September 3

Yesterday was absolutely, without a doubt, best day ever.

Of course I might be a little biased because I was so relieved to have NOT been readmitted to the hospital. :-)

I was up and at 'em bright and early and had almost my entire house cleaned by the time babydoll arrived around 10:30. While I was finishing up the house he went out and mowed the lawn for me, front and back. I then re-heated a burrito for him for lunch. We played some gin rummy and then decided a nap was in order. After napping we went for a walk around the block. Luckily I thought to grab the umbrella because no sooner did we start out, a rain (some hail too?) storm cruised by. Back home I baked my baby some cookies and we started putting together a puzzle that I had bought to help keep me entertained during my convalescence. It's a picture of a whole slew of candy wrappers from bygone days. So far, we have the outside frame done. It was day 3 without a shower so I went downstairs and muddled through that project, then popped my pain meds, and watched Scott get prepared to play doctor.

When I met him on Match.com, his handle was Gonzo with a bunch of numbers after it. I thought it was in reference to the weird blue bird on the Muppets that my mom used to have a crush on. Turns out there was a character on Trapper John, M.D. back in the mid-80's called Dr. George Alonzo 'Gonzo' Gates. My babydoll was the spitting image of this Gregory Harrison guy, back in the day. I guess he was mistaken for the actor on more than one occasion. So, yesterday, he got to step into Dr. Gonzo's shoes:

And he did a most excellent job!

After that we did a little cleanup out on the patio and I did the shrimp cocktail, grilled steak, and homemade mashed potatoes dinner for my incredibly hot, wonderfully caring, extremely talented man. Once again there were some cards flying while we waited for my 'feed' to finish and then it was off to bed to watch some TV. Not that I managed to watch any. I think all that cleaning in the morning wore me out. I was out like a light 5 minutes after laying down!

So as I was saying.........absolutely, without a doubt, best day ever. Wish they happened more often.

Each morning I've felt that the swelling in my face has gone down just a little bit up until this morning. Today, my face looks like it's puffed back up a little. Not sure what's going on with that.

I've been forcing myself to walk up and down my stairs normally which is a really great stretch for my leg. I'm going to ask Dr. M if there are other exercises I should be doing to start loosening things up.

I'm really bothered by not being able to smell. What if I step in dog poo and don't realize it?? What if Itty sprays my shoes when I'm not looking and I walk around all day smelling like cat pee?? What if I forget to wear deodorant and start reeking halfway through the day?? UGH! To all of my local friends and coworkers, you had better be on a smell lookout for me and steer me in the right direction when necessary!

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not but I asked Michelle about heavy exercise. I told her the answer in that stupid video was really unclear. She told me that if running 5k's is what I like to do then she'll have me doing that again before we're done. Of course, I'm not sure it's what I 'like' to do but it certainly always makes me feel healthier doing it.

As of today I will finally be out of Vicodin. Did they stock me up or what?? I will then be moving on to the Roxicet that they sent me home with. Pain meds are good.

And again, I can't remember if I mentioned it previously but I have been unable to yawn. Babydoll came to see me in the hospital and yawned in front of me 4x without affecting me at all. Turns out, that's probably because I was lying down 23 hours a day and wasn't tired enough because while we were in the waiting room in the emergency department I yawned! Three times in fact! I was so excited. Yeah, I know, who in their right mind would miss something as trivial as yawning. Well, when your entire world gets thrown upside down, you're suddenly breathing through a hole in your neck, can't talk, hell, can't even swallow your own spit, you get excited by every little bit of normality that comes your way.

I told babydoll yesterday that unless I get some mobility in my neck quick-fast, when it comes time to change out my PEG, I'm not sure I can go for the low profile one. I'm having a hard enough time bending my neck down far enough to see what I'm doing now. If I get the low profile one, I'll have to install a mirror in the kitchen at belly level and work from that.

I had a teary moment yesterday. I was sitting at the kitchen table with Scott and hopped up to grab my iPad, iPad stand, and keyboard (Thank you Kit and Fran! This keyboard has been a lifesaver!). He jokingly asked if I was feeling chatty. We have discovered that the Boogie Board is great for quickie notes, and answers but to carry on a conversation, I open Notepad on my iPad, set it up in front of him, and type away. (Thank goodness for typing lessons back in high school!) Anyway, the answer was yes, I was feeling chatty. It turns out it can get really lonely not being able to talk. I can sit, play, work next to babydoll all day long but being unable to make small chit chat with him while we're doing whatever we're doing, makes me feel rather isolated. I wasn't expecting that. I read that I might feel frustrated but it didn't say anything about being lonely. Ah well, one more thing to get used to.

Okay, I'm off to play on my Wii. The only plan I have for today is a quick pop-in visit from the visiting nurse between 10:30 - 11:00. Otherwise I'm free to lounge until my sweetie gets home from work around 6:00.