Two Weeks Post Surgery

I am officially two weeks post surgery and I have to say that the time has flown by.  Simply resting was king of hard, my mind would think of all the little things I could be doing around the house but I have gotten a LOT of rest.  I am grateful for Kyle and Bella with all of their help during my recovery.

In this time I also had my 39th birthday, what a strange birthday this year but I did enjoy spending it with Kyle and Bella (when she surfaced ;)).  It was a quite celebration of watching movies, playing some games and I found myself some new running shoes for my birthday present thanks to Reebok having a nice online sale.  Kyle and Bella made me my favorite cake, white cake with chocolate frosting, and we thoroughly enjoyed devouring that.

As I have gone through recovery it has been pretty smooth sailing.  To go from bleeding constantly day after day with major cramping to absolutely nothing has been INCREDIBLE!!!  I have had some minor cramping but nothing like what I was used to and my incisions have all healed nicely.  I have just three small incision spots and one is literally inside my belly button so you can't even see it.  The area right above my belly button is tender to the touch, it is also where I have scar tissue from a belly button piercing which I imagine they would have had to cut through.

I have noticed a huge change in my energy and having a lot of symptoms I had before with the low hemoglobin that are now gone such as:

• Restless legs
• Elevated heart rate
• Cold hands and feet
• Light headed
• Fainting spells
• Pale skin
• Easily short of breath

To no longer feel any of those symptoms has been literally freeing!  I associated  so many of them with POTS, some could still occur due to that condition but now I know I was experiencing them mostly due to being anemic.

Easing into working out has been going well.  I started with short walks inside the house the first week and this second week I was okay to start some low intensity cardio.  I have started LISS/MISS (low intensity steady state or medium intensity steady state) cardio on the airdyne we have and also still walking.  It has felt really good to move some and feel the benefits of the simple cardio.  I've never been a huge fan of cardio but LISS/MISS is such an awesome tool to use when you are limited in what you can do for exercise.

Today was my post surgery check up and it went so well!  I have had such a great recovery in just two weeks.  My incisions look great, everything is healing quickly and I was cleared to start light lifting and back to normal in just two more weeks instead of four.  The best news was my hemoglobin level, it is up to 11.8, nearly back to normal!  My doctor is so incredible and thoughtful, she was thrilled with my incision in my belly button.  She tried to make it as small as possible so I wouldn't have a noticeable scar for competitions, I never would have expected her to think of that.

I am grateful to be at this point in my journey and am looking ahead with excited anticipation to future goals.  To actually feel GOOD is incredible and to know I am finally healthy I am more than ready to start crushing goals!  

My mind has played some tricks and at times I feel like I have lost a lot of muscle but I am grateful that Kyle is right here for me to talk to and remind me of simple science :)  My muscles are there and they will be pumped back up in no time, muscle memory is a wonderful thing and my body hasn't forgotten all the years of work put in for the muscle I have built.

Now to get through the craziness that is currently life and finding a new normal.  I am anxious for our gym to be open again and am ready to see our amazing fit family and teach some kickboxing!!!