My friend Nancy, whom I hadn't seen in ages (could it be almost a year? I think so), came over to hang out on Monday. The plan was to order pizza for lunch and then catch up. We were thwarted on the pizza delivery (not available at lunch) so had to go get it but it was worth it (delish!) and then we had a lovely afternoon of chatting and knitting in my back room. She didn't leave until 4:30 and I had knitting at 6:00 at the library so it was a full day. So full that I was exhausted at bed time and so decided to try to sleep in my bed for the first time. Shock of all shocks I was able to fall asleep. Yay! Not so much when I woke up all creaky and in pain in the wee hours and headed back to the recliner. Probably not the best idea to try my bed the night before my busiest day since surgery. Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Needless to say, I was exhausted on Wednesday. Denise from the library emailed that she needed a check immediately and offered to pick it up on her way to work. I jumped at that so that I wouldn't need to get dressed and out the door. I spent the morning watching daytime TV in my nightie and knitting away. I did get dressed eventually but only to sit and knit some more. I was fine with a low energy day after my busy 2 days. My stamina was still sub par but that's what healing is all about I guess.
Unfortunately I slept like crap that night and woke up with feet like ice cubes at 5:30 a.m. I got up to try and get warm and and ate breakfast but was so tired after a couple of hours that I had to go back to bed. I slept until 11:00 so my morning was toast. Oh well. By this point, I wasn't wearing my brace when I was in my house so wasn't minding being home. I had yarn to mail and missed the mail pick up so had to head out to the post office that afternoon but since I had book club at 7:00, I had to get dressed anyway. I headed to book club for a lively conversation on The Sixth Extinction, which I had only finished that afternoon after a marathon reading session.
When I had talked to Cindy last week, I had told her I was a week away from being able to enjoy any part of being home. Well, at some point since then, I seemed to have skipped right past the enjoyment. It didn't help that the weather was gray and dreary EVERY SINGLE DAY and that my desire to stay home so I could not wear my brace was keeping me inside. I was getting cranky and felt like I was missing out. Now I could tell myself that I was at home to heal not to have fun but I had hoped that I would get some enjoyment out of being home and that was clearly not happening. Despite talking to friends and family, having all the time in the world to knit and even having season 2 of Outlander DVD's to watch from the library, I was antsy and not satisfied not matter what I did. Grrr..... I decided that a nice pasta dinner with wine might help so \rummaged around and made leek and pancetta pasta in a parmesean basil sauce (found a can of that in the cupboard) and had it with a glass of 3 Buck Chuck. You would think I'd drunk the whole bottle from the buzz I had. Sheesh!
Maybe the wine was why I decided to try sleeping in my bed again. I got all situated - wedge pillow with regular pillow on top, 2 pillows propping up my braced shoulder and another under my knee. It wasn't conducive to reading so I struggled to fall asleep but eventually did. I woke up in the wee hours and rolled onto my side (brace up) and fell back asleep. When I woke in the morning, I was shocked that I'd made it all night. I was also creaky and as the day progressed, I had some pain like I hadn't had in awhile so I can't say it was a complete success but still felt like some kind of progress. I'd be back in my recliner for a few more nights but this gave me hope.
Despite feeling creaky, I got up Saturday and picked up the house because it had become a pit in the past few self imposed hibernation days. I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, folded the small load of laundry I'd done that was strewn across the couch and did a general neatize. I even managed to do a few pots and pans very carefully (I did crack one bowl) by bracing each thing in the corner of the drainer to wash it. When it was all done, I was tired and sweaty but at least the house was more pleasant. Now watch - no one would pop by just because I'd gotten everything back in order.
Lori, Andrea and I were meeting at the cafe in Mead at 1:15 for their belated birthday lunch. I had declined an after lunch Omaha run with Andrea (more time at home without my brace on, thank you very much) so we all drove separately. We had a nice lunch, presents were exchanged and we even split a piece of pecan pie 3 ways. After a lovely time, I went home to find a get well box from my friend Eileen, who knows me so well. It had sock yarn, a vintage tablecloth with baskets of kittens embroidered on it, some l'Occitane toiletries, a pin from the V&A (from her trip to England) and 2 packages of my fave candy OMG's, which are only available in Canada. YUM! Yet another example of the wonderful friends I have.
It was Sunday again and I couldn't believe I'd already been home for 3 weeks. With only one more week of recuperation in store, it was time to start getting back into some kind of routine. The house was all picked up so no chores needed doing but as usual, because the kitchen was all squeaky clean, I felt the need to mess it up again. I started by cleaning out the fridge, which resulted in a bunch of old produce for Lori's chickens, which I drove out to Lori's place immediately. For dinner I made cheesy baked cauliflower with cornbread and ham. Yum! I'd been eating out of the freezer for so long that it felt good to cook something new.
That brought week 3 to a close. I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by. I've been doing a bit more each week but am still not at 100% and don't think I will be even close at the end of week 4. I can only hope that when I see the doctor again this coming week that he'll say I can lose the brace for good. Whether that's the case or not, I know I will start PT, which Donna says is very painful - like taking pain pills again painful. Whatever. There's no point in stressing over it now. I'm still in getting through each day mode and have let go of the fantasy that I'd enjoy this month off. Don't get me wrong - there have been some lovely times but the enjoyable veg time I anticipated hasn't come to pass. Damn body! I have a few busy days coming up again this week and need to try and get back to more normal sleep times so I can get up for work on the 3rd. I don't know if I'll be full-time day one but I at least need to try. Just one more week. Wish me luck for continued progress on the healing front. There's no hope for the weather with more clouds and rain forecast for the entire week. At least the daffodils have started to bloom.
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