The Overachiever Is Home From the Hospital

They sent Bryan home on Thursday, which was 1-2 days earlier than expected.

Welcome new subscribers! To catch you up to speed, I’m on hiatus from my weekly Wednesday newsletter while my husband Bryan recovers from colon surgery. Instead, I’m posting these periodic updates regarding his colon cancer and surgery to remove the cancerous polyp. You can read the back story HERE.

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Hi, it’s me. It’s Saturday, and we’ve been home from the hospital since Thursday around noon. It’s hard for me to fathom how a person has an internal organ removed, is walking laps in the hospital the next day, and is home the day after that.

“Discharge Plan: Today”

We’re taking it slow. Bryan is experiencing pain, discomfort, and fatigue and the incision areas are sensitive, but so far nothing unexpected. We are mostly sitting around watching TV and taking naps.

Oh, and walks are required.

Speaking of naps… as his caregiver, I don’t know what to do with myself when Bryan takes an afternoon nap! When I was raising babies, conventional wisdom was nap when the baby naps, but I sucked at that! Instead, I had two lists:

• List of Things To Do When Baby Is Awake, and

• List of Things To Do When Baby Is Asleep

For instance, I can fold laundry when the baby is awake and work on our budget when the baby sleeps. When does mom sleep? Remind me what sleep is again? And I wasn’t even working outside the home when we had babies!

Managing my expectations became very difficult for me when I added a second baby that didn’t nap when the other baby napped, or when any or all babies woke up unexpectedly early.

Anyway, Bryan is taking a nap and I don’t know what to do — there are too many options. Read a book? Open the mail? Clean up the kitchen from breakfast (wait, did we have lunch?) Garden? Finish this newsletter?

After 20 years since my first baby was born, I still don’t know how to rest. I know if I lay on the couch to read a book, I’ll be irritated that the egg pan is still dirty. And my mind will wander to the realization that I forgot to start a load of laundry earlier when I meant to.

And the funny thing is, I’m not even a clean or organized person. I never dust my house, I rarely clean the shower, and my kitchen is always a mess.

Why does my brain choose nap time to nag me about cleaning the kitchen?!

All this to say, I’m keeping this short so I can take a nap. PRAY FOR ME.

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Here’s a four and a half minute video of our first walk shortly after getting home from the hospital on Thursday.

I’d like to provide a bit of context because we banter about walking on the sidewalk.

We live in a neighborhood that was rezoned in 2019 for building multiple single family units on one lot, so there’s been a lot of construction happening on our street. Our block doesn’t have sidewalks (long story), so developers are required by the city to add sidewalks when they build, which results in random sections of sidewalks that just end at the property line. It’s dumb.

Bryan is a sidewalk walker, I am not. He is WRONG.

[insert a Shel Silverstein joke about where the sidewalk ends that I’m too tired to come up with].

Hope you’re having a great weekend. Do subscribe for more coherent newsletters in the future.

Until next time,

Jen