Now two of my little goslings have flown the coop! While Dov is still at camp, Ya'akov took his red suitcase to the airport today to go to England! He'll be there for a week. He has an escort who is a friend of ours, and she'll be with him the whole time, *both ways*! I am so happy about that. And he is so excited, it may actually be exuberance.
So this Shabbat is just a compact family with Shifra & Azriel. Then Dov is due home Sunday. I miss him, and can't wait to see his tanned, sweaty, happy face, and hear about camp stories and adventures. It's going to be a very chatty time, I'm sure.
Ya'akov took a notebook with him to write about every day in England. And we gave him a disposable camera.
It's such a different feeling that my babies are going into the world themselves for a week--or three- at a time. Amazing. I also think it's cool that they are building memories for their own lives. I can picture Ya'akov telling his date some evening in ten years or so "when I was 10 I went to England for a week by myself". Can't you just picture that?
In other news, well, it's not really news, but I am still in lots of pain. "Still"... like it's been so long. It's 10 days after surgery today, which, in the scope of things, is not a long time. I've been told that six weeks is the minimum expectation for major abdominal surgery. We're not even at two weeks yet. But it really is hard to be in so much pain. I haven't found any combination of pain killers that takes away the pain. If I do take tons of stuff, it puts me into Timbuktu and then there's no point in being awake anyway.
There is lots of nerve pain, too. Some areas that are newly numb, and some places that are shooting nerve pain down my left leg. When I was in the hospital they gave me shots of pain meds into my tush muscles, and those places hurt *a lot* at this point! For a few days I kept checking to make sure it isn't swollen, red or infected because it felt like it was. But it's just deep muscle pain, also traveling down the thigh on the left side. Makes it hard to find good resting positions. No position lasts for more than a half hour or so.
The bottom line here is that there are really no surprises. I was warned that this is a painful, long recovery. I am prepared for it. I am not overdoing anything. My spirits are OK; not depressed, but not great -pain gets in the way of great- but overall, OK. I am grateful that this big bad surgery is over. My follow-up in Tel Aviv is in a week- next Thursday. I'll deal with transportation when the date gets closer. Anyone have a flying couch I could borrow?
I actually saw Ya'akov just before on his way to th airport, red suitcase et al. He looked good and excited. Wished him a good and safe trip. It was good seeing him and the obvious glow of anticipation.
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