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This year I have had two full knee replacement surgeries. The first was on January 8th and the second was on June 9th.
The physical recovery of the second surgery has progressed faster than the first. Physical recovery is only part of the recovery. The other part of the recovery is the return to a normal work schedule: the productivity recovery if you will. This part of the recovery is lagging behind the first. July was to have been a month of productivity. It was not. It was a month of lethargy.
For people my age, we try to be attuned to changes in physical health and mental acuity. We worry because we fear the onset of anything that might indicate the start of a chronic condition that erodes our physical or mental well-being. I do not believe that my July lethargy is the start of anything serious because I am feeling less lethargic and keener to get all my classes ready as soon as I can for the Fall. Well, that is what I planned to do in July as well.
Lethargy is a state of physical, mental, or emotional sluggishness. It involves feeling unusually tired, weak, drowsy, or lacking in energy or motivation. Unlike typical tiredness after exertion or lack of sleep, lethargy can persist even with rest and may signal an underlying issue. This is exactly what I was feeling. And, I was beginning to wonder if this was signaling and underlying issue.
In my own defense, since retiring from my corporate career and becoming a full time professor, July has never been a productive month. I work relatively hard during the school year and spend the summer months like a full retiree. I have always aspired to be more productive, but I generally await until mid-August to get going pressured by the procrastinator's tenet: keep procrastinating and putting of any task until that point in time where you have to work full-time, fast and furiously, under stress to complete the task by the deadline.
So, maybe, this July lethargy is normal for me. It has been my rest and recharge month for the past ten years. The reason I am actually writing this piece is because this July felt different from years past. It felt like a deeper and more weighty lethargy.
Part of me wanted to believe that it was the lingering effects of the anesthesia (I had a saddle block and not a general anesthesia). I discounted this because in January, I was back at it in two weeks going full blast. Why was January’s mental recovery so much better? Quite simply it was necessity. Classes started two weeks after the surgery. I simply had to do it. I taught online the first two weeks, but I did teach and had to be ready to go. I had to engage the brain and get stuff done. This principle is the same reason they get you up walking and even climbing stairs immediately after surgery. It is the same reason they start physical therapy immediately following.
I probably should have pushed myself more mentally. Part of the reason my physical recovery was faster this second time around is because the home care physical therapist really pushed me.
In summation, there are many factors involved in my July lethargy. The fact that I have on syllabus done in July which is more than I have ever done. This post is surely living up to the subtitle of this blog, A Monthly Letter of Musings and Meanderings.
