Sightseeing (Days 11-14)

Days 11 and 12 post-surgery were uneventful.  I did more sitting, and napping, and took a shower.

Days 13 and 14, however, were full of new milestones.

My aunt and uncle were in town.  They had taken a road trip to Colorado and decided to make the 8 hour drive out to SLC to visit!  It was good timing, as I was healed enough to leave the house, but still out of work.

Previously, I'd only ventured out of the house and into a vehicle once, on our Saturday Culver's trip.  The plan was to visit the Temple on Wednesday, and then the Zoo on Thursday.  I'd gotten much better on the crutches but still got tired easily, so it was all about wheelchairs.

The Temple is very accommodating on the wheelchair front.  They had a room full of them and let me have one for free.  The little missionary girls even offered to push me most of the time, giving my uncle and aunt a break.  Almost everything on Temple Square is handicap accessible.  The exception was the Lion House tour, as the house is a historical landmark and not suited to wheelchairs.  I've been on the tour before so that wasn't a big deal.  We listened to the organ recital at the Tabernacle.  I took that opportunity to get out of the wheelchair and sit on the bench for a half hour.  Either my ass is huge or that chair was super small, because that that chair was very uncomfortable.  I'm glad I don't have to sit in one full-time!

We had lunch at Fiddler's Elbow, and then they dropped me off at my doctor's appointment.  It was my two-week post-operative appointment.  More on that in another post. Wednesday night we went out to dinner at Red Iguana.  Normally I would have had a margarita, but I figured my liver is working overtime as it is what with all the drugs I'm taking.  No need to completely explode it.

On Thursday we visited the zoo.  Usually, you have to rent wheelchairs there, but Bob the security guy recognized me and just got one out of the back.  I don't know how it works at the front gate, but I found it way easier to use the South entrance.  We could have driven right up to the gate and gotten a wheelchair if needed.  The wheelchairs at the front entrance are down the hill a ways, so I'm not sure if someone would have gotten one for us, or I would have had to walk down the hill a bit.

The zoo is hilly, and I felt bad for making my aunt and uncle push me.  They didn't seem to mind, and my aunt kept telling me how cool it was that they had their own personal tour guide.  I did realize that navigating the SAB in a wheelchair isn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

I'm really glad that things worked out the way they did.  I needed some kind of activity, but didn't want to jump right into a full work day.  This way I got out, challenged myself but still was able to work a nap into the mix to keep me going.  And it was awesome to see my family and talk wedding stuff!