Your Body Can Have A Sense of Humor or BaaaHaaaHaaaaa!

Your body can have a sense of humor and mine is currently going BaaaHaaaHaaaaa! (add evil cackling sound to this as you are reading.) I went to the neurosurgeon on Thursday and he said I was recovering well. I could now drive and go back to work on Monday half-days. I have been going 8 hours between pain meds, so I'm feeling pretty good. I'm thinking to myself, half-days? I feel like I could go back full-days, but I'll do what he says.

So I wake up on Friday morning feeling pretty much like my regular self. WOO-HOO! I have really no pain to speak of and feel like I have some energy. Now, those of you who know me well, know that I don't sit around very well and this whole surgery recovery thing has forced me to step out of life and be taken care of by others. I don't do that very well, I will admit. Lorna and the kids have been AWESOME and have done almost everything that has needed to be taken care of save housecleaning. Housecleaning is usually my thing. Now there has been a growing layer of dust on everything over the past two weeks which has been bugging my anal-retentive self. Sooo, Friday morning, I feeling good, so I decide I can slowly clean the house. This WAS NOT a good idea on my part.

So I start in the morning by dusting the offending surfaces. I still feel good. Then I sweep the whole downstairs and mop. I still feel good. At this point, I take Lane and Maren who are off from school, out to lunch to celebrate Maren's last track meet the night before. By the way, the girl can run. We come back. I vacuum and straighten. I still feel good. Then, I take a break and watch The Seeker (good fantasy flick) with Lane. I still feel good. I decide after sitting for a movie, I'm good to clean bathrooms which are GROSS. So I go clean. I still feel good. Reed has spent the day at the YMCA's all day out, so I go pick him up. I still feel good. I come home and wait for Lorna. I decide to go outside and draw in my sketchbook. I still feel good. Lorna comes home and tells me how she really likes the new creative self I have become this past week and how I really shouldn't have cleaned the house. I still feel pretty good. I sit down on the couch. I fall asleep. Close to an hour and a half later, I wake up. I DO NOT feel good. Can we say false sense of energy and recovery? All that sitting and doing nothing for two weeks had charged my batteries up and in one day, I depleted them pretty much to zero. Your body can have a sense of humor and mine is currently going "BaaaHaaaHaaaaa!"

So, it's Saturday morning and I am back sitting on the couch, recharging with some pain meds in my system contemplating the whole surgery / recovery thing and how I am NOT back to my normal self---- despite what my brain thinks. I'm thinking that my doctor and wife are MUCH more wise than my foolish self. That there is a reason I am supposed to only go back to work half-days next week, and I'm thinking about when to take my afternoon nap which is totally UNLIKE my normal self. So reader BEWARE, your body can have a sense of humor and yours could be saying "BaaaHaaaHaaaaa!" if you don't listen closely.

Healing + Art Making

So when I started my recovery, my colleague, Leslie told me I should use this this opportunity to make some art. As an art teacher, I struggle between balancing my creativity in the classroom and working to make art of my own. Usually, between my school responsibilities, parenting responsibilities and church work, I find little time to make work of my own anyway. I always have good intentions, but like many people with diets and exercise, I fall off the wagon. I have decided to work on that part of my life during my recovery and take this opportunity of time that I MUST sit and do little to make some art of my own.

Like a good friend, teacher and colleague, Leslie sent me the following text in an email on Monday. Leslie wrote "You must create an original work of art in whatever medium you choose. You have the freedom to choose the subject matter/message you wish to convey. You get to choose the size of this artwork, but you MUST complete it before you're allowed back to work!!!!!!!!!!! And....you must bring it to work with you so it can be critiqued by your Art colleague! So.....if you're running out of movies to watch, and emails to answer.....now you have an assignment!"

I went on a shopping field trip over the weekend (thanks Lorna for being my driver!) and some recovery money (thanks RRISD Art faculty!) I was given to gather some items to make art.

