Yesterday morning I had an inguinal hernia operation and for the next few days to maybe six weeks I will be invalid. I tried and succeeded in doing my usual easy things, like visiting with my old dudes down at the Commons coffee shop. But when I got home, I was still tired from yesterday’s super early rising and the trauma of being cut open, patched up and then sewn back together.
Unfortunately, my roof troubles were still in force and so as delicately as I possibly could I went up the ladder to the top and shoveled snow, chopped ice, and then sprinkled an ice melting compound along the edges where the ice had formed an eighteen-inch tapering ridge. I think this will get me through the winter snow season if we don’t get more than a couple of inches at a time. Some portions of the roof still have more than two feet of soggy snow on them but I have cleared off what appear to be the less supported parts. The electricity-generating solar panels on the roof are working well after the snow was mostly scraped off; they are very black and will melt thin snow coverings quickly in full sunshine.
Back to me! After that hour of roof work, I went back to bed. My caution about not exerting myself left me physically feeling okay, but tired, so I got back in bed. My surgery doesn’t hurt much except when I am in certain postures that put tension on my abdomen. It is especially difficult to sit down and get up from sitting because those muscles pull really hard for a second or so. I’ve worked out a method for sitting down where I put my heels well under the chair and then squat straight down and when my hands can reach the chair, or arms of the chair, I transfer as much of my weight to them as possible and lower myself the rest of the way. I do this slowly taking about fifteen seconds, which allows my stomach muscles time to adapt without much pain.
I’m not enthusiastic about surgery, but a friend of mine’s father, who refused to see a doctor, died from an inguinal hernia which strangled his intestine.
I think a few days of annoyance is better than a week of intense pain and then dying.
Probaway - Life Hacks 