Hope you are well on the road to full recovery. I thought my son (Y2K) and my annual Halloween ritual might cheer you up a bit - especially considering your current avatar!
Each year we carve the pumpkins - like many other folks. Here were are motley assortment this year:



As you can see, by November 5th when these pictures were taken, the pumpkins had started to go. Unlike most folks though, we have a ritual we do when it is time to toss the Jack-O-Lanterns. We take out a samuari sword and "execute" the suckers!
Here is Ysabel Kid's Kid in action:
The set-up (that is his sword):

The wind-up:

The swing:

And the score:

Okay, the last one was staged - after I cut the second pumpkin. # 1 was a bit too squishy and my son cut about half-way though it before launching what was left of it against the wall to our house!
I then demonstrated the underhand back-slash cut, which lopped the second pumpkin in half pretty neatly.
He's getting there!

