3 Weeks Post Surgery Update & Launched a Youtube!
3 weeks post surgery, and 1 week back at work, and I’m starting to learn how to navigate the new world of a long term recovery. I’ve been finding it better to compare week to week rather than day to day. It’s been hard to notice changes when it’s such a short period of time, but when I compare myself to 1 week before, I feel like I’ve made huge strides in my recovery.
My incision care:
After I met with my doctor last week, they cleaned up my incision from surgery, took off the glue and they said I was able to start living bandaid free after a few days. I’m still too nervous to take off my bandaid but officially on the week 3 mark, I didn’t wear a completely waterproof bandaid to shower! After a few days after my 2 week appointment, my incision wasn’t bleeding and looked pretty sealed so I’m just being overly cautious. Hopefully in a week, I’ll be band aid free! I’m still nervous because my incision is right where my pants band hits, and I’m worried it’s going to rub it the wrong way and hurt.
My symptoms:
My lightheadedness by the end of week 3 is pretty much gone! This has been my biggest limiting factor since surgery and it’s amazing to feel on the other side.
My nerve pain in my glute reduced a lot throughout the week. For most of week 2 into week 3, I would feel a bit of nerve pain in my glute when I sat down to go to the bathroom or get into bed. I rarely feel that pain now! I started getting a bit of calf pain and tingling where my achilles is, but that can be a sign of healing and will be monitoring to make sure it doesn’t get any worse.
My first week back at work was rough (mostly emotionally) so I laid down most of the day for a few days. I noticed my back getting more tight and my sciatica returning more. I started walking more and all my symptoms have been getting better! I’m able to go for about 20 minute walks a couple times a day and then try and do another 10 minute walk around the house at night to accumulate ~45-50minutes of walking.
Caregiving I needed:
The hardest part of a lot of this recovery is still so much of what I can’t do for myself as I can’t bend lift or twist. I still can’t walk my dog, so unfortunately my boyfriend will continue to do that until at least the 6 week mark. I can’t reach very far into the fridge so when he leaves for work for the day, he has to put everything I need at counter level so I can grab it through out the day. He also has to change my band aids at night. I’m still quite limited in my ability to cook but I’m trying to cook meals easier to make that allow me to feel like I’m contributing again. I can’t grocery shop or unload groceries for another few weeks so my boyfriend has to help with that to… Besides that, I’m not needing much additional care! I’m still very limited and I honestly don’t know what I would have done if I lived alone.
Going back to work:
I thankfully already work from home permanently and have a desk job that doesn’t require me to be physical. In addition, I have a team that supports me and understands my recovery. I took the first couple days back at work easy to just catch up, ease in and figure out how long I can stand, work, etc. Day 3 our company decided to re-org and make a ton of changes that affected my team so that was the end of my slow return back and a ton of work piled on. During this time I laid down way too much as I mentioned earlier and suffered the consequences. With this, I (my boyfriend) pulled back out my walking treadmill and I’ve started using that as I work so I have no excuses to not get my walking in daily. It’s incredibly pricey, but I highly recommend getting a walking treadmill if you can. Walking is your savior in recovery and in general is just a healthy thing to incorporate more if you work at a desk job.
Youtube
I’ve officially launched a Youtube channel! Both this blog and Youtube might share a lot of similar content but I personally love Youtube as a platform and I wanted to explore posting my updates there as well. Check out my first injury journey video here:
At week 3, I really feel so much better. Strength is now my limiting factor in walking and standing, and that finally feels like something I know how to work on and manage. Each week I’m seeing massive improvements and I’m now starting to get a bit impatient until that 6 week mark!
