Hanging in There

A lot of people have been asking how I am doing with my recovery. I don't think it will surprise anyone to hear that I have been overdoing it. I have some pretty powerful pain medicines, but they only do so much. The first few days I felt really good. I felt hardly any pain and was walking around like surgery and 10 weeks of bed rest were a distant memory. I was going on pure adrenaline. Since then, it's been harder for me. I have a lot of soreness and I have exhausted myself. I want to be at the hospital all the time, but Mike and my mom have pretty much banned me from all day vigils for now. Mike leaves for UCLA in the morning, usually between 8 and 9, and then I follow after 11. It kills me not to be there, but I realize that I DO need to take care of myself and get rest. For those first few days I was enjoying the freedom of no more bed rest, and because of that, I have basically confined myself to a wheelchair! But don't feel too bad for me, I get lots of special treatment when I'm in a wheelchair. I still have my belly so most people assume I'm in labor!!!

I can't speak totally for Mike, but I think he's doing alright. He is at the hospital for about 12 hours every day. If he's not at Maddie's side, he's just outside the NICU, popping inside every 15 minutes to check her vital signs. I'm very jealous, he's been asked if he wanted to change her diaper or take her temperature. he's declined because his cold has lingered a bit. I wish I was there when those things happened!!! I love any opportunity to touch Maddie, and I would kill to be able to start taking care of her. Mike has been amazing through all this, he was there when things were really, really scary. Someday we'll write about those days, but right now they are too fresh and raw.