Against Medical Advice...

Some of you may remember that I had surgery several years ago. When the doctor said "go home and rest" I took that very seriously and did exactly as I was told. Even though I wanted to clean and cook and drive my kids around I resisted because the doctor had ordered me to rest. It was tough... but I made the sacrifice.

Fast forward to uh...Tuesday. I listened ad nauseum to the discharge orders given after Tim's surgery... go home and rest, elevate the arm, no lifting, twisting or stretching. No driving, showering (until Friday), apply ice, rest, take your medicine, get some rest, no making important decisions, no partying, no fishing, rest, no heavily spiced or fattening food, increase your fiber intake, wear your sling when not in bed, remove the dressing in three days, call us if your temperature goes above 101 or you get a rash or hives, if you have excessive swelling, painful urination (that's a fun one), or you can't urinate at all or if you're throwing up and be sure .....to rest.

Do you see a pattern here???........REST -- which does not count if you are sitting at the computer or in any other way not actually resting. The point of rest is lack of activity.

I was prepared to bring meals in bed and refill the ice packs and fetch the happy restful pills, only there was one problem.... the patient didn't want to rest. The patient fought resting kept getting up to "use the computer left handed" as he put it. After repeated gentle reminders to .... well....rest -- I gave up and went back to work myself.

Do I love this non-compliant unwilling to take it easy drive me crazy because he won't rest patient????? Absolutely!! Is he all of the above??? Well...yeah!

So this morning when he asked me to apply two swipes (and only two swipes) of antipersperant to his right armpit, I knew he was getting ready for work. Not even two days post op and he's going back to work. When I asked him if he was tired of "resting" -- he admitted as much.

Then I asked -- If your surgery didn't hinder your fishing ability you wouldn't be so quick to return to work but would be "resting" on the river right???

His facial expression confirmed that I pretty much nailed that one.