Day Two in the Hospital

Around 5:45 this morning a phlebotomist came to do blood work. He only took two samples. When he came in, he said good morning, and I returned the greeting. He asked how I was doing, and I said, "I'm great! How are you?" he said he was good. He asked for my name, which I gave him. And then before he could ask for it, I gave him my date of birth. He commented, "You have this down,". We continued to talk while he drew my blood. He said that I was way too perky for this early in the morning. He brought the syringe over and I pulled up my sleeve so he could draw. He said, "Wow, you're so proactive." I guess I am. But he's right. I do have this down. And I don't see the sense in not being perky and happy.

The surgeon's assistant came in to check on me around 6:30. He asked how I was feeling and said he thinks I'll recover from this surgery very similarly to the last one, and it's likely that I'll recover more successfully since my body won't view it as being so traumatic, seeing as I have already done this once before, and that's good news.

My physical therapists had me sit up completely straight today. I lay in the hospital bed and they moved the bed so that it became a chair. She stopped every so often so that I could get used to things, and recover from any lightheadedness. The first time I sat up straight, I made it 28 minutes before I began to feel severely dizzy. My physical therapists came in later and we repeated the process. This time, I was able to sit up without feeling too dizzy, and what dizziness was there, dissipated quickly. I ended up sitting up like that for over an hour, and only went back to my reclined position, because
Ethan came to visit me and I wanted to be really comfortable.

Ethan is pretty awesome. He drove up from Farmington, NM to keep me company while I'm in the hospital and is staying with family. He and I have a long list of movies that we plan to watch when I get home from the hospital, before I start school and work again, so we typed out that list. We also listened to music and talked. We talk about basically everything and it's really nice to have him here.

My aunt and uncle came to visit this evening as well. They brought lemon pound cake, which was delicious. It was good to see them again.

Mom and Dad washed my hair tonight. It felt amazing. It's remarkable how feeling clean helps me feel healthier and just better as a whole. We lay my bed down and I used the trapeze (equipment that helps me pull myself up and down in bed) to pull myself to the top of the bed so that my head hung off of it and into the wash basin. Dad held my neck while Mom washed my hair.

I went to bed around 2:30 a.m., simply because I had trouble sleeping. From that point, I was in and out of sleep.