Out of the Woods?

Well, it’s been a week since my surgery to install a stent in my left superior pulmonary vein. Exactly a week ago, as I write this, I was being wheeled into the operating room. For all the white knuckle drama, you can go here.

How do I feel? Only about a thousand-frickin’-percent better! Even coming out of surgery my wife noted my face was red and flushed; my color was back, and still is. Gone was the usual ashen paleness that accentuated the dark bags under my eyes. I guess now blood is flowing in and out of the lung, and it shows.

Still a little tired, though, and still get winded. That’s to be expected. My doctor told me that it could take two or three weeks until I really started noticing anything one way or the other. The tests in the hospital all were okay; they haven’t called me urgently about anything, so I’m taking the no-news-good-news approach. Got some aches and pains, too, but that’s probably still a result from the unnecessary surgery I had back in February.

I feel very energized. It’s a strange feeling; I haven’t felt this way since around the beginning of 2005. See here for what was going on back then. I joke with my wife that now that I have oxygen flowing to my brain, I might actually get something done – like find a job! Anyway, I’m getting up earlier, staying up later, crossing things off my to-do lists and my honey-do lists, all without the fatigue and mental depression that normally logically followed a clogged pulmonary vein.

Good news upcoming on the writing and blogging fronts, but I’d be a tad premature to mention it just now. But don’t worry; there’ll be some big announcements in the month of July.

Part of my daily regimen now includes a walk, in the morning before it gets too hot. I’m taking the Little One with me. Yeah, it holds me back some, but I get to bond with her, now that she’s off from school for the summer. It’s fun for her. Monday we walked to the center of town and checked out a new park which she enjoyed immensely. She also freed a lightning bug there, one she caught over the weekend and was keeping in a jar in her room. I was quite proud.

Yesterday we went to the local library for some story time, the first time either of us had been there for such a purpose. As we get nearer, there’re lines of kids getting out of minivans all over the place. There must be thirty, forty kids lining up to get in the library. Popular story time, I conclude, then we get in to the library’s all-purpose room and I see there’s a magician there! It’s Stretch the Silly Man! My daughter’s unsure and needs me right next to her, so there we are, the two of us, right up in the front row watching Stretch do his magic and comedy act. The kids loved it; the Little One was giggling hysterically in spots. A good time had by all, and completely free of charge, too. Can’t beat that.

Today we walked to the local pharmacy to pick up a couple of items. Back home I had some chores to do. Now the Little One is in the tub, getting all the grime off, getting ready for her third or fourth trip of her life to the dentist (she still doesn’t know what to make about all this dentist stuff). But first a quick jaunt over to another library after she’s dried and dressed. I got about fifteen pounds of books to return, but now I’m so strong I can lift that pile easily with one hand …