How I’m Preparing for Surgery
Preparing for Surgery
To say I am excited for this surgery is an understatement. I’m thrilled!!! I injured my ankle badly 2.5 years ago. When it didn’t heal I got an MRI to discover damage to the bone that would require surgery. Basically bones are rubbing together in my ankle causing it to be constantly inflamed and not allowing damaged tendons to heal. After a long wait, I got a call last week about a last minute cancellation for surgery and I grabbed it!!!
It means I have 10 days to prepare to be off my foot for 4 weeks. House, meals, family, work . . .welp! But my outlook is so full of excitement and hope, it doesn’t feel like a burden. I’m probably overly optimistic, but I’m just so keen that once I heal I’m gonna get my old self back! The past 2.5 years slowly wore me down, I’m not gonna lie. Chronic pain is a bitch! I’m ready to get my abilities back.
When it happened I was lifting weights with Annie’s group training 3 days a week, plus running, hiking, taking fitness classes . . . I LOVED being active. Along with just loving exercise, moving my body was the number one way I processed emotions, and dealt with anxiety and overwhelm. Even though I could in theory go to the gym 3-4 days a week and just work my upper body, or I could swim . . .I just lost my mojo after a while . . . those things don’t bring me any joy.
I want to be around women in group fitness rocking out, hiking with my family, or lifting weights with friends. I want long walks in the woods. I want to get back to the joy of exercise, get back to how it improves my mental health, my confidence in my body, and the connection with others.
These two amazing humans will be holding down the juice fort!
How I’m Preparing
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WORK
Luckily I have the dream team. Literally. Daniella and Liam leading the crew of awesome, capable humans. Having a one on one with each person before I go to find out where they need support, give them my feedback/requests and be able to answer any concerns before I go will help. I use Later.com for planning marketing, and Kathleen came by yesterday for a long session so we could plan out 3 weeks of content. Then her and Daniella can fill in the gaps.
I think they’ll have fun in the kitchen without having the boss around. Luckily, the past few months I was working extra to help save on wages, so now taking time off worked out really well. I’m planning for 10 days totally off work and then will work from home until I’m ready to come back.
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HOUSEHOLD
I am hiring a cleaner to come before surgery and again 2 weeks later. It wasn’t in the family budget, but felt the need to splurge. I won’t have time to get the house really clean before hand, but will love recuperating in a nice clean space. Hubby and kids can keep up with the day to day stuff after that with some bedside nagging from me. :)
I’ll be relying on my mom to help with kids shuffling - getting them to sports and music classes or the odd hang with friends. Gaby works until 6-6:30 each night, so usually it’s me who takes care of getting them places and making dinner . . . speaking of dinner - this is definitely the area that is going to feel the most different about all this (other than me sitting around rather than buzzing around!)
MY GOOD LIFE ORDER
I appreciate I am incredibly lucky in this department. I will be relying on Good Life meals and juices a ton!
My first week’s order includes:
MY DAY AT A GLANCE
This is my hopeful plan. (I’ll let you know how it’s actually going in a few weeks!!)
Coffee
Stretching
Reading 10 pages or more of a spiritual or self help book.
Breakfast - Smoothies (GLJ Smoothie Cups are perfect as the kids can easily be in charge of making me breakfast!)
Lunch - Soup. I made 3 and froze them last week. Plus, I love all 4 of our soups, especially butternut squash & lentil stew.
Dinner - I’m not totally sure what to expect. Gabby and the boys will share dinner duty. I really like cooking and eating wholesome meals so feel a little nervous about what’s to come . . . I predict a bit more chicken strips, noodles, grilled cheeses, frozen pizza . . . the kids are probably thrilled!!
Stretch before bed - During the past 2.5 years, this is the biggest way I can manage pain. Even 5 minutes stretching can really help how my body feels in the morning.
I also predict lots of baths, some saunas and daily red light therapy.
WHY SO MUCH LIQUID?!
For 10 years I have helped people prepare for, and heal from surgery with our juices. We’ve gotten so many amazing reviews and success stories. Our juices helped people recovering heal faster and had their surgeons asking what they did. And now I get to experience the same thing!!!!! I am beyond excited and grateful.
There’s a few reasons our juices help you heal faster.
The first is that they don’t have fibre and therefore; your body doesn’t need to do any work to digest them. Digesting foods actually take a fair bit of energy. When the body can be at rest, it can use its energy stores to focus on healing. Next, our juices take 2 pounds of fresh, raw, produce to make. That is a lot of vitamins, enzymes, nutrients and minerals that are immediately absorbed by your body. A bonus is that, since I’ll just be lying around, my caloric needs will be much lower, and consuming a diet high in juices, smoothies and soups makes that easier to manage. I appreciate that some days all I am gonna want is a grilled cheese and some trashy tv, and that’s perfect, but I am so motivated to heal, and have access and love these products so much, that I’ll be able to balance those days with really healthy days.
COLLAGEN
One of the most studied supplements on the market, with research specifically backing it’s benefits to joint pain and tissue repair - Good Life Collagen will be my bff on this healthing journey. Juice + Collagen all the way. If you haven’t tried our collagen, let this be your sign. We partnered with our amazing team in Nova Scotia to bring you collagen from only one ingredient - wild caught Canadian cod. Along with gorgeous hair, nails and skin, it helps repair fine tissue and build muscle.