Why is Taking It Easy So Hard to Do?
I had surgery on my right ear four weeks ago. The operation involved a mastoidectomy, to remove a cyst called a cholesteatoma; and a tympanoplasty, to repair my eardrum. The two procedures are often done in tandem, which means they’ve earned their own cute celeb mashup name: Tympanomastoidectomy.
(I promise those are all of the overwhelmingly technical words you’ll have to read this essay.)
I wasn’t too worried about the procedure itself. I was anxious about going under general anesthesia, and being in a hospital-like setting, which tends to bring back difficult memories for me. But I didn’t give much thought to the recovery. My partner was there to drive me home after surgery, my mom was visiting the next few days to offer support, and I had plenty of prescription medicine to alleviate any pain and nausea. No big deal.
I prepared for a tough 48 hours post-surgery. I knew I’d be wearing a hard plastic cup over my ear (though I didn’t realize it’d be festooned with smiley-face stickers!), and would need a steady dose of painkillers. No problem. I had already resigned myself that I wouldn’t be able to keep up my 10,000-steps-a-day goal that, up until then, I’d dutifully maintained for all of 2019. Not ideal, but what’s two days? And I planned to miss a couple of days of work. No worries.
