My daughter and youngest grandson came to see me the day after surgery. I looked out the doorway to see than standing there loking confused and told them to come in. They came in and looked around the room and finally asked who I was talking to. My reply was "my invisible friend stopped by" - Low level hallucinations come with my opioid use. Interesting, mostly fun but those days are in the past for me now.

I've been avoiding this for so many years it doesn't feel much worse than it did prior to surgery, my pain tolerance is high. I've been told by many docs that I shouldn't be able to drive more than 5 minutes. I'm hoping things go smoothly through the winter and that I'll be feeling good by the time snow melts here.

Now I just have to constantly remind myself - no bending, no lifting, no twisting. While that sounds easy I'm finding it surprisingly hard to stick to.