Happy thoughts. Deep breaths, and happy thoughts.
I've talked a little here on the journal machines about my dad, and his hip replacements, and everything he's been going through the past few years. To recap: my dad's hips were rapidly deteriorating for over two years (it took them that long to figure out it was his hips & not his knees). For the duration, he's been on pretty heavy doses of both Vicodin & Oxycontin, neither of which, thanks to a seriously high medication tolerance (inherited by me, yay), has done much more than keep him able to move (slowly & with increasing dependence on canes). He's a proud man, and doesn't like to show weakness (especially to his children)...that, more than the pain, even, seemed to be the worst part of the whole thing.
His first hip was replaced over Xmas break; recovery was slow and not as painless as he had hoped (due to his inability to rely on the other hip for support), but marked nonetheless. The other was replaced just after Memorial Day; he was released from the hospital much more quickly, and when I saw him four days later, was hardly even using the walker anymore. A little more than a week later, he was back to the canes; he called me over the weekend (almost exactly a month after the surgery) and told me he had started weaning himself off of the drugs, and was down to just one cane, more for balance than actual support.
Today my dad was given a clean bill of health by his doctor. He's completely off the drugs for the first time in over two years, and is cane-free for the first time in a little over a year.
I couldn't be prouder of the way he's handled himself throughout, but mostly, I'm grateful. I'm grateful beyond words that his suffering is, basically, over, and I'm grateful for his second chance, for his new start. I had worried throughout about a lot of things that I didn't talk about -- at all, to anyone -- and most (if not quite all) of these worries are now relieved.
Between this, and having heard from
melliyna this evening (please, bb, if you see this, just check in with us all once a day or so? No talking needed, just a "still fighting"'ll do...), I am pleased to say that this not-at-all-happy day has had a happy ending. (Even if I didn't write my damn K/AM bunny for my own damn OT. Dammit.) And so that is where I will leave this post. <3
(But feel free to share other happy things with me, here, too. I declare this a post of happy!)
His first hip was replaced over Xmas break; recovery was slow and not as painless as he had hoped (due to his inability to rely on the other hip for support), but marked nonetheless. The other was replaced just after Memorial Day; he was released from the hospital much more quickly, and when I saw him four days later, was hardly even using the walker anymore. A little more than a week later, he was back to the canes; he called me over the weekend (almost exactly a month after the surgery) and told me he had started weaning himself off of the drugs, and was down to just one cane, more for balance than actual support.
Today my dad was given a clean bill of health by his doctor. He's completely off the drugs for the first time in over two years, and is cane-free for the first time in a little over a year.
I couldn't be prouder of the way he's handled himself throughout, but mostly, I'm grateful. I'm grateful beyond words that his suffering is, basically, over, and I'm grateful for his second chance, for his new start. I had worried throughout about a lot of things that I didn't talk about -- at all, to anyone -- and most (if not quite all) of these worries are now relieved.
Between this, and having heard from
melliyna this evening (please, bb, if you see this, just check in with us all once a day or so? No talking needed, just a "still fighting"'ll do...), I am pleased to say that this not-at-all-happy day has had a happy ending. (Even if I didn't write my damn K/AM bunny for my own damn OT. Dammit.) And so that is where I will leave this post. <3
(But feel free to share other happy things with me, here, too. I declare this a post of happy!)