It Hurts to Laugh

I am 10 days post-open heart surgery.

Yesterday turned out to be a better day than expected. I alternated taking Motrin with Tylenol and let me tell you - those two little orange Motrin did more for my back and shoulder pain than a whole week of prescription painkillers did. Hooray!

I removed one of the three pillows I have been sleeping on last night and slept better than I have since before surgery. I'm going to try sleeping in my own bed tonight!

I can live with those other annoyances. I had surgery done by the best surgeon in the world and my quality of life is going to improve. I need to keep focusing on that.

Okay. Now to the topic at hand.

I am a HUGE Ellen Degeneres fan. I think she is completely hilarious. As you all know, I am an editor and work full-time, so I don't get a chance to watch her show. I've been looking forward to watching it during my convalescence (I LOVE that word). So I turned it on last week and started to watch it. The show was a repeat - her President's Day show (I didn't mind - I haven't seen it before). But after the beginning bit, I was laughing so hard I had to turn the channel. It hurt way too much to laugh!

So that's been one big disappointment for me - the fact that I can't watch Ellen, and laugh. (BTW, I did email Ellen about this. I wonder if I'll hear anything back...)

Other things it hurts too much to do:

• Yawn - I can't take a deep breath yet and yawning kills me. I try to stifle them, but have only succeeded in straining my neck muscles.
• Bend forward - that puts too much pressure on my chest.
• Cough - I am supposed to hold my heart pillow against my chest and cough periodically to keep pneumonia from developing. What's a heart pillow, you wonder? Well, it's my red, heart-shaped pillow that I received at the hospital for just this purpose. It's firmer than normal pillows and provides great support for my sternum when I cough.
• Shower - well, actually I can shower, but it takes FOREVER, and I hate it.
• Sneeze - I haven't had to sneeze yet, but I've heard that it hurts like crazy. I am not looking forward to sneezing for the 1st time.

I have laughed since last week. But each time I've had to press my heart pillow to my chest, because otherwise it does hurt way too much.

I can't wait to laugh again...

Oh, and remember those scabs that kept on scratching my chin? Well, they fell off yesterday so that problem has been solved.

I'll talk to y'all later!