This morning I made a plan to write about a leadership topic connected to a great short video. But then after writing an update blog that I'll share below, I took a two-hour nap and decided I was done for the day. I am making a list of good topics to write about once my energy levels build back up at least :).
One month ago at this moment, I was trying to stay calm knowing I was hours away from an uncertain brain surgery. Thankfully, everything has gone about as well as I could have imagined over the past month.
I just had a milestone of stretching for the first time after my oldest son took me and our dog Flash for a walk. This felt great and I think I can start doing this regularly again.
Keep up those small healthy habits. You never know how they will help your life!
Our family is getting ready to watch the classic scary movie A Nightmare on Elm Street. I hope I don't have two boys and a dog in my bed tonight :).
Here is my update:
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Happy Saturday, SparkPeople!
This was a great week for me. I hope you had a good one too?
I continue recovering my energy levels from the surgery. I can't believe it's been a month since this all happened.
This sounds crazy, but my brain continues to work better and better as I gain strength. It's fun to see this happen.
I think last weekend it started hitting me a bit just what happened in this experience. Since this all happened so fast and was completely out of my control, it was literally an exercise in just surviving and making it to the next step.
I will forever have even more of an emphasis talking to anyone who will listen about focusing mostly on being a Fit & Healthy Leader and not just on losing weight -- since this will better prepare you to handle the stresses of these types of events if they happen to you or someone you love.
One interesting point I noticed last weekend: for the surgery, apparently my arms were in a weird position for about 6 hours straight. You know how if you hold your arm in one position a long time, it will hurt the next day? Well, apparently if your arms are in a weird position for 6 hours, then they can still hurt 3 weeks later!!
This pain was an interesting psychological element of this experience. For those first 3 weeks, that pain was so inconsequential compared to the main issue that it almost didn't even register as an issue. It hurt some at night when going to sleep, but overall I was so happy and grateful to be sleeping in my bed that the pain didn't matter.
Finally after 3 weeks, I thought, "ok, I need to fix this." So I did some things to fix the pain (including using magnesium oil spray that is my favorite way to help with sore muscles other than icing) and now this is about back to normal.
The only other pain I have is an interesting one: because of where they cut into my head starting near the jawbone, my mouth only opens about 60% of the way and it hurts to open more. But this is slowly improving and is functional. It will be interesting to see if this ever goes back to normal. That will be a question for my doc next time I see him :).
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Edit: someone asked in the comments if I have any dental appointments and I just put this comment on her sparkpage: Ha -- that is a funny question about dental appointment. This past week, I called and cancelled my dental appointment coming up in a few weeks telling them I literally can't open my mouth because of surgery. So, good observation :).
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I'm still taking it easy and can tell this was a major surgery. Last weekend my wife took me out to lunch at a tasty cajun creole restaurant and then we stopped at the mall to pickup some items. By the time we returned home, I thought, "whew, I'm wiped out."
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Edit: I have had surgery once before in my life: for a hernia when I was 18. That was out-patient surgery and everyone said it was easy. It still took a month before I could do just about anything other than walk. I learned that anytime a surgeon cuts open some part of your body, this is a significant trauma. So, I know it might take a while to fully recover from this. If you have never had surgery, use this as a motivator to avoid it :).
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So I continue taking it easy and having a "sparkguy-sitter" take me out for walks around the neighborhood along with Flash. Today I might try to stretch for the first time.
I can report to all of you that even my dog Flash can tell that I'm healing (he has been a great protector as I discussed in my last blog). He now realizes he doesn't need to be quite as protective, but he still keeps an eye on me. And now he wants to play-fight more because he knows I can handle it. I can tell this because he brings a toy over to me and then uses his wet nose to get my attention.
I was able to dig in to some email projects last week. After coming home from the hospital, I had over 1,000 emails in my inbox. But I stayed calm and just did small amounts of work each day, but now starting to get back to normal (in some ways even better than normal). But, I'm still taking it as it comes and not over-extending myself.
How was your week?
Here is this blog if you'd like to leave a comment. Thanks again for all of your positive thoughts and prayers!
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Chris "SparkGuy" Downie
Chris (SparkGuy)
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