Is it the weekend yet?

Torsten and I got home from North Carolina last night at around 11:30, after leaving my parents' house (normally a 4.5-hour drive) seven hours earlier. We knew the holiday weekend traffic would suck, but we were hoping it wouldn't suck THAT badly. Of course, we tacked extra time onto the trip with 45 minutes' worth of stops, plus missing a turn on our way back into the city and winding up on a road that seemingly had no exit, thus forcing ourselves into an extremely circuitous, if scenic, route home through downtown DC.

Still, the ride home was much better than the ride down there, because my neck was feeling better enough that I could actually move my head, and also I was no longer in a Percocet-induced haze. Percocet is a miracle drug in that it all but eliminates the pain, but it makes me feel incredibly dizzy when it starts to wear off, which is so not worth it, so I only took it for a day and a half before switching to Tylenol. The slight increase in pain was worth the lack of dizzy spells, and by now the pain has almost subsided. I am still always aware of the incision site, and sometimes if the Tylenol has worn off it does start to actually hurt if I move around too much, but for the most part the Tylenol is totally sufficient.

Also when we got home, there was a big vase of red and purple flowers from me, sent from Torsten's company. They actually sent them on Wednesday, but I was too out of it to check the mail when I got home, and the building didn't actually bring them by our apartment until Thursday when we'd already left. They held up remarkably well during the five days they spent at our front desk, though, and they also smelled lovely. I was really touched that Torsten's company thought of doing such a thing, and even picked out purple flowers to send.

Anyway, the weekend itself was fun--lots of sleeping and lying by the pool and visiting with friends and family. Also, lots of really good food. My parents' town in North Carolina has a lot of fabulous restaurants, more than we have ever discovered in DC, so we had great sushi one night and fabulous Mexican another night, plus a lunch at Torsten's favorite southern BBQ joint and brunch at a delicious German bakery. Plus, it all felt guilt free because I knew I would lose the water weight from the surgery despite all the restaurant visits, and I did. It was great. If only it worked like that all the time (except for the part where you gain the water weight in the first place).

Oh, and I hit up Old Navy with my mom (there is no Old Navy in DC, and somehow I never manage to make it out to the ones in the nearby suburbs), and they were having their summer clearance? And I'm pretty sure I totally exceeded my post-surgery limitation of lifting no more than ten pounds, just hauling all the clothes I wanted to try on to the dressing room. But I limited myself to purchasing a pair of jeans and two tops, plus a couple things for Torsten, and I was very proud of my self-restraint. Also, the jeans that I bought were a size down from the ones I had been wearing, and I was very proud of that too.

So, in sum? Surgery sucks, but a one-day workweek followed by a relaxing weekend trip to recover? Almost worth it. I'm only sorry that it's already time to return to the real world. This five-day week is going to drag FOREVER.