Well, the second week of my recovery wasn’t quite as “good” as the first. Probably I was expecting too much. Or doing too much.

Anyway, I felt both better and worse.  Maybe it was the susiding of the initial pain of the incisions healing that made other… discomforts more noticeable.

In any case, I was more tired and seemed to be more bothered by my discomforts. Since, as I wrote last week, I had read about the need to rest after a major surgery, I decided to do more resting. I can’t really describe the discomforts I was having, because it wasn’t exactly pain, but sometimes was, and then it seemed like gas, or maybe something else… at one point I even thought I had developed a bladder infection.

While I was dithering around on Thursday, trying to decide if I needed to call the doctor, God arranged for the nurse from our health insurance “nurseline” to do her last follow up call. She told me to go ahead and call the doctor’s office and let them decide.

They had me come in the next day to be tested and determined that I had no infection. It was just a case of  my various abdominal organs not working the way they normally do as a result of having to adjust to their new and unfamiliar configurationas a result of the surgery.

Well, that was a relief. Oddly, the day after I learned all that, most of my discomfort eased, so I guess my organs are a little more settled with their new digs now.

On Thursday I thought that I probably needed a book to read to keep myself lying down more than I was, and as the Lord would have it, when I went to the grocery store that morning, I happened to walk down the aisle that led to the books — something I rarely do, and there was a new Dean Koontz book sitting on the shelf. Only one. For $5.  I have never seen a Koontz book in that store (though, as I said I rarely peruse the book section).  That just seemed too fortuitous to ignore. So I bought it, went home and started reading it.

It worked. I think I lay on the couch pretty much all day. Except for when I was talking on the phone to the nurses and doctor’s office receptionists.

Oh, and the “Obsession” in my title? That would be with card making. On Thursday, having tired of reading after a day of it, I decided to sign up for an online card class called Clean and Simple Cardmaking. It was originally offered as an interactive, real time sort of class, that occurred every day for two weeks. After that it became independent study, where students could go at their own pace. Once you sign up for the class you have permanent access to all the instructions, videos, forums and galleries.

I have long thought it would be fun, but didn’t want to get stuck in a real time class where I would feel like I had to attend every day, causing other things … like writing … to fall by the wayside. I thought this might be a fun way to get my toes wet.

Ahem.

So I’ve gone through the first two classes, over a period of 4 days, and have made 9 cards, with one more in progress. I’ve been obsessed. I think it’s sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle when you reach that point when all the pieces start going together and you just can’t stop yourself because as soon as you start to get up you see where yet another piece goes….

Only with the cards, you get another idea for something to do either on the card you’re currently working on or one of the three that you’ve set aside, or just had lying around or whatever. I guess I knew that it would be like this, because I told myself when I signed up that I would treat it like a class for the next four days but come Monday, I would have to go back to work again.

On Sky, that is. And probably the house as well… I feel recovered enough to start doing the housework again — I actually put the waterbed sheets on the bed myself today. I feel like I could probably handle Quigley on a walk, just don’t know if 3 miles would tire me out too much yet. In any case… tomorrow I get back to work. Cards will have to be for after hours or next weekend.

( Please try not to injure yourself while laughing at that last statement…)