A while back I posted an article (Crankiness (A.k.a. post-op recovery blues.)) complaining about how miserable I was, four weeks post-op.

It's now been 5 months, and things have settled down a lot. The bleeding basically stopped by two months out, and the pain was gone enough that I didn't need to take pain-killers. I've finally graduated to using the orange (largest) dilator, and I've pretty much gotten the hang of how to do it. The people at the surgeon's office have said I can go down to only twice a day. I've mostly gotten the hang of my bodily functions, which is nice.

The main problem now is that I don't have a lot of stamina. I can do stuff, but I have to be careful not to do too much; if I do, I'll feel tired that day, but the next day or so I will feel sick, mostly flu-like aches and pains and feeling feverish. Driving takes a lot out of me, I start feeling wiped out after a half-hour, and I don't dare do more than an hour. If I travel into NYC for a doctor's appointment, that's all I can do that day, and I often have to take the next day or so off. (Fortunately, I'm retired.) And my thinking is often foggy, especially if I've gotten tired out.

People are telling me that it takes a year to fully recover, so I'm hoping that I'll eventually be able to do stuff. I managed to go to a dance or two before all the dances in the area shut down for the summer, so I'm hoping I'll be able to do that starting in the fall. I'd hoped to take some courses this summer (Spanish and ASL); maybe in the fall. I'm afraid of committing to do too much and wearing myself out to the point that I can't do any of it.

It's not easy being a woman, I guess....