L.A.Z.Y. (Day 46)

Today we fully embraced the lazy Sunday as a family. Maybe it’s more true to state that the girls and I fully embraced it and Mike didn’t put up much of a fight. We all slept in a little bit and had a slow start to the day. I had a tough time getting myself out of bed this morning because some time during the night I rolled completely on top of my right arm and apparently didn’t get off of it until about 7 a.m. Everything from my shoulder to my fingertips had pins and needles for what felt like an hour but was probably less than 5 minutes.

It reminded me of those first, tough 10 days after my bilateral mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction. It hurt so much then to get out of bed on my own, and whenever I would try to put either of my arms down to help push my weight up and out of bed, I would have pain shooting through me. There were a lot of hard and tough lessons learned. Honestly, if i had to go back I don’t know how else I would tell me (with the benefit of hindsight) to try and get up out of bed. With the DIEP flap reconstruction, my core and skin were so sore and tight that it was hard to move anything. Anyway, just trying to use my right arm while it was afire with pins and needles reminded me of those early days. Compared to my abilities now, it seems like so much longer than 7 weeks ago.

We took the girls to play at the park this morning. When it was time to start walking home for lunch, neither one of them was ready to leave. Before my surgery, I could wrangle both girls in full tantrum mode pretty easily because I was so strong. These days, it’s still challenging and I HAVE to ask them to take it easy on me despite their being in the midst of a meltdown. Thankfully, one is always a little easier than the other – but it’s never consistent who that will be. On the way home, I got to test out my range of motion and weight bearing because Yaya wanted to ride on my shoulders part of the way home. Getting her up there is half the battle these days because I can’t lift either of my arms up all the way very easily. But, with a little assist from her sort of climbing up me, we did it. It didn’t feel bad to have her up there for the distance we walked, but as we went along she felt heavier and heavier. I tighten (or try t0) my core when I’m carrying something heavy, like a child. Now, with my abdominal scar, it feels funny to do this. I haven’t had 100% of the sensation return to my abdominal area, and tightening my core really causes a tugging sensation at my incision. It’s pain free, but an awkward feeling.

I didn’t do my PT exercises or stretches today. Instead, Mike and I took a rare nap together when the girls took theirs. It was kind of amazing. I will get back on my PT program tomorrow, but it was nice to have a day off. In my photos today I included a picture of my closed suture abscess. It’s sealed up again like nothing ever happened. The body is so interesting…

DAILY DOSE!