Jun 29th

When the nurse told me to "stay ahead of the pain," I believed her.  When she said "you should take the painkillers every 6 hours, even if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to do so," I believed her.  What she forgot to add was that Vicodin makes you feel like a sloth, and makes you poop like a sloth (if you’re able to).  But if this was the sacrifice I had to make to be pain free, so be it!

Having nothing better to do, I religiously kept my foot elevated and iced.  Because I couldn’t apply ice over the splint, the doctor recommended I ice behind the knee, to chill the blood on its way to the ankle.  That sounded S-M-R-T, and it seemed to work too.

Jun 30th

Unfortunately, I had to be on my feet for a few hours today.  Having entered escrow on a new house, it was time to do some of the in-escrow things, like a home inspection.  I don’t recommended being on Vicodin and moving around with a swollen foot.  The doctor said that being completely sedentary was bad, and that I should move around a little to get some blood flow to the foot to promote healing, but I don’t think this is what he had in mind.  At the start, my mind was fairly clear - "Yes, I understand.  That makes sense."  At the end, it was a little less clear - "Huh? Whatever."  Thank goodness my real estate agent was a good family friend.

Jul 2nd

Four days post-op and no pain.  Literally none.  Drugs are great.  In fact, so great, with nothing really to do, I tried working from home.  It would’ve been a success if I could have thought clearly and not dozed off.  I’m going to have to downgrade drugs from great to good.  But knowing that it could be addictive, and that I was pain free, I decided this was the time to get off them.  Goodbye my friend - I hardly knew ye!