Stitches, and a Winner!

My surgery stitches were removed on Monday. The PA (Physician Assistant), who hadn’t seen me since the surgery, said, “You’re really bruised” — implying, more so than most. Still. Still bruised and swollen. Still in constant low level pain.

Truth be told, I rarely notice the pain until I’m trying to fall asleep. At 1 a.m. when I go to bed, I’m wide awake so my brain babbles on for an hour with useless scenarios and information. After the thirtieth rehash of what I did today, and right before the fortieth rehash of what I need to do tomorrow, I convince myself that I can’t go to sleep because the pain is too annoying.

Les suggested that I take a pill about an hour before bedtime. I try to avoid the heavy-duty meds when possible and haven’t used them since the fourth day after surgery, but I thought it was worth a try. It worked — sort of. At 2 a.m. I was not noticing any pain, but still obsessing about the usual slush pile of trivia. It would probably be more productive if I stayed out of bed until I was actually tired, but then I’d sleep past breakfast with Les.

Based on the amount of swelling and bruising, the PA reassessed my time line — from, “You can start easing back to normal activity four weeks after surgery” to “You might want to give it six weeks, which is when your scars should be fully healed.” Not that I was planning a house cleaning marathon, anyhow. I think I’ll also wait a little longer on driving the car because my arm still doesn’t have full range of motion.

But basically I’m doing just fine.

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I wrote everyone’s name on a little piece of paper, crumpled the papers, tossed them on my desk, and picked one up.

And the winner is of the pink ribbon jewelry is…

♥♥♥ Deb ♥♥♥

Congratulations!!!

And thanks to all my friends who entered the contest 🙂