Week 16 - Tweaked a Muscle

It was my first full week of dealing with my back and the neck brace and I was ready to go. Getting back to normal wasn't as easy as I'd hoped.

Monday was Foundation reports day so I focused on those and had them done by 1:30, when I stopped work for the day, spending the rest of the day in bed listening to an audio book. No one offered me a ride to knitting but I wasn't up to it anyway. I had a training class scheduled at 1:30 Tuesday and was hopeful that an early night would set me up for working longer on Tuesday so I could teach.

My plan was to take a shower at lunch and to let my hair dry while I was eating without my brace and then teach at 1:30 then be done for the day. I had a full class and had even let extra people in from the waiting list. I got into the shower at noon but when I reached for the shampoo, I pulled a muscle in my back right at the problem area. The pain took my breath away. I called Cindy to cancel the class, got back into my nightie and spent the afternoon on my back on a heating pad. I did NOT need this. Denise from the library, who had offered help, picked up some lydocaine cream for me at the pharmacy and I started slathering that on that evening. It was a long day.

I was able to sit up some on Wednesday so listened to a zoom tranining session in the morning and then took the afternoon off for more heating pad time. I was antsy as all get out and couldn't seem to focus on anthing - not knitting, not streaming, not reading. Finally in the evening, I cast on a complicated pair of socks and having that to focus allowed me to settle down. 

After a good night's sleep, I was feeling much better on Thursday. Rene was on her way to the airport in Omaha so offered to bring lunch and picked up my favorite grab & go from Mocha C's. It was a nice visit and after doing grad allocations and a meeting that afternoon, I called it a day and put in a couple of hours of sick leave. It was a rainy day, which feels like a treat after so long in drought and wonder of wonder, all my scabs came off by the end of the day. That meant no more vaseline and bandages under my brace. I call that a good day.

I had hoped to work all day on Friday but after finishing the final Foundation reports, I called my week done at 3:30. I hadn't made it a single full day of work but 6.5 hours by the end of the week wasn't bad. I needed the energy because I had big plans for Saturday.

Anne was coming up to take me out of the house to run errands. I had only been out to the spine doctor's since the fall so was looking forward to a dose of normal. I was up in the wee hours but fell back asleep and the cats didn't wake me up until 8:22! Anne was there not long after and we started our run at the farm store for birdseed then hit lots of the shops in downtown Wahoo - the bakery, Warehouse Surplus and a couple of others before driving thru BK for lunch. Anne filled up my birdseed buckets and emptied my compost, neither of which I could do with my lifting ban. It was great to hang out but when she left, the afternoon dragged. I couldn't wait for it to be bedtime and went to bed early.

I woke up at 4:11 a.m. on Sunday and with no luck falling back asleep, got up before 5:00. Payback for my early bedtime. It ended up being another busy day with chores and then the 100th anniversary party at the library that afternoon. As soon as Lorri dropped me home, Tim called and wanted to come over to see what yard work I wanted done and while we were walking around, his son did the first mow and edged the driveway and sidewalk. I then spent time reconfiguring my laptop and screen setup on my desk because without being able to bend my neck, I needed the screens to be lower and the laptop was in the way. I ended up with my laptop opened flat and standing straight up between a stack of cookbooks and a brick so the camera is above the lowered screens. It works.

Talk about a full weekend after a week of part-time work. Clearly I was feeling better and planned to work full-time next week. I even cooked for the first time, having been eating out of my freezer for the past week. It was only some doctored rice but it felt good to cook and eat something different. The spring weather was cooperating too and I had flowers in bloom all over the yard, including these mini daffodils that were only 3" tall. 

So I think I'm on the mend, at last! Still only pain in my back where I landed but I'm wearing the brace like a good doobie. 4.5 weeks to go. I can do it!