After the previous surgery in January, I went for months dealing with damned awful hiccups. Not only annoying, they hurt like hell, since my whole midsection was still trying to heal. And now, it is happening again.

It is after midnight here, on Friday the 13th. I don’t give a shit about such things, as I try to avoid fanciful superstition. But considering it is still 2020, I wouldn’t be surprised if some weird shit happens and someone somewhere will say, “ah-HA!!! It’s Friday the 13th,” as if that would be explanation enough.

For the big surgery, during prep, a large guy wielding hair clippers shaved me from neck to ‘down there’ including some parts further underneath. Besides being altogether too chummy and chatty as I lay there feeling vulnerable and wide awake, I was not at all put at ease by this. Fortunately, for this week’s surgery, I was already asleep when my body was ‘violated’, AND they only shaved the necessary areas. So I won’t have to deal with itchy bits and pieces among my personals.

Also, last time I was held captive by the feeding tube, the catheter, and all manner monitors and machines for several days. That surgery was on a Tuesday, and it was Friday before they removed the feeding tube and catheter. I had to just lie there, and then my lower tract was in complete disarray, I hurt too much to do anything, and was struggling to even walk.

This time barely 15 hours after the surgery was complete, I was up and walking laps around the perimeter hallway of my floor in the hospital. I’d guess I took 4 or 5 laps over the course of the night and morning. So clearly this was not nearly so bad or complicated as the first surgery.

When I saw the surgeon this morning he said not to life more than a couple pounds at a time for the next four weeks. As much as possible, I will do my best to not do much of anything. I thought I was being ‘good’ last time, but these hernias popped up anyway, so I don’t want to fuck it up again. And I’ll leave the GoFundMe account open since I don’t know what further expenses will show up during the coming weeks. My co-pay was only for the hospital, not any additional charges for the surgeon, the anesthesiologist or anything else. I think the surgeon’s fee is already covered, since he is part of my clinic and not an external surgeon like the previous surgery. Even so, this week’s surgery was over $20,000.00 just for the hospital’s portion. Were it not for my MedicareAdvantage plan, I would have had to pay the whole thing. YIKES!!!

And I have to get serious about walking even if I can’t do much else. This week and next, of course, I’ll be staying close to home, and will use the rollator for any walks away from home after next week.

I’m not sure what sort of food regimen I should follow, although I suspect it will be light fare with lots of fiber. They didn’t really mess with my bowels much, but it was still an invasive procedure and I need to be careful not to overload the system as it begins to heal from the trauma.

The Happy Meds are starting to kick in, but I’m not sure I’ll sleep in the bed or here on the couch. The new bed, being so much higher than the old one means it will be struggle to climb up on to it, but getting out of bed will mean sliding down off the bed instead of trying to stand upright from a show squatting position.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.