Rough-ish Recovery Period

[Guest guest]

Hi and Happy Holidays to all--

I had my surgery on December 13 and have been recovering at

home since then. The hardest part has been dealing with a cold

that that has exacerbated my asthma, adding an unexpected

aspect to my hoped-for smooth rest period. My doctor put me

back on the Albuterol and newly on prednisone earlier this week

for a few days but I reacted so badly to the dosages that I went off

(with his OK) a few days later. I hate to use the albuterol inhaler

as it sends my heart rate back up to hyper levels. I try to use my

Atrovent Inhaler (less toxic) and am back on Singulair pills, which

I took daily before. I had not expected to hear from Mr. Asthma

and dealing with all of this has set me back as far as loss of

sleep (I was exhausted to begin with) and the attempt to regain

even a semblance of my former energy. I'll have to go back to

work soon but can't imagine doing so, even after 2 weeks of

basically doing nothing but trying to sleep, eating minimally but

nutritiously, and seeing the doctors. I have gone out in my

neighborhood and other limited forays to Manhattan, but no

subways (stairs) and no lonk walks in the snow.

I've been having muscle cramps and leg lock-ups (I've been

taking Calcium and had a blood test done yesterday) and

yesterday took a good walk, which seemed to help. My doctor

thinks I'm just under-conditioned from months of relative

inactivity. The good news is that my heart rate is down to the 60s

and 70s at rest but it still feels strange and sometimes, too low

and weak. As soon as I get up and do too much, it goes up a bit

and feels like it's working hard, but not as hard as it had to

pre-surgery!

The surgeon suggested that I use Caltrate with D and I'm

wondering if I should replace it with Calcium with Magnesium for

my heart. The last few days I've been taking the Caltrate in the

morning and afts and the Cal/Mag in the evening. Does this

sound good? I imagine that the Vitamin D is to compensate for

the lack of sun that I've been getting til now.

The scar is tiny, not even 2 " across, and I'vehad no

complications from that area. The tape has not peeled up

completely yet so I have yet to see the naked scar, but I have my

gel ready to coat it with once those tapes wear off. They seem to

like it there on my neck but are starting to look pretty funky.

I 'm afraid to start exercising or walking too much (no stairs yet).

The surgeon said 2 weeks of resting. I'll be seeing the endo on

Tuesday for thyroid function tests to see where I am. I'm still very

anxious, especially at night, but have not been using the

Klonopin for fear that it will reduce my heart rate even further.

Bought some Valerian drops yesterday but I haven't tried them.

I somehow thought that I'd be feeling happier about the whole

thing, but it's been an emotional and physical roller-coaster.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever have the old me back again. I feel

weak and unable to really calm myself down on my own. I'm

pretty much drug-free now except for my asthma drugs and am

trying to build myself back up with vitamins and supplements. I

guess that all of this is normal, what I'm feeling , and that It will

just take me a little longer to recover from it all. I'm not sleeping

as well as I could be - and I really feel it. I am still as fearful as I

was during my hyper period.

It's good to have a place to vent all of this. I'm not out of the

woods yet but I hoped to be feeling better and more positive.

Maybe I'm too impatient!

Jan