#105 Recovery
Hello everybody.
The operation was about 2 ½ weeks ago, and I am back home recovering. The cast, the waterproof bandage, etc. are all off. I’m still keeping it wrapped for support. I can write, type, mouse, and do quite a few things. But I have good days and bad days. And today, a bad day. Very painful. But, not entirely unexpected. We’ll see how it goes over the next 6 to 8 weeks.
The flight home from Bangkok went well, although I was definitely not comfortable. I don’t think I would’ve wanted to travel even a day earlier than I actually did. But all well except a brief delay in Hong Kong for a delayed passenger. And, surprisingly, having my arm in a sling, when I walked in immigration, one of the officers waved me into a priority lane. I certainly wasn’t going to say no, but I had not been expecting it.
The last few months has been a transition for me. The one project I was working on with my partners is basically operational now. A plethora of minor issues to fix, but the construction is finished and the building is operational. The construction of that building has been hanging around my neck like a albatross for over three years. It was a bit of a shock to realize that it’s finally up and running. Even when I was in Argentina I was still worrying about it every day, as well as working online as required. In addition, there were a number of thorny work/life/finance issues that I have been worrying about for almost 2 years. Somewhat unexpectedly, most of these were resolved just yesterday. The timing and everything worked out such that it was well worthwhile having a meeting, not a long one, where our directions look like they were clarified and set for the next couple of years. I’ve been worrying about it for some time, needlessly as it turned out.
Still, a lot of resolution in the last two months basically. All good, nothing to complain about. 😊
Now, I am adjusting to the lack of constant pressure about the construction and lack of angst about the future. I’m able to spend time working on furthering my knowledge of Access database development, financial analysis with Excel, and financial modeling with Excel. All stuff that I really enjoy. 😊
One note from yesterday was, the last 17 years, in working with my partners, we have always held meetings either at their place of work, or, once in a great while, at a restaurant. For the meeting that I held yesterday, just by chance I decided to offer that we could meet at my house, in my home office. I am not a huge fan of meetings, but it was relatively short, approximately one hour, and probably one of the most productive I’ve ever had with them. Nobody was knocking on the door every five minutes to see them, it was incredibly quiet, I had all my information on my laptop on my large screen, etc. It was amazing. It was really an eye-opener for me. And even they commented on it. It will not be the last time I try to hold a meeting here. Never to old to realize the obvious I guess. 😊
The largest fly in my ointment is the inability to go back to my workout schedule as quickly as I would like. But I am continuing to at least do yoga and a limited amount of high intensity cardio. Very limited, truth be told. But better than not doing anything at all.
The operation went really well. Bumrungrad hospital is so efficient. And I have put here a few pictures of their low-end, basic, hospital room. Very good quality build, spotlessly clean, excellent nursing staff. I was glad to get out of there, but it was a relatively pleasant stay. I don’t expect the people that read my blog to routinely think about going someplace like Thailand for medical care, but as I’ve said many times in the past, I recommend it without reservation. I showed up at the time they specified, confirmed that I have followed their instructions, they whipped me through a thorough pre-surgical screening, finding at one point an irregular heartbeat, but the echocardiogram proved it to be not critical, and then they checked me in to my hospital room prior to the operation. In many ways it is actually like a hotel. When I was finished with my pre-surgical health screening, and they were checking me in to the hospital room prior to the operation, the young lady flipped open a three ring binder and said “Sir would you like to upgrade to a larger room?”. Naturally, expecting only to be there overnight and under the influence of anesthetic the majority of the time, I said no. After seeing their basic room however, now I’m kind of wondering what the other rooms really look like. 😊
Bumrungrad Basic Suite
Basic Suite - Kitchen - Has a ref and full closet with in room safe
The operation was at 2000, they said they would come and get me at 1830 to finalize the preparation for the operation. They showed up at 1830, got me on my rolling bed, got me to the surgical waiting room, at 1930 the anesthesiologist showed up and briefed me on what they were going to do, 15 minutes later they rolled me down to the operating theater, at about 1955, she injected the anesthetic and that was all she wrote. I woke up 4 hours later in recovery. Everything done exactly on the schedule they had provided. Like to see that happen in the United States, or indeed almost any other country.
This will again be a relatively short blog post. I just wanted to get on the radar and let everybody know how I was.
I will do my best to get back to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule if I can.