Crossing the Threshold

Why the picture of Obama? Because he gives me hope for the future of this country, and right now I'm feeling so good that I'm quite full of hope for my own future so I thought it seemed appropriate.

I've crossed the 6-week threshold. This is about the time when the doctor said I'd be healed up and back to normal. And I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty good. I seem to have gotten the programming figured out much better on this stimulator so I've been doing quite well. I haven't missed any work in the last two weeks and in fact I even earned a couple of extra hours this week! That's the first time that's happened since 2007 so it is kind of a big deal. I must be getting used to the tight wires in my neck because they don't bother me much at all...it's been at least 2 weeks since I've had a freak out about them and had to go lie down. I'll still probably get it fixed this fall if I can, but at least it's not a hugely pressing issue at the moment, which is a relief. Most of my surgical pain is gone. I have a few random pangs here and there but if I press on the incisions, they don't hurt. I rarely notice the battery in my way anymore either, I guess I'm getting used to that too. Sometimes I touch it for some reason and it surprises me because I forget it's there. I still have hematomas on each side of my head, which is getting annoying, but I figured I'd give those at least 2 more weeks before I really start to worry about them enough to call a doctor. I'm kind of over seeing doctors constantly. I'm enjoying the break from them.

I said I would give myself at least 6 weeks before I started riding my horses. Since the farrier is coming this weekend to trim their hooves, they should be good to go this weekend just like me. So maybe I'll take the old mare out and give her a go and see how everything feels. I don't know that I'm quite ready to take the mustang out yet but that has to do with more than just my surgery...he needs a little tuning up as well!

So all is good. I have a few more ideas for posts but I'm afraid that soon I'll be feeling so normal that I won't have anything left to write about!

Grrr!!

I'm having problems getting the programming/options on this thing figured out. Saturday I felt fantastic. Didn't have the stimulator on all day. It was the best I've felt since I've had the thing in. But Sunday I woke up with a headache and couldn't get it to go away. It was painful enough to lay me out for a good part of the day and make me nauseous. I was really frustrated. I finally got the programming tweaked properly and started feeling better around 6:30 pm...just in time for the day to be over. I went to bed with the stimulator turned on, and feeling decent, but then was awoken by the pain at about 2 am. I tried to tweak the settings as much as I could but I just couldn't seem to get it right. I ended up having to get up for about an hour in the middle of the night to play with it and whatnot because the pain was too bad to just lay there. The pain lessened for a little while from 3:30 until 4:30, then I had to change the programming again. Got back to sleep, but was awakened around 6:30 (time to get up anyway) with pain. I got up and changed settings one more time. I guess I finally got it right because then the pain started to ease up (slowly) and I was able to get to work, albeit a few hours late. And as of right now, I'm pretty much pain free. Go figure.

I haven't figured out what types/levels/locations of pain call for which settings yet. I didn't realize this stimulator would be so complicated. But, the good news is that when you do get it right, it does work. It just takes some figuring out, which is frustrating.

The other thing I'm grumpy about today is that my battery incision site has been hurting the last couple days. Not a lot, but more than it did last week, for whatever reason. It's not infected or anything like that, just a bit sensitive. And the hematomas by my head incisions are still there. I think they are a bit smaller but I'm not really sure. I think I'll give them another week and if they are still there I'll go to my GP and see what he has to say. Maybe if I'm really lucky he'll stick a needle in them and suck all the blood out. *shudder*