093 AWAKE? REALLY?

The next day, I woke up fully, sort of, with a soft cast on my foot and under instructions of total bed rest and no weight bearing.  I also had to keep my foot elevated, which essentially left me flat on my back.  This literally meant I was confined to bed for everything, eating, sleeping, awake and bathroom duties.  I pretty much had been for the past couple of weeks anyway, because I couldn’t get up.  Of course, peeing had been taken care of by Mr. Foley, but doing the major business required a bedpan.

SOFT CAST, POST SURGERY

Using a bedpan is downright uncomfortable and at times painful because it digs in in spots and you cannot get comfortable.  The first time I used one, was kind of embarrassing, but after a few more times, I commented to the nurse, “I have not got a single shred of dignity left in my body”.  It’s bad enough to do it and have the poor nurse empty it, but she must clean you up after.  Think baby having a diaper change.  I apologized every time to every nurse or care-aide who had to help me, but they all laughed it off.  The comment I heard the most was, “that’s why we get the big bucks”, and then they would laugh.

I didn’t wake up fully until two days post surgery.  I kept falling asleep with the remains of the anesthetic surging through my body.  I kind of suspect that because of my size, they tend to give me a higher dose, thinking I would need it.  Little did they know that I’m a total wimp when it comes to mind altering substances.  The rest of the week was spent relaxing and trying to find a comfortable position to lie in and follow instructions.

MY FOCUS AND RALLY POINT

A week later, I was taken downstairs for “cast clinic” where they were going to put me in a full hard cast.  I begged them not to as I knew that would mean no walking at all until it came off.  I don’t know if my pleading had anything to do with it, but Doctor Baschu opted to put me in an air cast or as they are more commonly referred to as a walking boot.  This made it much easier to keep track of the healing of my incision and to change the dressings.  I was still on total bed rest, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

MY WALKING BOOT, EXCEPT I COULDN'T WALK

The hours passed and turned into days and days turned into weeks.  All through this I kept up with my “one” theme which was focus on the day and get through it.  Don’t look back, although that was hard as I was constantly having to relate the story of how I came to be here.  Don’t look forward as it causes time to slow down.  I had milestones that I looked forward to each day.  Breakfast, even though it wasn’t the greatest, lunch and dinner.

LOOKING LIKE A GRIZZLED VETERAN

It was always great when I got visitors.  Renee came almost every day for what I nicknamed “drive by visits”.  She would bring me fresh fruit and later a clean T-shirt every day, when I started wearing clothes for physio.  She didn’t stay more than a few minutes as the weather was very hot outside and with Toby in the truck, we couldn’t risk it.  Caitlin came at least twice a week, and Karl came once a week.  Mixed in were surprise visits from an old work mate and hockey friend Robby Christensen and his wife Traci.  They would play an important part later.

I also got a visit from an old academy classmate in Wayne Cope.  We used to carpool to the academy together.  He brought me a big bag of Burger King food which I couldn’t eat because of my newly diagnosed diabetes.  Neil Thompson, my old corporal and more recently real estate agent came by.  Finally, an old partner I worked with Griff Simmonds who visited twice, including my discharge day.

We made the decision of not bringing Toby into the hospital, even though he could come in.  He is so smart that if he came in once, he would not stand for being left in the truck in subsequent visits.  It made it hard on him because he had no idea where he was.  Renee would have me talk to him on the phone and she said he seemed to recognize my voice, even though it was very weak, and he would give the phone a “kiss”.  I missed him a lot too.

Renee gave up all the shifts she was scheduled to work through the summer to stay with and take care of Toby.  She stayed at my place, because her place doesn’t allow dogs.  She had the use of my truck to run errands, but because of the heat of the day, she would have to do them early in the morning and then get them done quickly with Toby in the truck.