June 4: In Stow at Judy’s for my rehab.

June 3: So I got up this morning, feeling that same “just got hit by a truck” feeling I’ve had every morning since surgery. But this time I kind of hesitated on going for the pain meds first thing. Just got up, situated some pillows on the couch so I could sit down, brewed a cup of coffee, and then sat there. Ten minutes went by. Then twenty. Then thirty went by and I still didn’t reach for the pain meds. Finally, after about 35 to 40 min of siting there, just kind of letting my body settle back to an upright stance and letting it wake up a bit, I figured I could go without the pain meds. I was actually feeling better by just letting my body adjust to being awake for those 40 minutes, by letting it loosen up, and by letting the pain kind of dissipate for a bit as I became more awake. That to me was bloody landmark. To not go for those pain meds like Pavlov’s dog first thing in the morning, that gave me a sense of control, and a feeling of “wow, I’m actually getting better”. I can deal with this now without the narcotics. 

And by God I went the rest of the day with zero pain meds. And it wasn’t like I was just being a jerk, and dealing with this intense pain just to see if I could because I’m a hard ass. Nope, it was like once I got through the morning pain session, everything else with just gravel. I really am feeling better, and I am, at least for that day, able to go through the day with less pain and no need for pain meds. Now don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t wake up and become pain-free. There’s still chest and left arm pain, but it’s definitely something I can deal with right now. And it’s nowhere as bad as the first couple of weeks out of surgery. 

So I worked for several hours on the computer, ate breakfast, and then pup on my walking gear and went for a 1:20 hr walk. Now again, my pace is way slower than where I’d like to be, this to stay within the doc’s RPE guidelines, but I just stayed slow and steady for well over an hour. While I was on the bike trail, and when no one was around, I’d do these light weightless calisthenics with my arms where I’d do shoulder presses, chest presses, chest flys, and these long sweeping motions with my arms from my side to above my head. I’m doing these to kind of begin to regain ROM in my arms, chest, shoulders, traps, lats, and on and on and on. Felt great, and pain free. Now when someone would walk or ride by me, I’d immediately cease the goofy arm stuff and just try to look like a normal person walking. But that made me think “never again will I caste a quizzical eye at someone out on the bike & hike trail doing the upper body calisthenics thing that I now find myself doing!” Guess you have to walk in someone else’s shoes to actually see the light?

So I got in this great hike for 1:20 hrs, and then walked into the house, stripped down to my shorts and just cat-napped for an hour. Now I could have gone longer for sure, but I was able to pull the plug, get up and get dressed, and then take my computer outside to work on the patio for 3 hrs. Again, felt like I’d made a major step forward in not cat-napping half the day away. I’ve been working on my “98 Days” book, the one about my 2009 trans-Canada trip, and I made a ton of headway yesterday. Usually it takes me 3-4 days worth of writing to get just one day of the trip finished. And today I got a whole trip day written, so the progress was wonderful. 

Had dinner, watched some boob tube and that was the day, a whole day without narcotic pain meds. Yahoo!