Author: heiditea

I did sleep all night and felt relatively good upon waking up this morning. My mission this week is to get out of the house, in the car and to a different location on Monday and Wednesday. Every other day with Friday being my 4-week checkup with the doctor.

I informed Dave I’d like him to drive me into the Eddie Bauer outlet to exchange the jeans I purchased online prior to my surgery. And almost immediately after I told him that, I got an ocular migraine.

Migraines aren’t new to me. I got my first one in 1976 on a school field trip and had them, sometime’s severly, until I had my brain aneurysm rupture in 2006. Oddly, since then, I only get ocular migraines, which are far less dibilitating then the aura migraines that I used to get, and only effect my eyesight…hence the ocular name.

My versions of the ocular migraines aren’t painful at all, I just have trouble seeing, usually out of my right eye, for about 30 minutes, then my eyesight comes back. Although there is no pain, I don’t exactly feel good the rest of the day after I get one. So I informed Dave we MIGHT not be going and I’d let him know.

Once my eyesight came back, I ate lunch, took a Tylenol and off we went in to town. The jarring of the rough roads still bothered me, but it wasn’t as sunny out today so that was nice. I had to try on a couple of pairs of the jeans before the exchange and that pooped me out, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m familiar with the store, so I knew where things were, which helped.

When we got back I went back to my at-home project of straightening up and organizing my home office. Organized a lot of papers, piles and junk. Felt good to continue that and it’s a good sit-down activity I can do and not get too overly tired…although I did get too tired and needed to rest.

I have been able to stifle a couple of sneezes. I’ve been very nervous about sneezing since my surgery because after my rupture in 2006, sneezing was extremely painful on my head. Well, I let a couple of sneezes through yesterday and was pleasantly surprised, and please they did NOT hurt my head at all. Thank you!

Another item I keep forgetting to blog about is how our cats have reacted to my recovery.
#1: Firstly, they never bothered the side of my head where the incision is and never even got very close to it which was a surprise because they’re both big on head butting and love to rub their faces on your face. Lexie can be pretty rough actually and uses her teeth sometimes, but she was great.
#2: They both stayed very close to me when I got home. Both sleeping with me throughout the day and night. Lexie sleeping at my shoulder or at my feet and Smokey cuddling up where ever Lexie wasn’t. They stuck quite close by though.
#3: Dave was tasked with feeding the cats during the first week or so of my recovery mostly because there was a flight of stairs involved and bending over. He indicated during the first week the cats did not eat much at all and once I started getting up more and moving around they got back to normal eating.

I already knew this, but I think it’s safe to say they knew something wasn’t right with Mommy and they were concerned and wanted to stick close by in case I needed them….and I did! 🙂

Well, technically the day is not over YET at 10 p.m., but I haven’t had to take any pain pills today! Yippee! I eased up on the strong black tea, drank more water, stepped away from the iPad and paced myself a bit more. And, even enjoyed my first lengthy soak in the tub without getting a head or neck ache.

Fingers and toes crossed that I’ll sleep all night now.

Thursday overnight and Friday were not pleasant. I could not get comfortable and could not get to sleep. I spent all day Friday in bed and didn’t venture out of the room until the evening to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Then, of course, I was up very late because I had slept during the day….but at least I felt better.

Not sure what triggered that set back. I straightened up my home office Thursday afternoon and may have bent over to pick things up off the floor from my chair a little too much. That’s the only thing I could think of. My head had a heavy ache about it and my jaw felt a little swollen. Pain pills and cold cloths helped finally.

Today, I woke up feeling better and knew I needed a prescription from the drugstore, so I showered, which still wipes me out, then Dave drove me to the drugstore which is about 15 minutes away. Not convenient to home, but very convenient to work. The drive bothered me because it was very sunny out and the light flashing through the trees effected me. The roads are also rough this time of year with frost heaves popping up, so the jerking and jarring of the car bothered me a bit.

Walking into the drugstore wasn’t too bad and I even looked in one aisle for another item. Although I certainly felt all of that stimulus and it bothered me, I know from previous experience, it will get better. I just need to get out there more.

Then, like an idiot when I got home, I did too much and really felt lousy so had to lay down and had a nice nap. Dave, bless his heart, threw a beef stew in the slow cooker before we left and we had a lovely dinner later in the day.

The majority of the stitches around my ear, where my glasses hit, have healed, but there is still quite a bit of dried blood in the larger areas of the incision. I’m trying to be more gentle around those areas yet.