This was originally an email written to my family and friends on the date above. I decided to make these public in the event they may be helpful to someone in the future who is embarking on a similar journey to mine.
Hi Everyone–
The good news is I’m starting to feel like I’m really recovering from my surgeries. On the return trip from Tucson I walked both airports, I’m able to bend down and tie my shoes, stand straighter and raise my arms over my head. A sneeze no longer puts me in the fetal position for a few minutes, and I took the dog for a ~1 mile walk this morning. Perhaps the most telling indicator – when Caitlin used the bathroom yesterday and called for “wipers”, Heather “noes goes”-ed[1] me and made me get off the couch instead of her. 🙂
Yesterday I skipped taking Tylenol during the day entirely, I’m hoping to do so today as well. I still took some at night, but I’m down to 2 instead of 3.
I’m going to go in to the office tomorrow for our monthly team meeting – my first time driving since the surgery. Heather is in California for work for a couple of days so I’ll be on solo-parent duty tonight and tomorrow night. I have lots of support from Heather’s parents during the day so I should certainly be able to handle a few hours at night (why do those sound like “famous last words”?).
My PET scan is scheduled for Wednesday. I think we may delay one more week before starting the chemo (we’d still be within the 6 week window after surgery) so I can try to rebuild some more strength. I’m going to try a very short workout with very light weights later today – hopefully that will go well.
Overall I’m feeling good, wary of overdoing it, but also knowing I need to push it a little to rebuild strength. Hopefully I can maintain a reasonable balance.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noes_Goes
This post is part of the thread: Cancer – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.