Took Myself Off the Drugs

It isn't really clear when you don't need pain meds anymore, and it isn't all that clear when they are working or what they are doing. But now we are on Day 5 and that seems like long enough to be on opiates, especially when I am not feeling out of control with pain.  So this morning I took my last oxycodone pill and then decided to see what happened.  New areas of pain appeared, but nothing dramatic. Now I know where the incision is (don't touch that) and it is hard to find a truly comfortable position for this leg, but it isn't off the charts terrible. So far so good. Still on Tylenol and Celebrex (not sure if that has anything to do with pain but it is an anti-inflammatory) and I get two shots of blood thinner every day.  That seems like enough medicine.

Phone calls and zoom meetings and emails and visits and naps and meals -- all from the chair in the middle of the livingroom. The PT guy is coming tomorrow, not today. The system seems kind of random, but I'm okay with that.

My outing was a slow drive on the golf cart around all the fields, looking at the little plants, seeing what needs to happen next. I always think of George Washington on his horse, riding through his whole farm every day. A golf cart is so much easier to get on/in, and it takes so little care. I could not get on a horse right now.

I think this series can be over when we get to one week past the surgery. It doesn't seem like there is much to report, which is good.  Great.  I have no stamina, no capacity for any physical effort, my brain seems fine, and I am supposed to keep healing.  Now I sometimes forget to retrieve my walker when I leave it somewhere in the house, but it is still faster and better to use the walker than it is to totter around unsteadily.

The crabapple tree next to the porch, right over the hot tub, a straight shot from where I sit -- it is at peak bloom. Glorious pink puffy blossoms, all day long, filling the window. I will always remember that. It usually blooms toward the end of April. This is several weeks early, like all the blooming trees.

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