re feeling more vim and vigor tomorrow!