Jymme's Big Adventure

This is where you can be updated on Jymme's "science experiment" / "performance art" otherwise known as the big adventure
(Cryolife - Synergraft Aortic Valve Replacement 7/18/02, Mayo Clinic, St. Marys Hospital, Rochester, MN )

Please sign the guest book. It helps to know you've been here and it gives me a tremendous sense of support. Serious or funny I appreciate all the messages a lot.

Journal

Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 08:29 PM (CDT)

Well, Yikes! It has been 3 weeks since I last updated this. Time really does fly. Sorry that IÂ’m not doing a better job at this.

Today is my 8 week anniversary post surgery and things are really moving right along. IÂ’m doing great and preparing to get back to work by September 30th.

I donÂ’t think you need a blow by blow of the last 3 weeks (too boring) but here are some highlights. Well, they were highlights for me but now that I think about it they are pretty mundane and probably relatively boring to you all. Oh well, welcome to my life.

On August 26th I started driving again which meant a new sense of freedom for me even though I donÂ’t use my car all that much, itÂ’s still great to know that I can.

One of those trips was to get Bubbles back from my friend Ted who had been fish-sitting while I was out of commission. So for all of you who know and love (OK, slight exaggeration there) Bubbles, she is happily back in the office aquarium doing her thing. IÂ’m hoping to find her a little fishy companion any day now.

I managed 3 (count ‘em three) trips to the State Fair. The 23rd from 7:30 am to 5:00 PM, the 26th from 10:30 am to 11:30 PM and the 30th for a quick visit from 8:30 to 2:00. I believe that was enough for me for a year. The highlight was the Bonnie Raitt & Lyle Lovett concert which was fabulous but I was glad I didn’t have to work the next day. The best overheard line at the fair: small child to mother in the “birthing center” while looking at a sow about to give birth, “Mommy, that pig is almost as big as you!”.

My six week anniversary was on August 29th and I celebrated by going back to the YWCA and doing an aerobic workout. IÂ’d been walking a lot so it didnÂ’t feel like too big of a transition. IÂ’ve been alternating walks and Y visits since. IÂ’m up to 6 miles in 65 minutes on the elliptical machines and am using my arms now to build up my chest muscles.

I’ve also been cooking up a storm using up “donated” produce from friends gardens and wonderful stuff from the Farmer’s Market. It’s great to have the time to do it and I’m freezing a lot for future use. I went to the downtown Farmer’s Market today and bought a ton of beautiful produce so better keep cookin’ here.

I took on a small graphic design job for a friend which will be fun to do for old times sake.

IÂ’ve also been making jewelry and if I manage to get a fair amount done may have it in a friendÂ’s art sale this fall.

IÂ’ve been getting a bit of gardening in here and there, too. IÂ’m thrilled because IÂ’ve had migrating hummingbirds at my Tithonia (Mexican sunflowers) and Cardinal Climbers for the last several days. They are so much fun to see. Lots of butterflies, too.

This week I started doing some massages for friends just to get back into the swing of things and start building up my massage muscles again. It felt good to me to be doing it. I can feel a few twinges in my chest with some strokes but nothing major and no residual soreness. No one seems to think I’ve lost my “touch” (whew!) unless they are just being kind. I’ll be doing increasingly more over the next couple of weeks and plan on actually seeing clients as of September 30th. I’ll start part time and work up to full time by the end of October. I’m really looking forward to seeing clients again! So I’ll be spending a bunch of time now trying to reach folks and get them scheduled.

Well there you have it. Like I said, it probably doesnÂ’t sound all that exciting but IÂ’m really relishing lifeÂ’s simple pleasures these days. TheyÂ’re the greatest.

Thanks again to all you who continue to post messages in the guestbook. I really enjoy reading them. I will eventually print them all out to save.

Look at past journal entries

Email address  : goldentouch-massage@MSN.com

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