Mental Exercise

This is something I have been thinking about for a long time, but I thought would lay it out here.
Since my surgery, my muscles have been really weak. They atrophied a lot in the many weeks I was down and out. I have had to get going slowly to build up my strength again and even to help myself heal. It's hard work.
With my depression, it's a lot the same thing. I was so incapable of action for so long that my 'mental muscles' atrophied, making it difficult to function and do the things I used to do even though the depression is pretty much gone. I have to slowly exercise my brain, forcing myself to do things on a daily basis, to get back to a functional level again. And I don't just mean mental acuity tests like logic or crossword puzzles or math or English, but the ability to discipline myself to get things done, to organize, to plan and to generally think about what I am doing. It's even harder than physical exercise if you ask me. There are constant reminders that my physical body is not doing as well as it should, but once you've been stuck in a mental hole for a while there aren't as many reminders. And besides, the part of your brain that forces you to do the mental exercises is the part that is broken!
Have any of you noticed the same kind of thing in your life? Do you have areas wherein you have allowed your acumen to 'slide' and not be as 'fit' as once it was? Do you have areas in your life where you just 'go through the motions' or ignore the details you once covered because you're just too tired or apathetic to bother anymore? How do you 'get back into shape', or do you even try to do that?

Surgery aftermath

Well it's about time I posted. I'm such a slacker sometimes.
The surgery went fine. Very little pain, and it's a relief to know that I won't have the problems I've had for years, I went from a high chance to no chance of uterine cancer, and I still have my ovaries so no side-effects from HRT.

HOWEVER...there was a little matter involving a previously unknown reaction of mine to NSAIDs. Apparently, I'm one of the few people for whom NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium) cause the platelets to go skeewampus and not clot. Since ibuprofen was part of my post-surgery pain regimen, this caused bleeding into my abdomen. The blood then became infected and I got peritonitis. I had to go in for emergency abdominal surgery a little over a week after the hysterectomy to find the source of the infection and this second recovery is not nearly the cake walk the first recovery was. Ugh. I have an incision a foot long and I don' feel so hot. Sigh. Still, I feel blessed. Why? Well, lots of reasons. One, my doctor is AWESOME. Very thorough, very caring. Two, now I know about that NSAID thing, which is a pain because it's banned the most effective painkillers for me, but it's good because now I know to avoid them and that will avoid things like slow brain-bleeds and other scary reactions. Three, family and people from my church congregation have been AWESOME showing me support and bringing in meals and helping around the house, and that just feels good. I had over 40 people visit me in the hospital (though frankly I can't remember them all...ahhhh morphine). And Fourth, it helped renew my faith in God. Simply because I could see and feel His hand helping me through this, which gives me something to remember and lean on when I'm dealing with other, harder issues like my depression. Oh, and fifth -- it could have been SO MUCH WORSE. Man it's scary going in for exploratory surgery, not knowing what to expect when you wake up!

So thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and prayers, they helped! Now I just need a way to fight the ennui while in recovery....

Interesting few months ahead

Well, at least they are interesting for me.

I get to start out by having a hysterectomy on valiumtimes day. Because nothing says 'I love you' like having your reproductive organs removed.

Then I get a month or two off. Then my brother gets married in Hawaii in June. Then we have a family reunion in Missouri the first week of July. Then my sister gets married in Utah the third week of July. Hooray, but man! So much going on! Everybody say YAY for weddings!