Well, I've been home three and a half days now. The staples come out next Tuesday. Things have settled into some semblance of a routine. The post-surgical pain has mostly subsided, but I must say the staples are very irritating to my skin. It's Itch City. I can manage with Tylenol. I even had a sneezing fit earlier and it wasn't so bad. The trips to the bathroom are still more than usual, but have clustered into about three time periods a day: In the morning when I wake up, around midday, and just before bed. Frankly, before bedtime I don't particularly feel the need, I just want to assure a full night's sleep. There never really isn't a sense of desperate urgency, I just know I need to go, like a "normal" person when it's "time to go". Sometimes I go in, do my business, come out, only to have to go back again 10 minutes later. Somewhat annoying, but nothing I can't deal with. I'm just happy to be on top of, rather than in front of the toilet. The soreness around the more sensitive parts is receding. I still have to be a bit gentle in wiping, but it is nothing like two days ago.
I'm very happy I can move around. When the colostomy was first done, it was a good two weeks home before I could even get up the two steps into our kitchen without a lot of pain. I'd forgo getting something from the back of the house because it was just too painful to go back there to get it. Not this time. So long as I don't bend over at the waist, I'm pretty good getting around. I'd get out and walk our rural road a bit for exercise if the weather weren't so cruddy.
My medium goal is to consolidate my trips to the bathroom to one or two single daily trips. Before the diverticulitis took hold, I was a single 10-20 minutes after my coffee kinda guy. Yeah, I intellectually know I've got a bit more than half the colon I used to have, and that may never be the case again, but I do strive to keep it to a bare minimum.
My wife and I really enjoy long, destination-less drives on the weekends in decent weather. There is nothing more fun than setting off with no goal in particular and ticking off a hundred or two miles to find new places. Last fall we bought a small, REALLY small, imported 25-year-old right-hand drive Japanese convertible for just that purpose. When I say small, I mean a full two feet shorter than my Mini Cooper. You not so much get into it as you do wear it. Sitting on the wrong side takes a bit of getting used to, but you adjust. Anyways, such a driving arrangement means I'm going to really need decent control and holding power if we are to resume our routine. Hopefully things will continue along this path so that by spring I can pull the Cappuccino (yes, that is the model of the car) back out of the garage and we can take a trip.
We are also planning a weekend away to a somewhat local resort. It's been a good two years since we've had a good couple's massage at a spa and we are both looking forward to that. There is a place down in the Laurel Highlands of PA we've been meaning to stay at for the facilities, as well as being near Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater that we've been meaning to tour.
I'm obviously still on the low-fiber post-surgery diet, which is rather bland and boring, so I don't take this as a future indicator of things to come, though things are slowly starting to "firm up". If the bag was any predictor, I'll have good and bad days.
