Ow.

Surgery was 4 days ago. It seems like so long ago and yet I couldn't tell you what I've done with the last 4 days other than watch a lot of episodes of Mad Men. My recovery process has been inconsistent. I felt super on Friday, decent on Sunday, trippy on Monday, and sorta okay today. I'm not sleeping great, I don't fall asleep until 3 or if I fall asleep earlier then I wake up at 3 for a couple of hours. Regardless, I'm tired during the day. I've been trying not to take painkillers, especially during the day. I take them at night but I'm going to try to make tonight my last night.

My abdomen still feels very swollen. I think it's the air/gas they use to fluff everything up inside because it feels hard as a rock sometimes during the day. I get so hungry and then when I try to eat I can only get a few bites down because I think everything is all inflamed and pushing up against my stomach. I've been drinking a lot which is probably good, yummy stuff too like fresh-squeezed orange juice and full-calorie iced tea (a treat!). But honestly if I could eat a good meal I'd be happier.

Today I got on the treadmill, partially from fear that this would be 4 days without running but also because I noticed that I feel worse if I lie in bed all day. My stomach feels even more distended and hard if I don't move around.

I probably should have just walked today but I felt like I needed to test myself. I did some running intervals, 4 minutes followed by 2 minutes of walking, for 3 miles. The good news is that I don't feel like I've lost strength or endurance. I didn't feel winded at all. I did feel a lot of discomfort bordering on pain though. I just don't think my organs have settled back into place yet (that's how I'm imagining it anyway) and I felt all jostled around for lack of a better word. I hope I didn't make a mistake but my surgeon said I should go for it when I felt ready. I thought I was.

At least the spell is broken. The unknown of what running will feel like after abdominal surgery is no longer a question. It hurts but it's not impossible. We'll see how I feel tomorrow though...