2/5/14. The post where I tell you about the long night.

2/5/14: when I finished last night's post, I turned out the light and intended to go to sleep.  Instead, I was welcomed into the nausea portion of the evening.  Whether it was a result of:

- the two tacos I ate for breakfast,

- the nothing I ate for the next ten hours,

- the three hours without any water,

- the sedative they gave me before the procedure, or

- a combination of the above,

my stomach churned for several hours.  Fortunately, my dinner stayed safely in my stomach during the entire episode, but I was glad I had eaten modestly and I was also glad for my two hour nap after the procedure.  Finally, things calmed down and I slept for an hour or two.

I woke up again around 3am - perhaps that gallon of water before bed wasn't such a hot idea in retrospect.  I was pretty sure the sleeping part of my night was over, but I stubbornly got back into bed anyway.  I kept myself occupied for several hours by planning future blog posts, writing a new policy for work in my head, listening to my patient, long-suffering husband breathe to see if I could figure out which cycle of sleep he was in by what his breath sounded like. You know, the usual.  I even tried the Shavasana yoga relaxation method, where you start with your head and consciously relax each muscle all the way down your body.  Oddly enough, when I got down to my foot, it actually made the pain worse.  Or more likely, I was just more aware of it because I was concentrating on it. So much for that idea.

I fell asleep around 6am for another hour and then was up for good.  Today was supposed to be my resting day after the procedure, so I did some reading and worked on the computer.  I thought a nap would be on the agenda, but it was not in the cards.  It's probably just as well. I need a good night's sleep tonight. I have a big day planned tomorrow.  Work, non-profit board meeting, then singing with our choir in a charity concert.  Good thing I had a resting day today.

I've spent much of the day trying to discern whether I feel a difference in my foot, and so far I can't say I do.  It's still pretty colorful and the pain has hung around a 7.  At least it hasn't gotten any worse and I haven't had any of the other potential side effects.  And the nerve block could still kick in tomorrow.

I watched a movie last week called "Stand Up Guys", where Al Pacino and Christopher Walken play aging con men who get together one last time.  Their catch phrase before going out to do a job is, "It's time to kick a$$ or chew gum. And guess what? I'm all out of gum."  (It suddenly occurs to me that I refer to gum quite a bit in this blog for someone who hasn't chewed a piece of gum since I dislocated my jaw 20 years ago.)

Well, guess what, nerve block?  I'm all out of gum.  So you know what to do.