The alarm was a rude awakening on Monday morning but I jumped right into the shower, got dressed, made a lunch, ate a quick breakfast and was out the door in record time. This wasn't my normal morning routine but I was afraid if I sat down, I wouldn't get up. I was at work on time, a rarity to be sure, but was disappointed that I was the first one in so no one was there to witness me being there at 8:00.
It felt good to be back and I got busy immediately with my quarterly reports. It was good that I had those to focus on because I could do them on auto pilot. My head was a foggy mess! I had hoped to make it until 3:00 because I had PT scheduled for 4:00 but only made it until 1:30. I called to see if I could go to PT early and they said I could so I headed straight there and got it over with. After a nice cup of tea and dinner, I was good to go to knitting. Tuesday was another day.
Despite having trouble falling asleep, I woke up at 4:18 and couldn't fall back asleep so got up and knitted until it was time to head to work. I felt remarkably normal and was fully functional mentally at work. I powered through more reports and made it until 3:00, which was progress. Wednesday was also a good day but I did more typing with my left hand and was in pain when I left at 2:00 for PT. I went early again but it worked. Thursday wasn't so good. I hadn't slept well the night before and had done too much typing with my brace off so was in pain again. I was also cranky as all get out so left shortly after noon. I ran a few errands then went home to put my arm up on my pillow and relax, which felt great. By Friday the pain was less, most likely because I brought a pillow for under my arm and tried not to use my left hand when typing. Regardless, I had only been able to get an early PT appointment so left at 2:00, which was only an hour after I'd gotten back from lunch with Layton. Still, not bad for my first week back. I'd gotten my quarterly reports done and worked more than half-time. All good.
I talked turkey with the PT on Friday and only then did it hit me how little I would be able to do. I knew that they'd always said it would take 4 months of PT to get back full mobility but when I asked him where I'd be in a month when I'm in Canada, his response was that maybe I'd be able to lift my arm 2". Two inches! That's when it hit home that I really would be useless for a long time, which meant there'd be no gardening anytime soon. Damn!
Friday night was a surprise birthday party for Erica at the library and I was in charge of ice and the pink lemonade. She was totally surprised and it was fun but quick because I'd made plans to meet Andrea at the Vets' Club for their fish fry at 6:05. Heidi and Donna came too so I had my first ever lenten fish fry with a big mug of beer for dinner. It was a nice end to the work week and I had no plans for the weekend. Perfect!
My only commitment for the weekend was to go out each day to water Lorri's seedlings. This was a good thing because it meant I had to get dressed and out of the house so couldn't just sit and knit all weekend. Between laundry, dishes and general neatizing that was plenty after my first week back at work.
The weather was finally cooperating with no rain and warm (too warm actually in the low 80's) so when Erica's kids couldn't come over to do yard work, I called Heidi to see if her boys were available. John, her 8th grader, was so I picked him up Sunday afternoon and got him going. He was excruciatingly slow and took almost 2 hours to rake my front yard, which is only about 15x30 feet. It was super frustrating watching him, knowing Erica's son would have had it done in half an hour. After 3 hours I took him home and called Erica to tell her to call when they got back from their vacation. The rest of the work would to wait for Wyatt and Macy. Gladly.
So I made it through my first week back and have scheduled PT for later in the day for the next week. Other than the days I leave early for PT, I'm hoping to at least get back to full-time at work. The shoulder is clearly going to be a long haul to get back to any semblance of normal but I'll keep working at it and do what I can. And I slept 100% in my bed both Friday and Saturday night with no ill effects so I pulled the sheet and pillows off the recliner and am done with that. Progress! It's the little things. : )
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