Hardware Upgrade & fully Bionic Once Again!

I had obviously been a bit down lately.  The right side of my body had a mind of its own and I just couldn't function normally.  Sure enough, one of my batteries was dying.  My old Soletra batteries lasted over four and a half years!  In fact, my right iPG was still really strong!  Despite my strong iPG, the technology changed so much over the past few years that they needed to upgrade both for compatibility reasons.

Preparing for Surgery 7/22/2013

Yesterday morning, my husband drove me to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY  for a bilateral battery replacement.  The procedure went smoothly and on time - 1:00 p.m.  What was killing me was not being able to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before!  Fortunately, upon arriving at the hospital around 10:00 a.m., they got an IV in me pretty quickly to keep me hydrated.  With this brutal heat and humidity we've had lately, it was certainly imperative.

Gauze pads taped over incisions,
and covered in iodine!

There is certainly a night and day difference between yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon after having the surgery.  I remember one of the first things I asked when I woke up was, "are my batteries on?"  I felt like hell.  They were not on.  The Medtronic representative turned them on for me and WOW.  My dystonia is substantially better already.  I'm actually managing my pain from my new batteries with Tylenol.  I don't do well with Hydrocodone so I have no intention of getting that filled.  My chest hurts - a lot actually - but that's to be expected.  I need to make an appointment to go back to Rochester in a couple of weeks to make sure everything is healing up nicely.  Right now it hurts to even lift up my laptop!  I have a 10 lb. lifting restriction for the next month!   Argh!

So, with all this, I'm putting my running career into perspective.  I absolutely love running to the point where it's irrational.  I was supposed to have arthroscopic surgery last Thursday.  I am so glad I fell on that knee, scraping it up, because I kept telling myself I could "tough it out" with the dystonia and that my knee surgery was more important.

I'm taking it one day at a time now.  I don't mind having to put off the surgery on my knee.  I can get to the gym and bike.  I can weight lift.  My knee is in pretty bad shape but there are things I haven't tried yet, or tried only  haphazardly (aside from surgery).  I'll get there.  As for now, I'm not going to rush things.  One day at a time!