Nat

If you're following me on Twitter, I think it's becoming increasingly clear that I have some problems with 'executive function'-like things, such as managing to do the housework! I've been coming up with new schemes and plans to make sure the washing up gets done for as long as I've had a sink of my own, and yet I'm still failing to manage to keep to them for more than a couple of days!

As such I'm now giving up on the idea of washing up every day! In fact I'm giving up on ever managing to do the washing up any more frequently than what I've been consistently managing regardless of what I actually intend - about once a week. What I'm now trying to do is develop good habits that stop the kitchen from becoming a depressing health hazard in the times between washing up sessions!

My last attempt at this was attempting to develop a habit (ie, do it every day for a month), but the habit failed because it was far too ambitious for me to do on days like this when I've worked almost 10 hours with only two hours of not very restful noisy sociable lunch break and 30 minutes of non-work, non-social time! On days like this it's an achievement when I manage to eat a meal (at 10pm, whoops!), washing up as well is never going to happen!

The new super simple habits I'm aiming to develop are to once a day:

1. Rinse all the dishes from that day and pile them neatly
2. Throw away any piles of rubbish (like tea bags) that have developed because I don't like to touch the bin (I REALLY need a different type of bin)
3. Pour away any water used for soaking things that wouldn't rinse

I think (hope!) that even I can manage those!

Doing that should make doing the dishes far less daunting and disgusting when I actually do have the time and energy to do them properly (all in one go, usually on Sunday).

Rinsing is a big portion of the work in doing the washing up for real, so this should give me a head start and may naturally lead to me doing small amounts of washing up mid-week. I'll also have a considerably more empty sink and should never have to deal with the job of tipping away a bowl full of pond water and rinsing the stinky residue off of all of the dishes (yes, yes, I have a problem).

...although by blogging about it, I have now probably doomed it to failure! :)

One week ago, I was just being discharged from the hospital after my surgery, and now I'm managing to sit comfortably in a chair! Admittedly the chair becomes increasingly uncomfortable over 15 to 20 minutes, but this is a massive improvement on a couple of days ago.

Everything went perfectly to plan during the operation and so far during recovery. I've had none of the possible complications. The pain was absolutely ...abdominal for the first few days, but that was to be expected!

It's still mostly a case of lying down with my feet raised but I'm now able to sit for short periods and walk around the flat without wincing and walking like a skitsy crab. It really only hurts when I'm getting in and out of chairs and the bath now (or when I'm poking my stitches and abdominals).

I'm off the strongest addictive painkillers and down to only Ibuprofen and Paracetamol as of yesterday. This has helped my digestive system and made me considerably more comfortable as a result.

My mum's gone home now and I'm happily fending for myself after proving myself able to get in and out of the bath without assistance as of Tuesday. It's really good not to feel reliant on someone else for everything, I think I found that the most difficult part last week, worse than the pain.

Healing seems to be on schedule; my wounds aren't oozing any blood at all now and the dressings are only providing padding at this point - no more daily salty baths! Back to using all the soaps! My stitches look very neat and regular, although there's still quite a lot of bruising and swelling around them, both are visibly improving every day. The stitches have been feeling itchy and kind of spiky recently, so I'm wondering how quickly I can expect them to start to dissolve and how long they usually take to have dissolved completely.

I have another week and a half off work to recover. I get the impression that by this time next week I'll be feeling like I'm having an extended holiday, with a mandatory ban on exercising. I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting for a few weeks after surgery, so I guess I'll be having my groceries delivered for a while...

Thanks again for everyone's messages of support last week, they really meant a lot! Now I'm heading back to my busy schedule of lying down watching endless episodes of Stargate Atlantis, Fringe and Doctor Who! ;)