10. I hate not being able to see

Friday. Sleeping last night was awkward, pain killers helped a bit. It was a relief to get up but then I had to contend with not being able to see. Justin arrived around 11am and changed the bag on my drain. 180ml. I ask him if I will be able to go away on Dec 9-11 for a retreat with some women friends. He doesn't see why not, especially as my room mate will be an RN and half the people attending are medically minded. If I do still have the drain in I can change the bag myself and make note of the level. He reminds me to drink lots of water as I am loosing fluid through the drain and I need to make sure I don't get dehydrated. It also helps with the healing. Drinking water isn't a problem for me, I always drink lots. He changes the dressing on the drain and does a loop with the tube so it will mitigate any accidental tugs that may happen.

Bored! I'd had planned to binge watch some Netflix and Amazon Prime. Maybe I should try an audiobook or podcast. Well, that didn't work very well. Normally if I was listening to something I would cross stitch, or crochet or quilt something. Without having my hands busy I zoned out and lost track of what was going on. Music? Yeah, that worked for a little bit. Maybe something on YouTube. I search around and find a channel that has whole episodes of QI. A quiz show to learn little snippets of random information as well as comedians. That was a good way to pass the time.

I needed to make a dentist appointment. The day before my operation one of my back molars had the filling fall out. I know, bloody stupid timing. Really tooth? Really? This tooth got cracked when I had a wisdom tooth come down back in 2012. There wasn't enough room in my mouth so I was getting ulcers so the dentist took it out. He said that the tooth next to it had cracked but he needed to wait a little bit for my teeth to resettle and then fill the crack. That's what fell out. I imagine it as a vertical canyon up the side of my tooth. My tongue scraps it every now and again. It's annoying but there are more annoying things at the moment. I make an appointment for Wednesday next week. Hopefully the drain will be out by then. On a side note, I recently found out that the less wisdom teeth you have the further along the evolution trail you are. I don't have any on the bottom and had two on the top. The one that is top left hasn't come down and probably won't. It can be left alone. Maybe I should call it Enola.

Saturday. On the weekends there are different nurses (Justin works Mon - Fri), I don't remember her name but she came at 10.45am. 220ml. I thought the levels were meant to go down not up. She said that moving around more can cause that but the levels should start to go down again. Just do things as normal. Ha, normal. I CAN'T SEE! My lower back, left hip and neck are all sore from sleeping on my back. I have exercises to do so that my shoulder doesn't freeze up. They need to be done four times a day, five times each repetition. It hurts but I can tell that it is helping my shoulder and arm. I'm not allowed to raise my arm above shoulder height until the drain comes out. I get some of the cancer council booklets I was given and squint to see if there is a website. Maybe they have an audio version of the books. Nope. Not very good access for a person with disability. Dementia Australia has a speaker button on each of their pages so the information can be read out. My vision issue is temporary until I can wear my contacts but I feel there is a large gap in information access for cancer. I make a mental note to follow this up with the cancer council. More QI gets me through the day. Don't forget to do the exercises.

Sunday. Another nurse comes today. She couldn't get the bag off the drain. Neither could I. I don't have much strength in my right hand at the moment but it's coming back. 220ml. She writes down the amount on her paperwork and puts a line on the bag and says Justin can change it tomorrow. There is a little tool that they have which can help. She'll leave a note for Justin about it. The bag can hold 700ml. I hope I don't get that much!!!! While waiting for the nurse I was a bit bored. I sat down at the piano. I know a few songs off by heart, I wonder if I can play them without being able to see much. Not too bad, not too many mistake. Oh wow - playing an octave is a rather painful under the arm. Muscles are connected in so many place. I play for about 10 minutes and realise that my wrist and fingers on my right are not quite as stiff as they had been and less achy. Good to know the piano is good physical therapy.

Shell, Aneira and Zaeli came to visit. The girls painted me some loverly artworks, big contrasting colours so I could see them. Shell helped me wash my hair. My scalp was sooooo itchy. Mither had offered but the awkward angle in the shower and her arthritis in her hands could've made it painful for both of us. The shower has a handheld hose. Transformer, shower in disguise. Thanks Jimeoin! The shower hose had been put in when Grandma Horner (Mither's mum) had been living here. It is much easier to shower with it as I can't get my drain dressings wet. The other incisions have a waterproof dressing on them. I measured the scars. Boob is 11cm long and under the arm is 9cm long.

After the shower and nice clean silky hair we got for a drive. Zaeli's car seat is put into Ebikah (the name of my car - the number plate starts with EBI) as I figure my car would be easier to get in and out of than Shell's. We drive down south to Bulli Tops for some gelato. Not as many bumps on this road but the constant blurriness is making my whole face ache and the back of my head ache. The occipital lobe (back of the head) is where vision is processed by the brain. I envision that it is working overtime, the fans whirling like a computer about to over heat. Gelato was very nice, I got chocolate of course. Ange and Evie met us as well. We didn't stay too long and the drive back home was filled with "Remember girls, if you whinge too much you won't get a snack in the car on the way home". "Zaeli, I know it's been a long day but screeching like that isn't going to help anyone". "I'm not whinging". "Yes RaRa, you will get a snack". "ZAELI! Please take it down a few notches". "If you continue I'll pull over and leave you on the side of the road". "No you won't mummy, you are just saying that " Smart kids. It really wasn't too bad and we made it back without a full on melt down.

By the time it got to 8pm I needed to be able to see so put my contacts in for a couple of hours. BLISS! My left eye felt ok and I'd given the contacts a deep clean beforehand. There is a special solution that I can soak them in for 30 mins once a month so make sure there is no calcium deposits that build up on them. I didn't want to over do them so went to bed early. I wasn't looking forward to being on my back all night but what other choice did I have.