Home Sweet Home

When Dr Gosnell came by to see how I was doing, I told her that my pain was in control, I had gone to the bathroom and that I wasn’t nauseous so she said that I could go home if I wanted to. I asked what she recommended and she said it was really up to me and that I might get a better night of sleep at home since the nurses would be checking on me all night. So I decided to go home. I was checked out and Paul & I were in the car heading home by 5pm. And by 5:01pm, I was feeling incredibly nauseous. To get to my house from Mt Zion hospital, you have to go up and over the hills of Divisadero towards the Golden Gate Bridge and I was miserable but thankfully I made it home without getting sick. Paul & I set up the second bedroom as my sick room with a bunch of pillows so I could sleep with my head elevated, ice pack on my neck and pain killers at my side. The nurse let me take the paper tape measure home so Paul measured my neck every hour until I went to sleep. I took pain meds but not very many. Uli (the dog) was acting a little odd the night I came home from surgery and the following day. He slept at my feet so he was close but not super cuddly. By the third day after surgery he became mister super loving cuddlebunny and he could not get any closer to me. I thought that was odd but then I realized that maybe he was aware that I was a little weak after surgery and then as I was feeling stronger, he knew that he could be cuddly. My neck was stiff and I was feeling weak but that only lasted 2 or 3 days. My voice was the longer-term problem but my body recovered pretty quickly. I didn’t realize that my breathing was compromised until I tried a bike ride 2 weeks later.