It is strange how the normal daily routine of life can make a sudden ninety degree turn into the surreal. That’s how my life has felt the last four weeks surrounding a surgical procedure and the pre-surgical and post surgical restrictions that took almost every one of my favorite activities away from me, for a season.
The casualties were food, drink, running, tennis, fishing, hiking, pickleball, volunteering and travel. The restrictions were pretty simple. Take it easy, don’t lift over seven pounds and subsist on a mostly liquid diet without any carbonated beverages. That doesn’t sound bad, I know, but it actually targeted my life in a very insidious and Machiavellian manner.
First, I don’t like coffee but I do like caffeine. So in my normal life I have a Diet Mountain Dew every morning. It gets me that wake up energy with no calories in a form I enjoy, but that’s been disallowed. I’m a carnivore by nature and meat, nope, not on the menu, nor were fresh veggies. And every day of the week I’m either playing tennis, pickleball, running, fishing or volunteering. Sometimes all of those on the same day. But all of those involve some pretty substantial bouncing around or lifting and therefore, also verboten.
You might ask “Surely volunteering isn’t on the don’t fly list?”. And it isn’t per se, but I was only comfortable in loose baggy ultra casual stuff, you know, the work from home wardrobe. That’s not really appropriate in a college or foundation board room. Neither was sitting for hours in uncomfortable conference room chairs hashing out organizational governance issues when you are feeling a good bit of physical pain. And the travel required to get to meeting locations was also unpleasant enough that I just took a pass on everything I could not Zoom in to. And that left me feeling disconnected from an important part of my life.
I did come up with some work arounds. I bought a new fly rod, couldn’t find my old one. And I’ve been a few times to a friend’s pond to catch small panfish. That stays well below my lifting limit and those little tykes are easy to catch and release. I also went in slouch clothes to watch my friends play pickle ball, and that was more entertaining than staying home. Food, well, that was just very boring until the restrictions started to ease up. And I did get to Zoom into some of the volunteer meetings, just not very many of them.
And that brings me to this week, I’m halfway through the six week recovery period and life just got a whole lot better. I was cleared to play pickleball and eat anything I want! I have to use some self control not to go crazy on the court but since pickle ball is a lower impact sport compared to tennis, I can do that. And yesterday I brought home a pizza! It was like a slice of heaven, I had it again for breakfast this morning. Nothing makes food taste so good as having done without any variety for awhile.
And I also put on business casual clothes this week for the first time in over a month and drove 5 hours to my former university to mentor five engineering students. Stayed overnight in a hotel and drove home the next day for three more hours of local college committee and board meetings. It was a pretty grueling reintroduction to my volunteer life. But I did fine! It was nice having that face to face social contact again and I really believe in mentoring and in my local college’s mission. I got all that done without any assistance as my wife is at the beach with one of her old college buddies all this week.
Today I have to prepare some testimony for my lingering consulting work I can’t quite seem to escape. But, maybe because it plays to my ego to get paid for being an “expert” I’m even looking forward to that. Plus it is a favor to my former associates to provide them a local expert. That saves them the expensive travel costs to bring in a hired gun from the other side of the country. It is a very simple case and we are taking a noncontroversial position so it should be light duty.
I think when my wife returns I’ll even cajole her into doing the heavy work of getting our boat from our garage to an area lake and see if we can catch some bass. And I’ll start hitting tennis balls again next week, not playing singles but just practicing. That’s pretty light work and I miss being on the court. All in all, life is good and it is getting better every day! I appreciate the positive thoughts and wishes so many readers have expressed in the comments. Having friends like you means a lot and it is also very powerful medicine.
What about you? Have circumstances ever occurred in your life that made a sudden and drastic temporary change in your lifestyle? How did you handle that?
If you had to give up some of your favorite things for a period of time, did you notice how amazing it was to get them back? I’m simply in awe of how good pizza tastes!
Glad to read your recovery is going well.
