If you’re an occasional reader of my blog you may remember I had some fairly dicey surgery about a year ago. Fortunately I found a world class surgeon who was able to make some internal repairs that my local doctors said were impossible, and a life threatening situation was completely, and hopefully permanently, corrected. At least until a couple of weeks ago when a similar defect occurred in a different part of my body. So it’s back on the road to Denver next week to have some more patchwork effected. It appears I inherited more than money from my parents, but also a genetic deficiency that renders my internal structural support system rather puny and wimpy. My other muscles, arms, legs, etc. are completely normal, fortunately, so I can still crush a tennis ball and zig zag across the court better than most fossils. But the internal systems that keep organs in their proper place are flimsy at best.
This time it is a very routine procedure and although my DNA may make a few future repairs or re-repairs necessary it seems the rocket scientist surgeons I found in Colorado can just keep patching me up like a body shop can fix the dents on a 1965 Mustang. I am actually a 1955 model but I can’t think of any iconic cars from then. The only bad part is that I have to take two months of down time after surgery. I’m 66 and two months represents a meaningful chunk of the number of days remaining in my allotment. And as an active aging athlete, two months with no pickleball, no tennis, no extreme hiking and no extreme fishing sounds completely awful. It also occurs to me that my whining to you sounds a lot like my whining to my wife. My wife who is ridiculously and annoyingly healthy and really doesn’t want to hear it.
So what to do? I’m open to suggestions. I barely remember what the last time was like except I had a ton of food restrictions that won’t be a part of this recovery. That’s a blessing, I still can’t stand the smell of cottage cheese which was the only solid food I got to eat for weeks. Ugh, and soup, I almost stopped eating that as well. I will still be able to blog, but at the severe risk that more whining would ensue. I can read, I’m sure I’ll do a lot of that. I assume I’ll be allowed to walk quite a bit, so there is that. And all of my volunteer work will still be going on as usual so I should have enough to do to stay sane. I remember last year I got my fly rod out and caught a lot of pan fish from the bank of a friend’s lake because they are tiny and didn’t require much effort to catch. But he has moved and sold that to someone I don’t know, so my private fishing hole is unavailable.
I kind of doubt the docs will let me bounce around trails in our off road buggy, that can’t be good for healing. I can’t take the boat out, there is a lot of heavy work involved in getting the trailer hooked to the car and getting the boat into the water and getting it back out. So far, I’m better at figuring out what I can’t do versus what I can. I can do my baseball trip with my buds probably, I had canceled that due to a conflict with the state tennis championships, which I won’t be recovered enough to play.
Enough of that. Any suggestions on what to do when you are restricted to light duty?
Have you gone through a period of physical limitations due to a health issue?
As usual, click on the title of the post if the mysterious comment box has become invisible and it should be revealed.
Would you be engaged by building a computer from scratch or putting together one of those insanely complicated Lego constructions? Either could be donated to a children’s hospital or home afterwards which might help you take it seriously.
Thanks Ringo, very good suggestions. I’m pondering, you obviously are a kind person, the best kind!
Meant to add: good luck and easy healing to you!
Ok, I’m having surgery soon too and have been brain storming how to survive the lengthy recovery. What I hear is that you feel like you can’t go anywhere. But you probably can just maybe not for awhile and in a regular car not a dune buggy😂
Can you I cancel the tennis trip just to watch?
Can you moor your boat for a couple months?
Can you do some of things you like on a smaller scale? With grandkids? Or with your friends who are less active?
The last couple years as I’ve been trying to figure out what’s slowing me down a good friend was also being slowed down by a bum knee but she’s not ready to have surgery so we went on a couple really cheap cruises together and it helped us both slow down.
Or look at it as a time to guesstimate what 95 will be like😂
I feel for your wife. You sound a bit like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.
Ouch Stephanie, indeed Eeyore is my spirit animal. Fortunately she is well able to tune me out after 44 years of marriage! Very good ideas!
Imagine all the stories you could get through?
It sounds fantastic!
Reading, podcasts, audiobooks, movies, Netflix bingeing… the possibilities are endless.
Thanks Frogdancer, I’m actually not dreading the recovery. Might give my aching joints a little time to recover. Kind of like a long vacation! Maybe some road trips as well. I told my wife the doctor told me in private that I could do most of what I wanted during recovery but no laundry, house cleaning or yard work. She’s not buying it!
I can imagine the side-eye she gave you!!!
Yes indeed! Quite the side-eye.
