Not as awesome as I thought it was going to be

So!  Surgery.  It went well, in that I didn't wake up in the middle of it, they operated on the correct knee and I lived.  That's all very, very good.  Surgery on the whole, however... not as cool as I thought it was going to be.

"How much fun did you THINK it was going to be?", NPW asked when I proclaimed this on twitter last week.  Well, I thought it was going to be kind of... fun?  I mean, not the surgery itself, obviously the surgery was a last resort.  But after ten months of orthopedic surgeon visits, physical therapy and rest, it was a necessity.  So, since I didn't have much of a choice, I was more focusing on the fact that I was getting an official order to sit on the couch for a week and do nothing.  No cleaning!  No going to work!  Nothing but me, my couch, my Tivo cache and a giant stack of library books. 

But it wasn't so much "you don't have to do anything" as "you CAN'T do anything."  Let me tell you, there's a world of difference between the two.  Not having to cook, clean, or do laundry sounds quite nice.  Having to smell what your cat has lovingly deposited in the litterbox all day because you can't bend down far enough to scoop it, watching the pile in t the hamper slowly grow and eventually start to spill over the sides... it's, um, frustrating?  Maddening?  Worthy of crying a few times?  All three, if you're me.   

I also forgot to factor in the whole feeling like hell part. I spent the first two days asking Joel if it had been four hours yet and when I could take more painkillers, although I stopped even bothering with the hydrocodone after day two because it did nothing but give me insomnia.  It certainly did not help that I simultaneously had a cold, and when I say cold, I mean one night I coughed so hard that I threw up.  In the bathroom sink, because I couldn't bend my knee enough to barf in the toilet.  So.  Yes.  That was both enjoyable and attractive, as you can imagine.

And on top of this whole pity party, I was bored out of my mind.  I reached the end of the Tivo cache and my Google reader on the same day and from that point things started getting desperate.  I absolutely love days at home by myself, but it turns out that's contingent on my being able to, like, do stuff.  Sitting around all day, getting absolutely nothing done (because I'm recovering, I tell myself!) is difficult for me.  It makes me grumpy.  I didn't start this post to complain about my tragic state of boredom.  I'm just saying, surgery: not as awesome as I thought it was going to be. 

What is awesome, however, is working from home.  People, it's got to be the most glorious thing on earth, the perfect balance of yoga pants, coffee and productivity.  Technically I'm still on sick leave, but I felt so guilty pushing all my work onto my coworkers -- especially just three months after I happily dumped a stack of work on their desks and took two and half weeks off to get married and go on a honeymoon -- that I brought my laptop home.  I'd normally be opposed to this -- if I'm using sick time, I should be devoting all efforts to sitting in bed with a cup of tea and a book -- but this has actually provided a perfect reprieve from the boredom and the guilt.  I'm still at home with my knee propped up, ice pack in place for twenty minutes every hour, but the anxiety that everyone at work is mad at me is gone.  I don't need to worry about all the things that might be going wrong in my absence.  I don't need to have a panic attack before starting up my email, wondering how many red-exclamation messages will be waiting for me.  Oh, internet, if only this were an option without having to have surgery first.  Do any of you get to work from home?  Is it as fantastic when you get to do it all the time?

Comments

[Nothing But Bonfires]

I work from home on Fridays and it is MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK. Not only do I get so much more done, but I do it with my pajamas on, a cat in my lap, and The Hills waiting for me during my lunch break. Best thing ever.

[Jurgen Nation]

I WISH I got to work from home. I'd never get out of my pajamas. Alas, alas.

[blaez]

i had my spine fused 3 months ago. the 1st week was hell. the weeks after that slowly progressed. i'm into my 2nd week back to work. i wasn't able to work from home while i was out. i went insane not being able to do anything.

[keri]

I work from home full time. Sometimes its great but sometimes its very hard to "unplug" at the end of the day. Email is still there pouring in and people still calling - I think since they know I work from home, they expect I am available 24/7. Dont get me wrong, I am grateful to be able to do this, but I have to try very hard not to work ALL THE TIME

Hope your knee is feeling better.

[RA]

Hooray for working from home! I don't think it should count against your sick time, though. Can you talk to somebody about that?

But now that I think about it, if it being "sick time" means you can take a 2-hour nap in the middle of the day, I say Go For It.

[Kristan]

I work from home on Fridays and it's pretty nice, although sometimes work from home really means work from Panera.

Actually a coworker was put on bedrest during her pregnancy but before she was ready to take maternity leave ('cause, you know, she needed that for when the babies were actually OUT in the real world) and she said the same thing: working from home turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it staved off the boredom.

[nancypearlwannabe]

Well, I am still jealous you got a bunch of time off, but maybe not of the reason why. My Google reader is out of control and I have TWO overdue library books that could use some devoted reading time.