I’m going in for not entirely dissimilar surgery in a week’s time and hope my recovery goes as smoothly 🤞
Steve, no where near as dramatic, but every month we spend a week at our Alabama condo visiting our granddaughter. I don’t belong to a gym here (not worth it for one week/month), and I miss my 3x/week Spin Class more than I’d have expected. It’s worth it to see our granddaughter, but I always look forward to getting home and getting back in that class. Glad to hear your recovery is going well, won’t be long now and you’ll be back at 100%. Patience, patience.
glad to hear you’re on the mend, steve. in early 2020 i went about a month without wine. i normally drink a lot of wine, as you may know. it was self imposed after a kidney stone battle and was a long boring month without my afternoon evening companion. stay well.
Steve,
Glad to hear your recovery is progressing so smoothly and you’re back to at least some version of normal.
My hernia surgery was two weeks before your surgery so we’ve share similar recovery paths, although mine is less drastic.
The “no strenuous activity” for several weeks was the hardest for me. Now, just a month later, I’m back to nearly 90% of my pre-surgery activity levels. I’m glad I had the surgery. And I’m still in the “honeymoon” phase of loving every day that I can do more. First it was walking more than a block. Then it was hiking. Then it was swimming and exercising at 25%, then 50%, then 75%…
Funny coincidence – I love caffeine but don’t drink coffee either. I drink Ice Tea in the morning but have a Diet Mt Dew every evening before dinner.
Sudden and drastic changes, unfortunately not so temporary. It sucks and will continue to suck but I will continue to attempt to claw out some small bits of what used to make my life worth living.
I hate that for you Caroline. It is inevitable for all of us if we live long enough that much of what we enjoy will be taken from us. But accepting that as inevitable is much different than having them taken away unexpectedly and prematurely. I do think people are remarkably resilient when it comes to finding joy even in hard times.
Healthy habits acquired over time that become a lifestyle and then suddenly forced to stop messes with one’s mind and sense of touch and feeling while the body heals.
Soon you’ll enjoy returning a ball and appreciate putting it where you used to put it. Muscle memory is real and won’t take to long to return with a familiar feel.
The most important thing is not to over do it as setbacks suck even more.
With a few things moved around in your torso, your center of gravity has most likely shifted and the way that you compensated in the past needs a new calibration. Yoga and breathing can help keep your recovery on track.
Thanks Francis, I actually got out and played some low impact doubles tennis today. Man was my timing off, but it was still good to be out there.
Glad you are recovering okay. 🙂
It took a while for me to be able to get back to normal after I was sick. Food was great, but mentally terrifying after being unable to keep it down for months. Got better with time, as all things do.
Enjoy your pizza!!!
Thanks Geek, I did enjoy it immensely. I’m glad you recovered!
That’s a lot of change that sounds completely disorienting. At least you don’t have to give up those things forever and you get a new appreciation for getting them back!
I had a baby recently, and what actually turned out to be the hardest part was not being able to be as productive as I had always prided myself on being. An important part of my identity was accomplishing more in a day than most people do in a few days, and it hit me pretty hard when I couldn’t be that way for a while. Like you, I just had to set smaller goals and appreciate the little things. I also tried to appreciate being forced to slow down a little :).
I’m not as dedicated as you Mrs. FCB. I’ve been fine with not getting much done, other than it can be a little boring and I really miss my sports and hobbies. I didn’t get out of any of my work, paid or volunteer although there isn’t much paid work by design. Congrats on the little one, I can only imagine you are a wonderful parent and that’s one lucky baby!
Thank you, that’s very kind of you! And I’m envious that you’ve been able to embrace relaxing.
There is a recommended practice of giving up your favourite habit for a week. At the end of the week, two things may happen.
You may realize that you can exist pretty fine without the habit/practice, allowing you to declutter your life.
Otherwise, you get to restart your experiences with enhanced pleasure, like what happened between you and your pizza.
Last quarter I tried giving up non-vegetarian food. The mutton-biriyani tasted superb after I broke my non-veg fasting.
Next time I will try to give up blog browsing and commenting.
I had to give up several foods and drinks for several weeks because of a surgery. Some of them I have found I have no desire for now.