It’s been 28 days since my hysterectomy, and I have made great progress since my last update. I am taking my sweet time recovering. From finally being able to wash both my hands at the same time to sleeping on my stomach. 

During my 2-week post-surgery checkup I have been giving the clear to sleep on my stomach. I wanted to wait until I had gotten my surgeon’s okay before I attempted to do anything. But I will say that during the first week after my appointment was a bit hard. I don’t recall mentioning on here about my after-surgery depression. From overeating to being driven insane for not going outside.

It’s strange, I did have my old roommate help me out and give me company, but we don’t really “mix” well. We have very different personalities and topics we like to talk about. We at least get along enough and my main struggle with her was that I had to give up control during my recovery.

Besides that whole nonsense, I did gain about 4 pounds thanks to my binge eating. It’s horrible how my old habits have yet been fully replaced by my new habits. I’m currently trying to get back to my healthier coping skills. So there’s that.

My sleep has improved. I now sleep close to 6 hours, and a little more when I don’t want to leave the warmth of my bed. And for the past few days I have been able to bend forward. I even started taking short walks. But what really got me out of my surgery depression was when my case manager took me to Dollar Tree.

I finally had something that was close to my normal. From being surrounded by overstimulation. During the Covid pandemic I thought I was doing fine that I was stuck at home. But now I see I was only able to handle such a situation because I was the person who ran errands for my family. During that time, I was still overstimulated and active. Along with being surrounded by family members, being stuck at home was easy. Yet now that I’m completely alone, besides the 3 hours someone comes over to help me, I’m bored out of my mind.

Recovery alone gave me a sense of cabin fever. I needed fresh air that wasn’t due to appointments. And since I’m finally in a state where I can build back up to walking, I have been taking the chance. This week alone I have also been doing brief warmups to slowly get back to working out. I’m not yet at 100%, but I’m far enough that I can do basic things to get me started.

With all that in mind, I have also been able to do more chores. Like finally being able to wash my own dishes. Even cooking more. I’m not able to do a ton of heavy lifting yet, but I have gotten to the point this week that I have been able to carry my cat for a bit. That last part makes me extremely happy. For basically 3 weeks I couldn’t carry my own cat and even she been sad about it.

Now comes the best part. As I continue to get better and adding back my healthy habits, I have also been working on a few projects. Especially because I want to do a lot of things starting January. But to do so I wanted to build up those habits and concepts now. For example, I really want to blog and vlog every day in January. From WordPress’ Bloganuary to simply posting daily on my YouTube channel. 

So, for a start I have been illustrating my characters for my book, that I’m rewriting. I have mentioned before that I took my books down from Amazon, so I could start reworking them in a way that was true to me. I do have the original versions to be read for free on Ao3 (Book 1, Book 2). Funny enough, the reworking of my first book as past the number of chapters the original book had. Which I’m very proud for. I can’t wait to share more information when the time comes.

My goals for January are straight forward. From posting daily (written and video) to being able to take public transportation again. I really want to get back to my before surgery routine. But to do so I need to build it up. Even though I’m taking it slow on my recovery, I think it’s best to not overstress myself.

Oh! I finally been able to cough without hurting myself. The sneezing is still something I don’t want to risk, due to the horror stories my sister told me. I don’t know what type of hysterectomy my aunt had, but I’m not taking any chances. My abdomen area is still sensitive to sudden moves. So, during my time adding in exercise has been to slowly unstiffen a lot of my muscles. After all, I haven’t used most of them because of the surgery.

I have been slowly stretching. From stretching enough to feeling it, instead of doing so like I have done before surgery. And I been warming up my joints in a mocking way as if I was doing the type of exercise I did before surgery. I want my body to get used to the motion again before I start going for it. Gotta start again with floor workouts before I can do any standing exercises.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention how I finally been able to get on the floor without issue. And since I have been slowly able to bend forward, I have also been slowly able to pick up items without a grabbing tool. Super proud of myself. Along with the fact that for the past 2 days I have been able to load the bottom rack of the dishwasher, since it’s super low. Small accomplishments makes me happy. Especially because it shows how much I been improving. Before long I should be able to walk 20 to 40 minutes without pain. Which I’m going to put to the test on Friday.