Soooo, today I worked on a first piece. Pictured above you can view the beginnings of a collage I started today. I am tentatively titling this piece, Slice. I used cards sent to me during this recovery period and have literally sliced them into layers --- much like my neurosurgeon had to slice into me and through layers of skin and muscle to repair my pain. Incorporated within the collage, I have put words related to the idea of healing. For me as an artist, I am taking simple images from people who have expressed care, concern and thoughtfulness for me and woven them together, layering them as I go within a collage to create a new image that holds personal meaning to me both as a person and as an artist. That's my beginning. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

My big question to Leslie is "Can I come back to work now?"

Sunday Haiku --- Sleeping Status

I slept lying flat.
First time in four weeks yippee.
Still recovering.

Surgery and After the Surgery - The Patient's View

Surgery

OK --- so I had surgery on Monday. I lived to blog about it. Today, I am actually up and about. Considering how phobic I am about needles, the surgery went fairly calmly and I was not freaked out by the whole process. Who would have guessed. NOT ME. I am as surprised as anyone. I guess that if you are in enough pain, needles and the thought of their pricking points becoming imbedded in your body --- which normally TOTALLY and I do mean TOTALLY sends me over the edge, just doesn't matter. It went something like this. Need to put an IV in my hand? Sure, no problem. Just don't make me look. Gonna add something to my IV to "relax" me, go for it. Is it supposed to burn? OK, if you say so. Whoaaaaa, there it is. Yeah, I'm relaxed.

The first picture Lorna took of me after the people who were going to monitor my nervous system came in and literally wired my up like a Radio Shack display with wires and sticky dots. They told me later that they would be "sticking" small needle probes into me all over the place to monitor, but I wouldn't remember as I would be "OUT." What is it about traditional medicine and needles? Somebody enlighten me please. I guess it really was necessary for me to be a wired up for sound, a human pincushion. Good thing I was relaxed and OUT.

Then they roll me out of the prep area from Lorna and my parents (please note the lovely second picture with my blue hair covering --- at least I was calm with a sense of humor at this point). Last thing I remember is them putting an oxygen mask over my face and then as they say in the movies...... FADE TO BLACK. Yes, I'm gone. I'm outta there.

I wake up to a nurse trying to force a straw and a Coke of all things down my throat. You know, for a newbie to this surgery thing (having my wisdom teeth out at 17 is my only other experience), that wasn't really all that bad. Again, reference the pain factor I spoke to at the beginning of this post. If you hurt enough, I guess I pretty much will be game for whatever. NOT that I want to repeat this process anytime in the near future. I'm planning on going another 24 years before my next surgical event.

After the Surgery

I have been sitting on the couch. That about sums it up. I have moved very little. Kinda gives you a new view on life when your "big" event for the day is taking a shower and that tires you out. So here I am. Sitting on the couch. The one thing being down and out has done for me is seeing what AWESOME friends, colleagues and church family I am so blessed to have. The picture of me is with an incrediable basket of goodies from the art faculty who I work alongside in Round Rock. They totally took care of me with things to do, eat, listen to, etc... On top of what they sent, my church has sent meals this week which has helped my faithful wife and now nurse who is a saint doing all our usual life stuff, corraling three kids and getting things I need. She is also getting up at weird hours to help keep me medicated.

To EVERYONE who has stopped by, sent food or goodies, helped deal with my school chaos and classroom, THANKS so much. You do not realize how hard it is for me to sit on my hands and do nothing for these weeks while I recover. You are all the BEST.

So today, I got a field trip out to go to school and pick-up some grades to enter in my gradebook. I was also good boy by sitting on the couch, so I got to go with Lorna to the grocery store. This is our big weekly date and I hate missing my opportunity to go to the store with Lorna. At HEB Plus, you have some walking (ie. exercise for the couch sitter), demonstration food (ie. snacks!) and other people (ie. entertainment for the homebound). The kids are with my family this weekend watching NASCAR / High School Musical on Ice. Since I couldn't travel, Lorna and I are home alone.

So that's it. I am sitting on a couch. I surf the net, answer email, eat and watch old movies. I have many other diversions to do from my gift bags and baskets. This will be the last surgery post for readers enduring this event in my life. Thanks, everybody!