Right after surgery, the hospital staff warned me that the second and third days after surgery were the worst: by then the anesthetic has fully worn off, but the pain hasn’t abated at all.

Thus, I expected to feel much worse on Sunday.

Instead, I felt… About the same for pain, but stronger. I walked to the bathroom and back without my legs shaking when I laid back down. The hallway didn’t seem quite so insurmountably long. We even went outside in the sunny, warm courtyard for a bit (via wheelchair) and played a game of Set.

And, best of all, I showered for the first time in 48 hours, after which I very gingerly removed the dressings over my incisions. Turns out they actually did two separate incisions fairly close together; I’m going to ask why today. I let those dry completely and then put light gauze dressings on just to keep anything from rubbing there.

I remember one time I accidentally stabbed myself in the hand while trying to get the pit out of an avocado, and the sight of that blood made me light-headed. I didn’t feel light-headed at this, but it’s difficult to look at.

Despite doing (relatively) more things, also I felt so much more tired yesterday. In between doing any activity, I took long naps. Mom went to church; I napped. She went to get food; I napped. She read; I napped.

Despite all that napping — or maybe because of it — I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I woke up every hour from 9:45 onward, and never really got back to sleep after 3:00 am. I felt tiredness knocking at the door, but it was difficult to open the door and actually stay asleep. I’m afraid my sleep schedule will be completely wacky when we get home.

I have a follow-up with the surgeon’s office today. They will probably clear me to fly; we have tickets to head home tomorrow morning. After that, I expect today will look like yesterday. Hopefully a lot of healing sleep and enough activity to keep my blood flowing.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need a nap…