A week ago this morning, I was in the Central Vermont Medical Center recovery room after an emergency appendectomy.  A day earlier, I had been running with the dog - albeit with a little gut ache - but Thursday’s excruciating pain with a trip to the ER started a long process to remove a perforated appendix.  I was hospitalized for four days.

My surgeon was able to use laparoscopic surgery and thus I left the hospital with three small wounds.  He is a mountain biker/skier and has mentioned to me several times “not to worry about loss of fitness -- you’ll get it back.”  And that’s the attitude I’m using because in spite of daily small gains in recovery, there’s little I can do physically but walk the dog.

The Vizsla’s reaction is interesting.  Of course, she knew I was gone for four days in spite of good attention from our family who gathered.  Now, she has sort of adjusted her pace in the woods to reflect my slow plodding.  She’ll stop and look back, waiting for me to move along.  The roots and rocks on our trails make walking different from walking hospital floors, and a lot more interesting.

As I continue to feel better, I’ll probably just crank up the walking mileage a bit for now because about everything else I can think of uses the abdomen.  I have an old Soloflex downstairs which should allow me to work on some muscle groups such as arms and shoulders soon.  It’s a matter of patience -- and after what my body’s gone through, a few more weeks to heal and strengthen is nothing.  My goal is to be able to bring in and stack our firewood now drying out in the woods.  It's a Fall project. We’ll see.

My friend Linda Freeman recently had both hips replaced. She writes about it in this moving article:

"There are both expected and unexpected events in life with which to deal. Some blindside us as calamities. Some are simply goals established that need to be met. Some include negative stress, some include positive stress. Some are completely out of any sort of control.

Based on recent personal experience, I believe that there is a positive link between training and the challenges presented by injury, surgery and rehabilitation.

Each of us, at some point in our lives, will face disappointment, discouragement, accident, loss or illness — often caused by factors out of our control and requiring courage and energy to combat. I have just experienced eight months of physical challenges, resulting in surgery, and have some thoughts I'd like to share.

Because of my previous life as a professional ballet dancer, I had badly damaged hips. Notwithstanding, I had switched careers to that of a fitness professional-athlete and have devoted the past 20 years to teaching and living a strong and healthy lifestyle. Those 20 years have rewarded me with huge interest.

When it became apparent that the degeneration in my hips was no longer tolerable, I was scheduled for bilateral, total hip replacements. Yup, as we say in Vermont, that's right: I had both hips replaced. And that's where the 20 years of regular strength training, good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle have come home to benefit me...."   (read complete article)