90 Days Post Surgery

It is 90 days since my radical hysterectomy. I celebrated by actually doing some yard work. I'm not going to claim I did the majority of it, because my roommate already had the front and side yards cleared before I joined in, but I did my best out in the back yard. I raked, I pulled, I lifted stuff onto the tarp. I didn't have to walk any of it to the curb, he did all of that, but I think I certainly made the burden of the clearing a slight bit easier on him.

There were a couple of downsides. I fell once. There is this place in the back yard that is really just a series of little sabotagey sinkholes. Next year, I will hopefully remember that going around the trees in that direction is a VERY bad idea and not to do it. There was also a problem with fire ants. They bit me, all over one leg and on my hands. They also covered the tarp, forcing us to move the last several loads by  hand.

However, despite those downsides, I moved faster than I have in the past. I was more balanced when I was walking around. I realize I fell once, but my roommate (who possesses far more grace then I do) said he often has trouble in that spot in the yard as well. I was also able to lift heavier things onto the tarps, which I am assuming is due to my lipoma being gone.

Best of all, I didn't have to take the massively long rest breaks between everything. I was tired and I did have to rest some, but I recovered energy faster. This meant the whole process went faster and we were able to finish in only one morning instead of two sessions over several days. I'm glad we were able to do this, because it started storming later in the evening and moving all of that stuff out of the wet, muddy, slick yard would have been impossible. We would have had to wait for everything to dry out, meaning all of the brush would have gotten even more infested with critters.

I was in pain for the rest of the day, but still able to function. I'll probably take some painkiller to insure I can sleep well, but I'm certain I'll be in good shape tomorrow. In the past, it would take me days to recover from this yard clean up. This was far easier.

So what did I learn today?

• It is far easier to use a rake if you don't have a 13 lb lipoma on your arm.
• Fire ants won't just sting you once. They will sting and sting until you kill them.
• I can walk end of back yard all the way to the front yard and then back to the house and not die. I will consider death in this process, but I won't actually die. 
• Vinegar takes out the pain of fire ant bites very quickly.
• It feels very good not to have to dread finishing the yard work.
• I am continuing to get stronger.
  

I think for 90 days post surgery, that is a pretty good list.