Farmer Update

Yes, you read the title right.  This is a farmer update, not a FARM update.

Although, you might be on to something if you figure there can't be an update of the farmers without some farm thrown in.

You may recall that I did have surgery to remove a cancerous kidney on April 28 of this year.  By May 5, I was able to write my first blog update for those who wanted to know how I was doing.  And, on that same day I went out into Eden and pushed a seeder and did a tiny bit of cultivating with a stirrup hoe.  I didn't last too long - about 15 minutes - but that's how long everything seemed to go at that point.  Some of the milestones we celebrated as I recovered were pretty humbling.  

I am now seven and a half weeks post-surgery.  I had my check-in with the surgeon and he pronounced me "still alive," which I considered to be a good thing as I agreed with him.  All formal lifting and activity restrictions are removed at this point, though he did tell me I should "listen to my body" and not get too crazy.

Well darn it.  I was going to hoist a piano over my head and toss it over the Harvestore silo.  

I guess I'll wait until next week to do that.

I think most people who have had a chance to observe would say that this has been a pretty quick recovery.  But, I would like to add that while I have been fairly aggressive with keeping moving, I have been playing the long-game by quickly identifying movements that would require caution.  

Happily, most motions are approaching some level of normalcy.  I can hoist the water and feed buckets and put implements on the tractor.  The biggest difference is that I am still rebuilding strength that was lost when I wasn't doing any of this lifting. 

On other fronts, I still have some trouble with concentration, especially on writing or office tasks.  At this point, I suspect it has more to do with building endurance.  Similar to the loss of some of my muscular strength because I was not using them as I was prior to surgery, I lost some of the 'muscles' for these other tasks.  I just have to build them back up.

I no longer flinch if something touches the incision areas, but I still don't care to have a cat decide she wants to knead directly on them and I don't think about my recovery every other moment of the day as I had been just a few weeks ago.

The biggest difference, however, is the relief I feel that I can pull my own weight at the farm and in our household.  And who knows, maybe I'll be able to offer help to others when they need it too.

It's good to be on the off-ramp from recovery and back onto the highway.