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WWE.com: How did the surgery go?

Lita: It went as good as it possibly could have, and there were no complications. So I'm fortunate for that. But the best case scenario still sucks, you know?

WWE.com: How are you feeling?

Lita: Well, I've gotten used to my boundaries of what I can and can't do, and how I can and can't move. My neck brace goes completely up to my chin and down to my chest, so it limits any movement there. Being in the shower is the only time I can take it off, and it's a little freaky and scary not to have it on. I use one hand to shower and the other hand to support my head. I don't know that it needs it, but I feel like a little noodle is connecting my head to my body, still, right now. And the main thing that I still feel is my hip, because they had to take the muscle out of my hip to get to the bone, to take the bone out of my hip.

WWE.com: That's what Chris Benoit and Rhyno have said -- the hip ends up being the sorest part.

Lita: Yeah, the neck brace is entirely more aggravating than anything -- than any pain could be -- because it's constant. But as far as physical pain, yeah, my hip is worse. But this neck brace, I wouldn't wish it on anyone, as far as how aggravating it is to have it on all the time.

WWE.com: You must have trouble sleeping.

Lita: Yeah, I have major, major trouble sleeping because when I'm doing something other than just lying there, I can try to take my focus off the fact that it's on. But as you lay there, when you start to notice things, that's when I realize it. And I remember I was talking to Benoit, and he said, "Don't you feel like that thing is choking you?" And I said, "Well, it's not too bad." But when I did wake up, I had shoved all my covers up underneath my collar. I guess it was choking me at night when I finally got to sleep, and I shoved all my covers up my collar to try to put some more padding in there, because it's just going up against my sternum -- there's bone there that it's pushing against. It's just kind of ... I wouldn't say painful, I'd say extremely uncomfortable.

WWE.com: When do you get to take that thing off and get a less-cumbersome collar?

Lita: Hopefully in two months.

In about six weeks to two months, I'll go see Dr. (Lloyd) Youngblood again (in San Antonio), and he'll take more X-rays to make sure that everything is healing as it should. And then from there, I'll get to switch to a soft collar.

WWE.com: How does the neck itself feel?

Lita: Well, I took my Steri strips off yesterday. Over that, they put on a patch in surgery which was airtight and 100 percent sanitary, because it was done in the surgery room. I took that off after a week and then I took the strips off after another week. My hip seemed to close up pretty good, but my neck -- there was still a hole in there, and that was pretty freaky. And I've seen Steve (Austin's), and I know that it goes away. And I've seen X-Pac's. I know it will get smaller. But it's still pretty horrifying to look at, knowing that people were in there, poking around and moving stuff around and taking pieces of my body from one place and putting them up there.

WWE.com: Is it painful still?

Lita: Like I said, as long as I don't do anything, it's fine -- I'm used to it. But if I were to turn my head or poke at that cut or anything, it'd be pretty painful. My hip at the end of the day is more where it hurts, from the basic walking around that I do. And then in between my shoulder blades at the base of my neck -- and I don't know why that is, but the doctor said that's normal. It seems more too like a tired thing, like at the end of the day it will be more painful than when I wake up.

WWE.com: What kind of exercises can you do? I heard the day after you were walking around a little bit.

Lita: Yeah. Well, all I can do is walk on the treadmill or walk around my neighborhood. No weights. I'm not supposed to hold anything more than five pounds for six months. I kind of try to do what I can when I'm at home, just as far as organizing paperwork and simple stuff that I can do. Actually, I bought a sewing machine, so that's going to be my little project that I can do, that doesn't weigh that much.

WWE.com: So you're going to make some new clothes and stuff?

Lita: I'm going to try to. And then, basically, whenever Matt (Hardy) is home, he just comes and picks me up. I can't do a lot, but I can come along for the ride. At least I have a change of scenery besides my house. It depresses me to be at my house because I'm here so much now.

WWE.com: And the prognosis for full recovery is a year, right?

Lita: Yeah, a year.

The doctor said that regardless of how great I feel, because the injury is so serious, and because the bones need to fuse together as one bone that was three -- one vertebra, my hip bone and then another vertebra -- it needs to be 100 percent. He won't release me until a year to the day (of surgery) to have a match.

Jazz has her surgery (for a torn ACL) on Thursday, and then on Monday she starts rehab. So right there, even though it's limited, she is in control (of her recovery time) to some extent, being a tough girl and being able to push herself and get better as soon as possible, as opposed to a housewife or someone who doesn't workout on a regular basis. My rehab for six months is not lifting anything over five pounds, and keeping my neck as still as possible. And that's totally the most frustrating part. Benoit was saying that too. And then also he was telling me about getting back into the ring, and that it is scary because you haven't done it for a year, and the last time you were in the ring, you were in a lot of pain.

WWE.com: Did you watch "Dark Angel"?

Lita: I watched it later. When it aired I was actually traveling home from the hospital after having surgery, to my house. I went to watch it a couple of times; I hung on to it for about five days before I put it in there. I thought they did a great job editing the person who played me in the fight scene, and everything else. But it was hard to watch. I hated watching it -- even if I didn't get hurt, being gone for my job for two weeks for six minutes of TV. It was fun before I got hurt, just meeting new people and portraying a character other than Lita. The idea of that was fun. Sitting there in my neck brace watching, it was just real frustrating.

WWE.com: In retrospect, hindsight being 20/20, I'm guessing you wouldn't have done that again, even if you hadn't got hurt.

Lita: Well, I think my head would be different if I came back (to WWE) and I was great, and I came back with a lot of new friends, and I felt great and I got to be back on (WWE) TV. But the last time I was really on TV, being myself, was before the split, when Matt had a match with (Chris) Jericho. That was the last time I consider myself being in the ring, because after that, I wasn't me. So it's still already been a long time for me. Potentially, ("Dark Angel") was a great experience, but it ended up being the worst nightmare I ever had.

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