1. A successful surgery. Everything went even better than I expected. I had a private room with a view of the tops of the trees and the sky. My health insurance is covering everything. I had much less pain and restriction than what I’d prepared for, was up and walking just hours after leaving the recovery room, was able to manage what pain I had without any opioids, and experienced no nausea. The day after my procedure, my surgeon was willing to discharge me if I wanted, but since I still needed to be taken off my IV drip of lidocaine and hadn’t pooped yet (sorry if that’s TMI, but I did have part of my colon removed), I wanted to reach those milestones without difficulty before I went home so stayed one more night.

Every day, I feel a bit better, have been walking a lot and resting a lot. Today’s milestones are putting clean sheets on the bed all by myself, doing laundry — folding and putting it away even, and my second day on no pain meds. Later I’m going to take a longer walk (there’s a 1.8 mile loop Ringo and I take around our neighborhood in the afternoon sometimes and I’m going to try that) and while in the shower I’ll remove the last of my steri-strips from the two bigger incisions. I have a follow up with my surgeon on Tuesday and hopefully I’ll get cleared to get back in the pool, starting a return to movement practice that I’m guessing will take another 6-8 weeks to complete.

My surgeon was brilliant and all the nursing and other staff were awesome. I am beyond grateful. You can really see in the progression of pictures of me how I kept feeling better and better, the first of the set being me just out of surgery and the last one being me showered and home.

2. Eric. Poor guy was so nervous the day of my surgery. He’s been extra busy at work and had to take over all the dog walks and has taken such good care of me: before, during, and after. He brought me a “kitchen counter” love note every day I was in the hospital and just about every day since. He’s one of the best things I ever did for myself.

3. Good friends. Mikalina sent me gorgeous flowers. Shellie sent me a heart with “embodied” written on it. Chloe’ has been checking on me and sending me love and funny stuff and pictures of her tiny family, like always. Carrie and Chelsey and Janice have been regularly checking in. I got lots of well wishes and direct messages, far and wide. I even got to talk to my CSU friend Deanna, who I haven’t talked to in so long. Yesterday, our whole Wild Writing group was able to meet, to practice together, and it was so good to see them. I feel so lucky to know all these wonderful, tender hearted humans.

4. Ringo. He’s been such good company during my recovery. Our only issue was yesterday, which was cold so he wanted to cuddle on my stomach while I was lying on the couch, which I normally love but as I explained to him, I have stiches in my belly and he weighs almost 50 pounds. He finally gave up trying but he did not approve.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. I am so glad to be home and recovering and I am excited for what comes next.

Bonus joy: lots of naps, my blackout curtains and sleep mask, birds at the feeder, good books and TV, listening to podcasts, potatoes, peach sorbet, plans for the future, everything turning green and a few things in bloom, other people’s dogs (cats, bunnies, birds, donkeys, etc.) and kids, a massage, comedy specials, on demand streaming content, good health, clean water, libraries, reading in bed while Ringo and Eric sleep.