20 October 2025

 Just wanted to get it on record: I survived, I am fine, and all is well. I didn't feel as nervous as I expected, and after...well, I am not as laid up as I presumed I'd be. I have limitations, like no lifting more than 5 pounds, no driving, no bikes, but I also have very, very little pain. The drain sites feel like a bruise and my upper chest is a weird mix of itchy and numb, but nothing I'd quantify as pain.

Day after, I ventured outside to walk around the court a couple times. I felt like I could do more, but was informed I was not, in fact, doing that, and was going back inside to rest.

If I wanted to walk more, there was always up and down the hallway.

Fine.

Day two, Spouse Thingy drove me the quarter mile to a little park around the corner, where we lapped it three times. I think that comes out to a bit over half a mile, which was enough.

Yesterday we wandered the neighborhood, looking for shade, and why the FORK is it hot and sunny during the back half of October? Inside there were video games and TV, so we cut it at half a mile again and went home where the cold drinks live.

Today...Costco. We didn't really need anything but the food court has some killer ice cream, so we walked around there with the idea that I'd get it on the way out.

You know what Costco is on a Monday around noon?

BUSY, that's what.

I did not get my ice cream there, but he did take me to Wendy's for a Frosty, which was just about as good.

You know it's an uneventful recovery when all I really did was walk a bit every day. I honestly thought I would have a couple of weeks where I did nothing but whine, scarf down all the Norco they gave me, and eat junk food. But I feel like I could do a hell of a lot more, advisable or not. 

Today was shower day (thank god) and I got to see my chest. It's not too bad. Kinda concave on the left side, which will either resolve or not, I don't care. The incision looks good and once I can start scar care, I can hopefully get it to nearly invisible (but again, if not, oh well. Aesthetics were not the goal here.) I'm just happy that as far as major surgery goes, this has basically been a cakewalk.

(That saying makes no sense to me, as I have lost every cakewalk I've participated in.) 

The hard part?

This guy.

Ducky loves to cuddle at night, usually by kneading his paws into my throat while he lays by my head (on my right side, he insists.) But he also likes to stand on my chest and wiggle around while he finds the right spot, which just seems like a bad idea.

I did give him a chance on day 2, hoping he would be all right with me being only on my back, while not being allowed on the chest. He was all right for about 3 minutes, when he sat up and stared at me, and placed on paw right where he shouldn't.

I felt like a monster putting him out of the room and closing the door.

And we won't tell anyone I picked his 10 pound little self up to do this.

I'm not sure how much longer he'll be barred from sleeping with me. Day after tomorrow I get the drains pulled, and I'm not sure what's next. I think there will still be another week of sleeping on my back, but I'm not sure about letting him in. Even when I sleep on my side, I sometimes roll onto my back and he'll notice if I do.

So if you feel bad for anyone in all this, feel bad for Ducky.

Drains on Wednesday, I think a checkup at one month, and at 6 weeks I can get back on the bike, join a gym, anything I want. Maybe get out of Spouse Thingy's hair, because by then he will surely deserve it.