Read for pleasure? Read/learn about something you’ve always been interested in but never actually went down a rabbit hole about? Cook new (and perhaps complicated) things? These are things I’d do, but maybe not active enough for you. 😉 In any event, good luck with the procedure, and a speedy recovery.
I like those, I already cook every other week and enjoy learning more about it. Reading sounds good as well. Thanks Fifo!
Steve,
What a bummer! You have my sympathies and I wish you a speedy recovery. As a fellow highly active guy who was sidelined by a 2nd hernia surgery a tear after my first one here’s what I did to cope. A month before surgery I started making a list of light projects and entertainment/ways to pass the time – literally anything that I thought of went on the list.
On my list were things like:
Hang pictures
Paint more
Write blog posts
Wash windows
Get Neflix for a month and binge (squid game was not worth it)
Organize digital photos
Research computer stuff (domain, blog host, email service etc)
Look for cheaper cell phone plan
Find some books to read
Find more podcasts to listen to
Find new bands to listen to
Go to art museum
Walk as much as possible (worked my way from 5 minutes a few times a day to 3-4 hour long walks)
Do whatever physical activity I could. I did partial mobility work starting with just a few arm circles and minimal range of motion movements.
I also did a daily “mental rehearsal” of my regular workout. I literally mentally walked through every set, rep and exercise I usually do. It sounds crazy, but it made it easier for me to get back in the swing of things once I was able to.
Here’s what I avoided – beating myself up for. It being “ in pre surgery” shape. I knew I would lose conditioning and peak performance so I made it my project to work my way back over time.
Good luck!
*second surgery a “year” after the first not a “tear” after, although that’s an appropriate autocorrect 😉
Hey, Steve, good to hear from you old friend. That’s an impressive game plan and a very intentional one. How long was it before you were cleared for full activity?
Officially 6 weeks, but I was up and walking on day 1 and as soon as I got the staples out I was doing gentle movements- even if I was moving like a 90 year old man! It was about 2 months before I could attempt full intensity and 3 months before I felt great. My plan was to make sure I kept busy so I didn’t lose my mind during the recovery phase.
Thanks, that’s good to know. It’s a little depressing to think I may have several more of these but so far none of the repairs have failed so maybe not. I’ve run out of places to have new ones so maybe I’m done?
Good Luck, I’ll be thinking about you.
Visualize repair and healing and your healthy outcome.
From reading your blog, I know you like to fish for bass.Catching a bass on fly is quite the challenge once you figure out what they are biting on that day.
As for down time. Have you thought about tying your own flies?
Thanks, Francis,I have never tried bass on a fly rod, I use medium heavy bass tackle, but that won’t work in recovery. The problem here is you can’t get to the water very well except in a boat, this is swamp country. And I can’t manhandle a boat after surgery for awhile. I’ve only fly fished for perch off of my friend’s dock on his private lake, but he sold it so that’s out. In the northern part of the state there are streams you can wade but down here nobody wades these swamp creeks, full of snakes and even alligators. But a good suggestion if I lived in stream country.
I wish you all the best and an easy healing time, Steve.
On online platforms like Coursera and EdX, there are thousands of courses. They vary from music appreciation to renaissance paintings, photography, quantum computing, and cryptography. Maybe pick one whichever suits you.
For all you know, with your managerial experience and newly found insight into a topic, you can act as an angel investor for some promising future enterprise.
Thank you Baransam! That is a good idea for sure. I appreciate your well wishes.
You could always learn how to do magic tricks to surprise your family/friends!
I think it’s good that you’re getting suggestions from others. The last time I was on bed rest for an extended period of time, I just watched Netflix all day long.
David, that might be me too! All these productive suggestions from productive people are making me feel like a slacker! But they are appreciated!
If you’re at all politically motivated, perhaps volunteer to be part of a phone tree to call voters about your issue(s) of choice?
That’s a very interesting suggestion, and it always surprises me, in a good way, when a celebrity has read something I wrote!
Celebrity? Hahahahahahaha… Good one.
Best wishes for your surgery and your recovery!
I’ve found that the Internet is often a black hole of time-wasting/learning. Perhaps you can let yourself get sucked down one of those paths for a while!
And as for famous 1955 cars – how about the Ford Thunderbird, which debuted as a 1955 model, or a 55 Chevy Bel Air? [The ’57 Chevy is more famous, but the 55, 56, and 57 models all looked pretty similar]
Those were some slick cars indeed, Froogal! I think I’ll let the internet have its way with me for the next few days, good idea. I’m not really feeling very productive so I’ll just enjoy being retired and not having anything I have to do.
A good plan! That’s the point of being retired, isn’t it? 🙂