RECOVERY

Its been a little over a month since my operation. I am feeling better at this time than I thought I would. I spent close to a week in the hospital after my surgery. That was a time filled with visits from many different nurses and doctors, and when I basically napped day and night with continual interruptions at all times. I watched old movies on TV, walked the hospital hallways, and grew very impatient to get out.

Since then, recovery has been going very well. My doctors are surprised by the speed at which it has been going, and I take long walks most days, if it isn’t too hot outside.

I am growing impatient to start painting, and I might be able to do so in the next month. That’s my assessment, although the real issue these days is all those strange feelings that healing causes within you; feelings like constant itching, strange pains, and uncomfortable aches. Swelling is now a big issue and I do stretches and side massages in order to encourage the swelling to go down.

Because much of my discomfort in in the. area of my right shoulder and chest, typing is difficult, as is the idea of painting at this moment. I’m left handed, but the right hand holds the palette, or in a few instances, keeps me balanced if I’m in an unusual position to paint. I can’t do much of any of those things right now.

At times, I watch art videos to see what subjects and what arrangements artists use, and whether I agree with their choices. Like I said in my last post, I probably will do some interior work before I head outside again, and I think that’s still holds true.

In the last few days, I found that. that singer Jimmy Buffett died of a rare skin cancer, and I find that really sad. I was not necessarily a parrothead or anything like that, but his music was part of my youth. I think he was being treated both with radiation and chemo. I’ve been told that my cancer was also rare, but in my case, chemo and radiation would not work, so I had no choice but to face major surgery. I realize surgeory is a more difficult option when it involves skin cancer. Basically, the options used to treat and defeat this illness all make my skin crawl when I think about them, including what I went through, but surprisingly, I had very little pain during recovery. I don’t know what Buffett was going through, but my heart goes out to his family.

So here is to hoping that by my next post, I’ll be painting again.