Clean Bill of Health

Today has been a great day so far!

First of all, I drove myself down to Vanderbilt.  This is quite the milestone, as the last time I drove anywhere it was back from the Kroger where I damn near passed out the day before I went in the hospital back in early September.  Again--progress.

Anyhow, my follow-up appointment with the doctor who did my surgery was today, and it couldn't have gone better.  He was impressed with my recovery so far and told me I looked about a thousand percent better than the last time I saw him.  Truth is, I feel about a thousand percent better than the last time I saw him, too. 

The good news is that I'm pretty well down the road to recovery, and although not quite 100% just yet, I should be there soon.  I'm shooting for 'normal' status around the new year.  In the meantime, I've just got to work on getting my strength back and building some endurance.  And on the plus side, he cut out about half of my medications, and told me that I can start weaning myself off of painkillers now, too.  No more potassium supplements, either.  And I'll be especially thankful for not having to take that Lasix stuff anymore either.  Having to go pee every half hour or so is a real pain in the ass...

They poked and prodded at me for just a few minutes, examined my scar, asked me a few questions, gave me some prescription refills on the stuff I still have to take, and then told me that I was good to go.  No other appointment was made.  (Still not out of the woods just yet--got an appointment on Thursday with me new 'primary care' physician, but that won't be much of a hassle).  I still have to go to the Coumadin clinic every week and get my blood tested, and I'll be on that stuff for six months, but that's actually not too tough.  Now I know that the doctor wants me to go to cardiac rehab therapy, (basically supervised exercise where they monitor your vitals the whole time), but the one he referred me to is $186 per session, and the standard 'recovery package' is 36 sessions.  That ain't gonna happen...

In the meantime I'm just gonna keep on walking, and maybe invest in some lightweight dumbells to help build back up the strength.

Anyhow, just having the folks who put me back together telling me that I'm doing well, well, that just improved my outlook immeasurably.  Sitting around the house wondering if life will ever be normal again is a tough thing to chew on day after day. 

So once I escaped from Vanderbilt, I felt like a free man once again.  I could drive--I could go anywhere I wanted to!  So what did I do?  I came back to the house.  I rested a bit, then gathered up all the stuff that had to go to the cleaners, some outgoing mail, and off I went to run errands.  I also went to the grocery store, but didn't pick up but a few random things.

When all that was done, of course I was exhausted.  I came home and dozed in the easy chair for a bit, but then got up and fixed some lunch.  I think I'm done exerting myself for the rest of the day, but tomorrow I'm going to go on a real hike--I'm going to do one of the longer trails over at the park.  I still may go out and do a walk this evening, depending on how I feel.  And whenever Sherry's next day off is, I'm gonna drive over there and do another trail I saw that's near her house. (She said she'd walk with me).  Gotta get in shape for this cruise--that ship is over 900 feet long, and just getting off the dock is a hike.

I wish I had more to share, but that's all the news from here today.  But it's good enough for me.

Mikey