A Tale of Two Mondays: Recovery Days 3 and 10

-
[I've realized that I'll have to do these posts without regard to chronological order, as there is too much to cover.]

A complicated concept


The first Monday after my surgery, I toddled down to the kitchen for some brekkie. Almost every weekday, I’ve had the same repast: a hard-boiled egg (already cooked) with some hummus and a bowl of yogurt with some berries, cinnamon, hemp hearts, and a sprinkling of chocolate whey protein. (So far, my stomach has felt normal post-surgery, though I do have moments of ravenousness.)

It struck me that the berries, which we just bought, had not been washed yet. The other accoutrement of the yogurt lay scattered in three different places. Three. And I repeat: The berries had not been washed yet. That involved taking them to the sink, running water over them, shaking the container of excess moisture…. My god, I need to lie down.

That was it. I couldn’t do it. Fortunately, Brian was working half-days from home, so he took care of the whole washing and dumping things in a bowl process.

Now I should explain, lest you start to believe that craniotomies like mine must addle the gray matter and render yogurt assembly difficult, that it was not that it seemed tricky. I had just become aware of all of the tiny bits of effort and decision that go into such a simple-seeming process and my mind became overwhelmed. All surgeries will physically exhaust you; brain surgery has the added edge of making you aware of how and when you exert mental effort, too. Those are “executive function” cognitive processes, and when you’ve had brain surgery or a traumatic brain injury, they get disrupted. Planning, memory, prioritizing, assessing, locating---all of those things that need to happen become effortful tasks in their own right and quickly wear a person out. Glad my time in that zone is temporary.

Jump to the following Monday. Brian has left me alone for the first time to go to work. I decide to use the stove to make oatmeal with the liquid whey produced from making yogurt the week before. (Making yogurt, as opposed to assembling yogurt parfait ingredients, is ridiculously simple, so I did that a few days after surgery.) The end result was that I managed to feed myself properly. I did, however, make three mistakes during the oatmeal process:

1.       I had a boil-over with the whey and salt.

2.       I forgot to start a timer when I put the oats in the pot, so I’m not sure how long they cooked.

3.       I poured my coffee when I started the boil and brought it into the next room. While I was wandering around waiting for the boil and oats-cooking (untimed), I completely forgot about the coffee, so it was cold by the time I remembered it. Microwaved coffee is not the same.

So, I didn’t burn myself or burn the house down. At least one or two of the above minor mistakes I probably would’ve made before surgery, too, so clearly I’ve made progress.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Post-Craniotomy Media Diet

-
Image
Craniotomates are told to take four to six weeks off of work after surgery. Due to the nature of my job (teaching = getting a long-term sub) and the holiday schedule, I am fortunate enough to get two entire months off. Since my pain and discomfort are minimal, this sounds like a great time to kick back and get caught up on my Netflix streaming, no? No.    Brain surgery is unlike other surgeries, I’ve realized. When I had my colon removed in 1985, I indulged myself in MTV and Danger Mouse and listened to tapes of Howard Jones and OMD . When I had exploratory abdominal surgery in 1991, I watched news about the Gulf War and The Golden Girls. I listened to my tunes when there was nothing good on TV. But now, after my craniotomy, my house is often silent. Brains are complicated things, simultaneously fragile and remarkably resilient. Brain surgery and the medications prescribed for swelling and seizures afterward mess with the functioning in some subtle and not-so-...
Read more

Fashion for the Newly Discharged Craniotomate

-
Image
Not the most stylish outfit but I could put it on by myself When you’ve just had surgery, you want to be comfortable. After a couple days of lounging around naked under loose hospital gowns, you want to look more yourself, less … patient-y. But you also need to be comfortable and not mess with complicated fasteners and fussy garments. For some people, the first word in comfort is jeans. I am not one of those people. Though denim can and ought to be comfortable, it is often heavy, stiff, or tight. At the very least you will have a zipper and a button closure. You may also have to wear a belt. All button-fly? What the heck are you thinking? You’ve just had a craniotomy! Your digits might not all be entirely under your control. When it comes to tops, we have some wiggle room. One hospital brochure recommended tops that are easy to put on without having to move your arms a lot; they suggested shirts that button down the front. Certainly, if you have a bandage on your head, yo...
Read more

One Year Anniversary

-
Image
I found this tiny skull made of howlite on a recent trip to Door County, WI. Notice the gray streak -- right where my surgical scar was! At this time last year, my head was pinned in place, my scalp cut open, and a section of my skull temporarily removed. That sounds a lot more dramatic than it turned out to be. A year later, I look back on that time with some fondness, partly because it was such an odd, fascinating experience to go through and partly because as stressful as my pre-surgical days were last year, my current level of stress is much higher. The hazy-dazy respite of relatively pain-free brain surgery would be a relief compared to watching my mother go through the long, drawn-out process of dying. Last year, my husband and my older sister were in attendance at the hospital as I went under the knife. My other sister left that day for a work trip to Uganda (lucky bitch). Notably absent were my parents. I completely understood their absence and didn't mi...
Read more