November 97 to September 1998
It's quickly closing in on a year later. I'll start with how I feel now.
I'm much much better.
I am not 100%. In April Dr. Kresh felt I had recovered as much as I was going
to. I am still in some amount of discomfort all of the time. I think this
is due to fibromylgia. Also now my knee, which has always had something deeply
wrong with it became a noticable pain. Once you are under the veil of pain
it's really hard to tell what's hurting and where.
NOVEMBER
97:
I spent two weeks (I had a second surgery at the start of the second week)
after the first main surgery in bed more or less. Two weeks of soap operas
and talk show hosts, I was too tired or sleepy or spaced out on drugs to read.
It was just awful. On top of that none of my friends came to visit. Maybe
they forgot I had major surgery. I'm still hurt by it in any case.
I returned to work after two weeks. I was not always able to work a full 8
hours. I went in for post-surgery checkups one week after each surgery. Healing
normally.
DECEMBER
97:
Still pretty sore...I was back at work full-time. Really really tired. December
was a lesson in limitations and patience.
JANUARY
98:
Work moved toward Betas and shipping....I was still very exhausted but I was
beginning to heal nicely. Scars had mostly healed over still a bit red.
FEBRUARY
98:
Working more, more betas, mostly I just worked and slept.
MARCH
98:
First checkup since the surgeries. Most pain was gone. Still some muscle aches
and very tired. Menstral cycle had only minimal pain. How exciting. I remember
sometime in here a friend said to me "You're still looking pretty bad."
I said "I'm on the rag." He then exclaimed "No WAY!" So
I guess the lack of pain and grouchiness is immensely reduced for me. Probably
I wouldn't have left the house if it wasn't for work, and then definately
not before noon. (Not that I'm ever an early riser.)
APRIL and MAY
98:
Hey we shipped Flash 3. I wasn't sure at times I'd make it but there it was.
I worked long hours and mostly still it was work as long as I could and then
go home and sleep for 12 hours.
JUNE
98:
Well then there's the international versions.. Once those were out I started
catching up on my sleep. By July I was starting to feel more normal and wake
up after only 10 hours, 8 even sometimes.
JULY
98:
I decided in July it was time to start exercising and joined a gym-what a
headache, but that's another story. I managed a good workout and yoga class
one Sunday and that was it for July. Mind you I also went to Seattle twice
and LA. In LA I went to "the" concert of the year, Bauhaus, and
Disneyland...as you can imagine that was a lot of exercise. Plus traveling
is very tiring and stressful.
AUGUST
98:
I was better about trying to exercise. I started going on Tuesdays and Thursdays
to yoga class, and that made me feel good afterwards, but every time before
I went it was just exhausting to think about. I do sort of normal things now,
minus weird knee things-stairs are bad, long walks. I leave the house for
fun now. I have a cat to play with now, life is much better. Mid-August, my
knee really started bugging me, this had been ongoing but after a second visit
to the "Happiest place on Earth" my knee was horrid, and that creaking
noise was awful. So Keiko sent me to an orthopedic surgeon, who X-rayed and
then did an MRI of it. Problem is that I have a pit on the underside of the
patella. Basically a chip on the underside of the kneecap, causing it to scrape
unpleasantly across the other two legbones underneath. So now I'm doing physical
therapy for a month to see if that alleviates it any. If not, it's surgery
again! Oh boy. Though it' would just be a simple surgery to smooth off the
rough edges. So twice a week I go to physical therapy, which is not entirely
pleasant or unpleasant. It's somewhat painful in that exercise sort of way.
September takes me into week two of this.
September
98-January 99:
I was better but I never managed to start that excercise routine. I'm still
pretty exhausted all the time but I had somewhat more energy than before.
January
99-June99:
Shipping Flash 4 really wore me out. I had a couple ultrasounds for recurring
pains in the ovaries though we didn't really decide to operate again it was
suggested that it might be time again to do so.
June99-November:
I was unable deal with having surgery and ignored it all. October it had gotten
a lot worse and I was having wild hormonal swings and bad fatigue. I went
back in and we decided it was time to operate.