Sunday, November 08, 2009

I Didn't Plan on Time Off

Then again, I didn't plan on having a jagged-looking incision above, below and skirting my bellybutton. It was just supposed to be day surgery. A quick snip and stitch. Like my other two hernias, fixed when I was twenty-three and twenty-seven. Instead it was three hernias, lots of snipping and stitching, a panic attack upon awake from anesthesia because the morphine didn't cut it (and an empty stomach for surgery means no anxiety meds that morning), and an overnight at the hospital.

I'd been putting off the surgery for months, because any surgery would be inconvenient, so the noticeable bulge of a hernia had to wait awhile before being presented to a doctor for appraisal. By the time I went, it was getting uncomfortable, by the time for surgery, it was bothering me all the time. So it needed to be done. But good heavens.

If I'd known I'd be bed bound with painkillers for days, I would have thought, "Oh yes, an opportunity to get some writing done." Because I forgot about pain, and what that's really like. And how you really do need to rest to heal. And how motivated I would be to not over-do it because it HURT.

Now will be the harder part. My brain is back to normal (thus the laptop in my actual lap), the pain is at over-the-counter level, and my wife has got to go out of town tomorrow. She arranged a chauffeur for our son to school because I'm not supposed to drive (stomping on the break would be disastrous, according to my post-surgery directives, for a few more days). But normal life will resume, and it will kill me not to do everything.

This is where I have to tell myself, "Ah, those writing days, those are when the kids are in school, and you aren't allowed to do any manual labor--no toilet scrubbing, no grocery shopping, no lifting of anything over ten pounds. Those excuses not to write your novel, they are kaput. Get working."

I'm writing a novel this month, supposedly, or at least 50,000 words of one. If I can find the time. My mantra above might work. If I'm lazy enough, I just might get some work done.

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