I knew it was going to be ridiculously tough for me to post daily this month – but hope springs eternal, so I signed up for NaBloPoMo anyway. I started out strong and petered out before the first week was up.
But instead of declaring, “I failed, I can’t do this, I quit” — I’m forging ahead. I may not complete November with 30 daily posts… but I’m going to contribute what I can and feel good about getting back into the habit again.
Blogging after taking such a long time off is a lot like physical exercise: It’s hard to get back in the habit, and even harder to do it well at first.
It’s kind of like what I’m experiencing with my body, post-surgery.
I know you’re probably tired of hearing about this. Believe me, I’m tired of experiencing it — but right now, recovering from this thing is about all I can think about. I knew it would kick my ass — I just didn’t know it would kick my ass THIS MUCH or for THIS LONG. Before I went in, they estimated a six week recovery. I’m two weeks past that, and while I’m probably up to 80% back now… getting to 100 is a lot harder than I expected.
And getting to a point where I feel fit is something that will take a very long time (since I was far from that point when this whole ordeal started).
I’m still in pain. It’s not unbearable — just enough to remind me that things aren’t back to normal yet.
I started driving again last week – just short jaunts to the post office and the supermarket. You know, I thought it was kind of silly to be banned from getting behind the wheel for such a long time (especially when there were no limits on being a passenger), but driving is shockingly painful right now.
On Saturday, I decided it was time to start getting some exercise. I walked the dog with my husband, and later in the day we met friends for a stroll through historic Centinela Park. About halfway through, my sides began to hurt. By the time we got back in the car, FitBit reported that I’d walked a whopping 8,000 steps that day (not even close to the minimal pre-surgery goal of 10,000 a day).
I overdid it. My friends who are more experienced with surgery warned me that would happen; that it’s hard to tell where to cross the line of over-exertion until it’s already been crossed — especially when the mark is so low.
I was wiped. And it was so bad that I spent most of Sunday resting up from it.
This is not good. We are planning to visit family over the holidays, and I need to be able to handle a lot more than this without winding up in bed for the following day. I mean, right now, I don’t think I could get through an airport terminal without feeling fatigued. This cannot be.
I figure I have a month to get myself strong again. I see a parallel with NaBloPoMo — I’m just going to consolidate the whole thing and call what I’m doing NaBloPoWaExMo (National Blog Posting/Walking/Exercising Month, a regimen for body and mind).
And so yesterday, after putting in nearly a full day of work at home, I tried again – just on a smaller scale, with a walk around the block: 3,868 steps. And this morning, I drove myself to a nearby park and walked a mile loop (4,052 steps).
I hurt again. I guess this is something I’m just going to have to push through and live with for a while.
