Recovery

An hour of pre-op, 1 1/2 hours of surgery, 3 hours of post-operative recovery, 48 hours of complete bedrest, and 10 days of slowly improving and we should be ready to do it all over again with Don.

The doctor called today to check on me, interestingly enough at the moment I felt the best throughout the whole day. The majority of the day was rough - I was very nauseated, had a bad headache, and kept spitting up blood. I finally tried a Phenergan suppository with my pain medication, slept for several hours, and woke feeling better.

The children and Don have been amazing. Just when I think to myself that I need something, Don will appear at my side to check on me. He's been intuitive and sweet, the intuitive part something that I seldom see in him. The children have been very quiet. Most of the time, it feels like no one's in the house, they're so quiet. Then I'll wake up to find one snuggled next to me in the bed or hovering quietly over me, checking to make sure Mommy's still alright. They've been unbelievably sweet and gentle, helpful and noiseless.

Last night, Dane baked two batches of peanut butter cookies, taking one dozen to my father and proudly presenting the rest to the family (he snuck two into my bedroom so I could taste). This morning, I asked him if he would like to try his hand at bread (from a mix . . . in the bread-maker, but, still . . . ). I found Sweet Hawaiian mixes on clearance at Kroger several months ago and decided that would be the perfect accompaniment tonight for the Cream of Potato Soup I made before surgery for the family's dinner tonight. I carefully explained to Dane how to put the yeast at the bottom of the pan, then the dry mix and, last, the water and how to set the timer so the bread would be ready, hot from the oven, right at dinner time.

He was very proud of his loaf of bread, which was delicious. Don, however, vetoed my Potato Soup in favor of finishing the Basil (home-dried from last year's garden), Sun-dried tomatoes (home-dried from my garden last year), and feta cheese quiche I made earlier in the week. There was still almost a whole pie left and he wanted to finish it off before tackling the foods I made for post-op recovery.

I'm so pleased with the children's cooking and baking progress this summer. Deanna, out of necessity because I've been so sick, has made dinner about once a week. At the beginning of the summer, I'd have to repeat every instruction six, seven times and she'd disappear after every stage. I'd have to track her down repeatedly to keep her on task. Now, she's become so much more comfortable in the kitchen and needs only one pass on directions. And Dane volunteered to make my scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning.

Me: "Honey, it's 11 a.m., I'm nauseated, and I haven't had anything to eat yet. I think putting something on my stomach would help."

Don: "Okay. What would you like?"

Me: "I don't know. Just something. I need to eat. Can you just make me something?"

Don: "How about some scrambled eggs and a piece of toast."

Me: "That sounds wonderful, but can you make the eggs light and fluffy instead of rubbery, the way you usually make your eggs?"

Dane: "I CAN make your eggs, Mommy. I know how you get them light and fluffy. Let ME make your breakfast."

Me: "Are you sure you can handle it? Cracking the eggs into the pan and all?"

Dane: "Yep. I know how to do it, Mommy."

And, sure enough, he did. Just enough salt, light, fluffy, and delicious.

I'm recovering slowly, sleeping tons. Inbetween, I've been working with Dane on wrapping his Christmas presents and a few of mine. Our goal is to have all the children's Christmas presents made and wrapped before school starts again after Labor Day. As of this morning, we had 15 of Dane's finished presents to wrap and two more to be made. In the process of wrapping, we discovered that he had two presents for the same person and was missing the present for his Aunt and Uncle in Colorado. So he still has 3 to make - and 10 more to wrap. But we're making progress. Only three left to make - the goal is attainable.

Deanna's progress lags a little further behind. Earlier this week, before surgery, we wrapped 11 of her presents, but she still has a good many to make. And we haven't even begun to work on Daelyn's list. He has several presents made, but we haven't yet decided who will get his creations and he sure doesn't seem very interested in working on his gifts. Christmas must just still be too far away for him. He doesn't have any vision at all for giving presents to his family members. Maybe he's still just too young.

We've gotten a lot of cleaning done in the house. The problem is keeping it clean. Wednesday night, in preparation for my surgery Thursday, I had our bathroom spotless and the children worked tirelessly on the dining room and living room, which both were immaculate. By last night, when I stumbled out of the bedroom to refill my drink in the kitchen, I was surprised at how messy the dining room table had gotten. Don is not an advocate of neatness and doesn't really see the same messes I see. He just seems to look past it all. So keeping the house clean means cleaning it, then training my children AND their father to pick up behind themselves to keep it clean.

Don's trying. He's got more on his hands than most people, taking care of the children for me and making sure he's on hand to help me. And he's working on straightening other areas of the house. Often, in order to clean, things get messier for a while.

I'm headed back to bed, fading fast (can you tell - my writing seems to be going downhill fast). Don's gone ahead of me, so it should be nice and quiet in the house.

I'm hoping to have a little more energy tomorrow. Perhaps I can get some of the old mail that keeps piling up in my basket cleaned out.

I want to take advantage of this down-time to get some long-awaited projects finished. Here's hoping.