Post Surgery Blues

[Gammoes]

Hi, this is my first time reaching out.

I would usually class myself as an active happy person. I recently underwent my first surgery. I'm almost 4 weeks post acl reconstruction surgery.  Recently I have been struggling to cope day to day since my surgery. I'm limited to leaving the house since I can't drive. I'm limited movement wise and every day feels the same. Every day is a constant battle with motivation and negative feelings. I'm struggling to move forward. I feel like progress is slow and minimal. I miss the social interactions of work and life. My moods are all over the place. I snap and go from 0 to 100 over nothing. I guess I'm reaching out because I think I need help. I need ways to cope with what I'm going through. Someone who can relate. I need help with creating small goals or things I can do to try and get myself back to who I was.. 

[Croix]

Dear Guest_90940248~

Welcome to the Forum. I'm sorry ACL surgery was necessary, as you have found out immediately after the operation life is rather limited. It is not an uncommon thing to feel the blues after an operation, after all you have subjected your body to a great shock and anesthetic and it takes time to heal and recover.

I felt much the same way after jaw surgery, though as I already had bouts of depression and other problems it simply made my symptoms worse for a few weeks. I did discuss this with my medical team and my medication was altered for a little while -I'm not suggesting you need medication, however seeing your GP and explaining how you feel might be a good idea anyway.

For an active person to be confined basically to the house is very frustrating and all the normal things that take your interest and motivate you are temporarily absent. Hopefully you are not in a great deal of pain. Recovery can take longer than you expect and lack of energy and feeling it's never going ot get better can often be present, things do get better though.

I was not able to easily talk or eat and that further limited things. To pass the time and give myself a challenge I bought a very small electric keyboard and a couple of music books for beginners. It was very difficult, I even pasted the note values on the keys. It did pass hte time and I was very pleased with myself when I became able to pick out a tune. The books were on waltzes, so that's what I learned -not exactly my taste, but a challenge nevertheless.

As I improved and life back more back to normal my enthusiasm did drop off a bit, however it had done it's job and I can still pick out the 'Blue Danube'. Can I suggest you find something you can do at home to give you interest with a physical and mental challenge?

What do you think?

Croix

[Gammoes]

Hi Croix, 

Thankyou for reaching out. Wow jaw surgery must have been such an ordeal to go through. Sorry you had such a tough time. Thankyou reaching out to someone seems like a good idea. 

Glad to know it will get better. Just have to take each day one step at a time I guess. 

A challenge sounds like a great way to pass the time and keep my mind active thankyou for the suggestion. I have wanted to relearn french. Thankyou for your message. 

[Croix]

Dear Gammoes~
J'étais écolier à Paris. So French would be a great choice, the culture is rich and the way sentences and word order is used is similar to English. I'm afraid it was an exceedingly long time ago, and it has just about all gone, if you don't use it you lose it I guess.

I've been watching a series on DVD from a French TV series, Maigret with Bruno Cremer, thank goodness for the subtitles, otherwise an awful lot would go over my head.

I hope you find something to interest and challenge you

Croix (who should not have written anything here in another language but could not resist the temptation:)

[therising]

Hi Gammoes

What you face sounds like a definite triple challenge. How to manage mentally, physically and even in some soulful ways that can help lift your spirits a bit. Try and remember to be kind to yourself as you face what sounds like a first time challenge (being incapacitated for an extensive period of time). Uncharted territory.

Croix's already touched on something I was going to suggest, how to bring a new part of you to life under the circumstances, such as the musician. Resurrecting an old facet of self can be a way to go also, such as bringing the linguist in you back to life through French. If you're a lover of research, you could bring the researcher in you to life. In this case, it's about what you'd like to begin researching. Could involve a bit of research on the immune system and how it manages repairing parts of the body that have undergone stress. Could involve researching something entirely different, such as how quantum physics relates to energetic behaviour of the human body. If there's an artist or a writer in you champing at the bit to come to life, now could be the time to serve those parts of you. If you can imagine there are 100 different facets to you (just a basic round figure), which one or which ones do you have the opportunity to bring to life at this point in time? Once you're back on your feet, you might decide to continue keeping that part or those parts in you alive. You might even decide to take the linguist in you to France for a holiday, where it would serve you well.