A Week After Surgery – Finding Something To Do

A Week Into Recovery After Surgery

Last Wednesday, at this time I was getting ready to go to the hospital for my surgery. Leading up to this day, I had undergone so many tests, and exams including a nuclear stress test for my heart to make sure my heart would be strong enough for the 4 hour long surgery.

There were so many ups and downs, and so many instances where I was wondering what the heck was wrong with me. But everything came out ok, and surgery went as planned.

The surgery was a success. I had a complete, or total hysterectomy, or whatever the real name for it is. The surgeon removed my ovaries, uterus, Fallopian tubes, and basically everything related to female reproduction. I had a huge mass on my left ovary that started all of this drama.  And now it is all gone.

This was my first experience with surgery since I had my tubes tied over 20 years ago. And even though I was pretty sure I would spend at least one night in the hospital, I didn’t. Everything went well, and I had met all of the goals I needed to meet, so at around 8:00 PM on May 23^rd, my daughter’s birthday (Happy Birthday Kate!) I was on my way home.

The first 2 days after surgery were kind of a blur. I was supposed to be getting out of bed for at least 6 hours a day. That didn’t happen.

I was hurting pretty good. I didn’t even go outside to see my horses until Saturday. But with each passing day I have been feeling better and better. I still hurt, and can only do a fraction of what I could do before surgery, but hopefully the next 5 weeks will go by very quickly.

No Lifting, Period

This is the toughest part of my recovery I think. I can’t lift anything over 10 lbs for 6 weeks after surgery. This sucks, period. Each day I have done a little bit more and more. And today, I have been able to stay upright and doing something since 6:00 am. I even fed my horses, very slowly of course.

But even doing something as simple as walking tires me out. It is very frustrating.

And with each passing day I am able to do more and more for longer periods of time. So I have been wondering what I can do, with my horses without lifting anything over 10 lbs and I think I have found something…photography.

Capturing Moments

The thing that is so much fun about photography is there is always room to improve. Thanks to different programs like Photoshop, and tutorials available online, you can always improve your photography skills.

So yesterday afternoon we had turned the horses out in their back pasture, I grabbed my camera (it weighs less than 10 lbs) and just took some pictures of my horses.

Then I came back inside and started playing with them on my computer. I recently bought a Photoshop actions package that has a lot of different actions I can apply to the photos, so I started to play.

And even though my horses are looking a little rough from not getting their daily pampering that they usually do, I was still able to spend some time with them before I got exhausted.

Making Motivation

And something else that doing this has done for me, it has given me motivation to get moving. Yes, I can’t do a lot right now. But I can set for a bit at my computer and play with photos. This gets me excited to get up each day now and try to get a unique photo and then play with it in Photoshop. And It also gives me something to look forward too, besides being at home.

Staying positive and looking forward is what has gotten me to stay positive a week into my recovery. So for now, I am going to go turn the horses out for a bit, and see what photos I can capture for a future blog post!

It is very nice to be home, and be forced to not do a lot. It make me appreciate the incredible family and friends that I have. They have been so supportive and kind. And maybe it’s ok to just sit back and enjoy the down time that I have.