Why is trying to be a couch potato so hard for me?

I’ve been slow with the updates this year but there’s good reason… several good reasons but we’ll only talk about one right now.

I think I have previously mentioned that I had somehow injured my shoulder but I really haven’t updated a lot more about it. Well, it started hurting a little over two years ago when I was spending my days at the hospital with Shyanne as she went through chemo. We had thought it was possibly a frozen shoulder as I did spend a lot of time sitting and holding her in my arms.

Well, it never got better with rest, shots, medication, or therapy so I eventually got a referral to a surgeon. After a couple of visits, we decided the best course of action was shoulder surgery. It was a couple of months between that decision and the actual surgery date so I got busy around here… really busy.

I was planting like crazy, enlisting help to finish some building projects, and just reorganizing the entire house… if you think the nesting phase of pregnancy was bad you should be glad you weren’t anywhere close to me during those couple of months because I would’ve put you to work doing something. I figured I’d have plenty of time to ‘rest’ during my recovery period… I was so WRONG!

Surgery went well and I didn’t end up with as many incisions as had been predicted. However, the after-surgery was not so good. I’ve mentioned before that I am extremely sensitive to a lot of medications. I also mentioned this at my pre-op visit and tried to explain that I can not tolerate any pain medication by mouth as well. They insisted that I would be fine and told me to let the anesthesiologist know on the day of surgery and they could place a pain pump.

Well, apparently the anesthesiologist had not been briefed about the situation and refused to place the pain pump as he said it would be ‘overkill’ for this surgery… sigh. I ended up in the ER the next day as I could not tolerate the pain medication and my stomach/chest hurt so bad I couldn’t be certain that it wasn’t an actual heart attack. Thankfully it wasn’t but I did find out that I had pneumonia, extremely elevated liver enzymes, and I was told that I had liver disease. Definitely, not the recovery I was expecting.

I was also advised not to take any pain medication by mouth and absolutely no alcohol. The alcohol wasn’t a big deal for me but the pain medication was a bit of a deal I did my best and have made it through with only a few ibuprofen here and there and LOTS of ICE!

I had my liver panels rechecked by my regular doctor and they had come down quite a bit but one was still pretty high so a referral was made to a specialist. The specialist has ordered tons of bloodwork and tests and I have a procedure scheduled for October. I’m hoping we can find some real answers as to what is going on as I have been dealing with this issue for 20+ years now and no one has been able to pinpoint the exact issue.

I did learn that it is possible that I could have a gallstone stuck in my bile duct which could be causing part of the issues… my gallbladder was removed over 20 years ago! I never knew this could even be a possibility! It seems that when you try to be prepared for anything you find out just how unprepared you are because something totally unexpected will come right at you.

Between all of these visits, I’ve also had therapy once a week. It’s been crazy busy and hectic trying to coordinate schedules so someone can chauffeur me around as I can not drive until the sling comes off! It has been quite challenging trying to do my daily activities without my dominant arm… Maybe I’ll get around to doing a post about that with some tips in the future but I’m not sure.

The biggest things I can say that have made life easier are elastic waistbands, oversized shirts, tube tops, slip-on shoes, ice packs, and my recliner plus plenty of helpers.

I am extremely blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members who have been coming to help out. My oldest daughters and son-in-law have alternated days during that first week, then my sister came to help, my mother-in-law(s) and father-in-law have also been a big blessing as well as my amazing husband and kiddos who have been pitching in extra around the house.

I’ve also been trying to get back to some healthier eating and found this great post with some recipes that are said to help with liver health so I’ve been trying them out and really enjoying them. These aren’t the prettiest pictures but the food was delicious and I can definitely see myself making these again.

The first link is the one I’ve been using but I do plan to check out the other ones as well:

We also started back to school this past week after a 2-week break for my surgery. That has been interesting as I try to keep my arm from getting bumped by the kiddos hitting the table and such. It has also been interesting trying to use my left hand to operate the mouse as I am normally right-handed.

Anyways, I’m going to get off this laptop as I probably shouldn’t be typing yet and I need to go find me some lunch now. I pray you have an abundantly blessed week!