DIEP Recovery, Day 20

Texas is the latest COVID19 epicenter.  I don't understand why people still refuse to wear a mask, even after studies have shown that they are effective in reducing transmission.  I don't enjoy wearing a mask, but I do it anyway because I'm not a completely selfish person.  

Elective surgeries have been suspended (again) in Travis County, although this time they are allowing breast reconstruction surgeries to proceed... at least for now.  I'm grateful to already be recovering.  I'm moving around a lot better now, although my abdominal muscles fatigue if I've been standing for awhile.  Claire makes me play secret spies, and I have to come up with clever reasons for why I need to be sitting or lying down.  "Oh no!  The bad guy shot me with a tranquilizer!"

I've been doing my post-surgery stretches.  My chest muscles are tight, and the "arm lifts" feel impossible, especially on the DIEP side.  

Ignore the coffee stain

I purchased a 60-day silicone scar treatment for my hip-to-hip abdominal scar.  The strips are designed for normal-sized hips, so I'll probably only get 40 days out of it.  

You know how a newborn's belly button stump falls off after a couple weeks?  Yeah, I had something similar happen.  I was fine with my belly button the way it was, but I guess it had to be stretched or moved or ... I don't want to know.  Whatever happened, I've been gifted a "vertical/oblong" belly button, and that's supposedly a good thing.

This morning was stressful because I had to wake up early and submit a request at exactly 8am for Julia's schooling next year.  The school district decided to allocate the limited in-classroom spots (with social distancing) via time-stamp, and the remaining students will be remote until at least January.  The experience was similar to purchasing concert tickets or checking in for a Southwest flight.  What parent doesn't love feeling like they got the middle-seat-by-the-bathroom education for their rising third grader?  I'm obviously concerned about coronavirus, but I'm also concerned about my child's social-emotional health.  I refuse to let Julia spend four months alone in her room, staring at a Zoom meeting for 7 hours a day.  If she doesn't get one of the in-classroom spots, some parents are talking about organizing remote learning pods.  One dad offered up his crawl space for the makeshift classroom; he said the rats only come out at night.  It's going to be a great year!     

Claire's preschool reopened and immediately had two teachers confirmed with coronavirus.  That does not give me confidence about sending her back.  Right now, I'm just paying her tuition and keeping her at home.  I guess I know what I'll be doing this fall: facilitating Julia's online school and being Claire's preschool teacher.  Yesterday, I taught Claire to read the word "pink" and she was so proud!  She made a list of the words she can read: cat, pink.    

I hear "I'm bored" about a million times a day.  I get it.  I am also bored.  My phone has informed me that my daily screen time has been going up.  So the other day I announced that we were having a luau, complete with leis and ukulele music and fresh pineapple and pin-the-tail-on-the-pig.  It occupied my kids for an entire 45 minutes!  




Is it 2021 yet?
  





Comments