Well, time,rest, and the ministrations of my lovely lady have taken their toll and I am doing much better now. I am no longer on the wound vac, although the incision site continues to require daily maintenance.

I've been exercising, both with resistance and aerobic training, in an effort to replace the tremendous amount of muscle mass I lost following the emergency surgery. Seriously -- I was down 40 pounds! Not a diet I'd recommend, however.

Oh, and I was on a liquid diet for about ten days due to a kink in my lower intestine, a "complication" of the surgery (sometimes it seemed like it would never end). Fortunately, I am back on solid food now. As an aside, they show a lot of food commercials on television.

Being off the wound vac has made it much easier to get around. Plus, I can shower practically with impunity now! I can get out of the house and even walk the distance from the car to the doctor's office. I'm also back to doing some housework (dishes and laundry mostly).

So I'm slowly getting back to the person I was, albeit with an eight-inch scar on my abdomen. I won't be entirely back to normal until my final surgery sometime in the July/August timeframe. Still, dealing with what I have now is waaaaay better than all that other crap.