I am six weeks and four days post-surgery.
Recovery is good. Really good, actually. I went back to work a week before Christmas. I was so ready to go back, mainly because I wanted to get out of my condo and get back to some normalcy. Being intersession, I knew things would be chill and a good way to ease back into work.
The first day? I remember very little. i know I had a meeting. I remember nothing of it. I was feeling pretty good, energy wise until I walked into the restroom post meeting. And all of a sudden, I was exhausted. I knew it was time to go home.
The next few days were fine. I had already planned to be off December 24-26, so I would be at work Monday and Friday. On December 26, I woke up on December 27 so exhausted I couldn't get out of bed. I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. I went in, thinking I had some commitments that afternoon and then submitted vacation requests for the Monday and Tuesday the following week (the days leading up to New Years). I realized my body was still recovering and I still needed to take it easy.
I'm glad I was able to, that I had the option and the time to do that. Because I slept most of that time. And on January 2, going back to work? For the firs time since my surgery, when I woke up I felt human.
Thing is, adjusting to work after more than a month off has been rough. I love what I do. And like most places, we have drama--because we're human. And it was so hard to re-adjust to other people and their drama. So hard.
But one of the big things? The physical limitations. My doctor limited me to typing with one had and only lifting one pound for 12 weeks. TWELVE WEEKS. That's three months. I tried actually typing with one hand for two days. It took me an entire afternoon to type one three paragraph email. I tried the voice-to-text option in MS Office. It sucks. I eventually requested Dragon Speak. It works with most platforms and make my life easier, but holy shit I cannot compose a damn thing by speaking. It is so weird and so fucking hard.
I try to type with both hands, just to work my way into it and also as a way to work the ligaments in the wrist. My hand therapist has supported the idea of me typing with my left had in small doses. Take this post? I'm typing with both hands. Is it difficult? It can be. I can't hit some combination of keys at all while some of them are difficult and I can feel things pulling inside my wrist. Does it hurt? Not in the moment. But I know through experience when I am done, I'm going to be sore.
So, recovery is moving. It's progressing. Every day I can do a little more than I could the day before I've started to not wear the brace while at home (unless I need it; sometimes I can feel that I need the support). I'm beginning to realize I am moving to the point where I will no longer have to wear a brace on my left arm. I mean, I've been wearing some sort of brace since October 2018. I have friends and colleagues who have never known me without a brace. Being without it? It's so incredibly exciting.
...and now? I'm sore because I overdid it. So, I'll wrap it in some ice and put my brace back on. But because that line of what I can and cannot do keeps moving, sometimes I need to push to see how far I can go. And I passed it this afternoon.
