Driving

So today finally arrived. One of the pain-points in this recovery was the no driving rule. Most places say that you should wait 6-8 weeks before driving again since an accident may severely damage the healing sternum. A brochure from the hospital had a line for week 5 of recovery that basically said, “You may start driving unless instructed otherwise by your surgeon.” I had spoken to the surgical nurse practitioner last week and she said I should be able to drive this week. With the additional clearance from the cardiologist today, I think I’m ready.

For my first trip, I decided to drive to my therapist appointment this afternoon. Since it’s the first time behind the wheel since I drove to the ER on November 11th, my dad came along as passenger. The trip was all on local streets and only 13 minutes long, but I was still able to use autopilot for about 60% of the trip. If felt a little unnatural driving since I’ve been a passenger for 5 weeks, but the feeling passed quickly. The only snag was that I had to parallel park the car at the destination. I could not get the auto-park sensors to recognize the spot so I needed to park it manually. I did get the car parked with about 2 feet of room front and back but all the turning was difficult on my chest and shoulder muscles.

Since it was only an hour, my dad waited for me during my session instead of driving back home. The drive home afterwards was also uneventful, though I noticed almost everyone drives fast. I was mostly going the speed limit and being passes by every car. I’m not sure if I’m ready to drive to dialysis yet since the most direct route takes the freeway for about three exits, and totally uncertain if I will be able to walk out after dialysis due to my arthroscopic hypertension.