Week 4 came with me pushing myself a bit too far too soon on top of being at work for my second week since the surgery. I am very aware that I still cannot lift anything over ten pounds for a few more weeks and I can't bend down too much. I think I am getting better at squatting! I agreed to teach a yoga workshop- a commitment I made before I found out I had cancer. I did not fully demonstrate the poses as I am not supposed to do practically any yoga poses yet except for the corpse pose. Let's say I used more classifiers in that 1.5-hour workshop than I have in a few months. :-) I also drove for the first time on Monday under Mike's supervision. It is easy to drive around in Annapolis which is a small city. Everything is within 5-10 minutes from home. Driving to DC on Wednesday proved to be a challenge. Driving a big truck today was too difficult for me as more core strength is required to drive that big thing! I think I will stick with my little coupe for a good while. :-)
I went back to interpreting on Wednesday evening because I did not want to leave my team alone and they could not find a substitute. I was not ready to interpret again. The chair was not comfortable for me to sit in. And the mental processing, omigosh! I was so exhausted midway. The drive back home was tough for me and the pain came back. I crashed when I got home. It was also the last time I took my pain medication. Yay me. I started taking my medication as needed rather on a regular schedule about 10 days ago. If the pain is too unbearable and continues for more than 30 minutes, I pop a pill. Narcotics really made my mind fuzzy and I hated that. Being on narcotics for a bit more than three weeks was too long for me.
My body is doing weird things. The urinary tract infection is gone. But the fluid build up has not gone away yet. My internist looked at it last week noting that it was small and would eventually go away. I learned that since I kept my ovaries, I would still experience monthly cycles but not menstruate up until "menopause" when my hormones naturally change with age. I think that last week was the week I was supposed to have my period. I was having my typical PMS symptoms. Instead of cramps, I had sore breasts. I hope that it does not become a monthly thing because I hated that. I also had a migraine headache for a few days. I only had migraine headaches twice in my whole life and those were when I was really exhausted. It was my body's way of signalling to me to rest. I hope that the migraine was not a symptom of the monthly cycle but a way to remind myself to slow down as I did a bit too much too soon. I suppose I will find out in four weeks.
Another thing... the swollen belly which the HysterSisters call "swelly belly". This reminds me of the time when I tore my ankle ligament a few years ago. After getting done with the air cast, if I did too much, my ankle swells at the end of the day. I used my ankle as an indicator of whether I did too much that day. Well... the same is true for my belly. If I did too much, my belly swells more. It did that on Wednesday evening. I have been carefully monitoring my belly. Today I think I did too much because I am sitting here with a swollen belly as I type this. The "swelly belly" will continue for up to three to six months. Ugh. The fluid build up is more apparent if I do too much. Yes those things annoy me but it is fascinating how our bodies naturally reminds us to slow down. And it is up to us to listen.
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