Week 14/11. Nevernormal
By which I'm really starting to feel like I'll never be back to "normal" again. I know that I will. Only a few more months...but I'm still so tired all the time. It does help to look back at my journal entries a few months ago and put that into perspective. I'm now sleeping about 11 hours a night and zero naps...so that's already way better than when I was only awake for 6-8 hrs/day! But today I wanted to bake. I wanted to make some cookies, even went so far as to pull up the recipe on my tablet, preheat the oven, and empty a couple of eggs...then I gave up. Just. Gave up. Things accomplished today: walked to dentist in the pouring rain. Survived dental cleaning with no nasty surprises (the usual sensitive teeth, receeding gumlines, and deep pockets but no cavities or additional appointments to make) which was delightful. A closed-ended medical appointment. When's the last time I've had one of those? Every other medical appointment I go to concludes with scheduling the next one next week. This one? Just agreed to let them call me in 6 months to schedule a cleaning then. That's a whole half year away. I kinda love the dentist today, just because it's such a rate thing to have to attend to. Then I walked hope, soaked my super cold wet feet in hot water, and sat down to my eggs. I do love being able to sit down and work on them. Today I did some finishing touches on a huge ostrich pysanka (pretty sure anyone reading this already knows me on facebook. If you don't, check out Hanky Pysanky on facebook for the photos. It's a thing of majesty and beauty) and finished a first run at a custom order that will be 3 New Orleans Saints-themed ornaments. Custom orders are great, guaranteed income. Even more amazing? A lady ordered TWO SETS of three dragon eggs. That's 6 dragon eggs total. I almost fainted when I saw first the order for one full set and then a convo message for a second...and then I almost threw up because each one of those dragon eggs takes SO LONG to make and I knew I couldn't possibly finished them by christmas and i assume any orders this time of year are mean to be christmas gifts. Thankfully she responded to my response later than day and doesn't need them until APRIL so I did a happy dance (well, a seated, non-hip-endangering happy dance) because that's $600of bonus income and I have months to make it happen. Back to the thought that started all this...I worked on a couple of eggs for a couple of hours. That and a trip to the dentist= the entirety of my energy expenditure today and now i'm fighting to stay awake long enough to type and watch tv and maybe get back to that custom golden fluer de lis because it sure would be nice to send the buyer a photo before going back to work tomorrow, because there will be no egging during the work week :(
Speaking of work, it's going well. Two weeks of 4 day 4 hr shifts went really well. I continued to be really really tired by the end of the day, but mentally tired, not so physically tired last week. At least I was able to spend a full hour (sometimes more) in the wee work gym after each shift on the recumbent bike, elliptical, stretching, and light weights. Pretty wonderful to have the short shifts and extra time to work out after each shift before going home, it's the best stress relief for me and really helps to unwind the stresses and annoyances of the job.
Sadly, going up to 15 min/day on the elliptical did NOT go well and sat night I started experiencing really unpleasant pinching in the groin area every night...dangerously close to my pre-surgery symptoms. That freaked me out mightily so I stayed off the elliptical sunday and monday but still had the pinching...but only at night when lying in bed and trying to fall asleep. Wasn't bothering me during the day, so it's clearly not that bad. Did discuss it with PT on tuesday who did some compression and rotation tests on that hip and pronounced it not a labral issue but my psoas. Oh psoas, you so annoying. But major relief on my part: muscle pain I can deal with. Return of joint pain would be terrifying. No pinching since PT followed by massage on Tuesday for for that I am profoundly relieved. Didn't even have to resort to muscle relaxers this week, just tylenol day and night and nightly hot epsom salt baths and hourly stretching. Plus the exercises, oh so many exercises. I really need to start carrying around a notebook and writing down all the squats and lunges and other exercises I do every day just for documentation purposed. Especially noting how much time I spend doing these PT-appointed movements every day. I know I do at least an hour daily but suspect if i started logging all the time during the day other than the "it's time to do exercises now!" chunk in front of the tv that it would be pretty substantial.
Home projects are suffering due to my excessive lack of spoons. I still want those new windows...but this Clean Energy Works program is no longer seeming so perfect. It's ideal because they have a system for financing the costs into a mini loan that you pay off every month as part of gas bill so it's not thousands of dollars up front. But they are taking FOREVER and I really don't like the contractor doing the windows. Then my amazing father transferred me couple thousand to help with the new windows and with that extra chunk of money it seems more feasible to find my own contractor who I like and trust and be able to pay them without fancy financing options. Maybe I'll wait till spring when I feel like I have the oomph to make those phone calls and emails and meet with those contractors and compare those bids...and when I write it out it really doesn't sound like nearly as onerous a task as it feels. And it sure does feel onerous. But 2nd major financial onerous task that I fully planned on completing during my convalescence (hah! Completing tasks during convalescence! I was so optimistic) was to refinance the house in order to stop paying mortgage insurance. It has been pointed out to me that part of a refi is getting the house assessed. And best to do all major upgrades *before* that. SO need to complete new windows before refinancing house. Meanwhile flushing $70/month down the toilet monthly in mortgage insurance no longer necessary now that I have some equity built up.
Wow, that last paragraph makes me sound like such an adult. Better go play in the bathtub for a bit ;)
Speaking of work, it's going well. Two weeks of 4 day 4 hr shifts went really well. I continued to be really really tired by the end of the day, but mentally tired, not so physically tired last week. At least I was able to spend a full hour (sometimes more) in the wee work gym after each shift on the recumbent bike, elliptical, stretching, and light weights. Pretty wonderful to have the short shifts and extra time to work out after each shift before going home, it's the best stress relief for me and really helps to unwind the stresses and annoyances of the job.
Sadly, going up to 15 min/day on the elliptical did NOT go well and sat night I started experiencing really unpleasant pinching in the groin area every night...dangerously close to my pre-surgery symptoms. That freaked me out mightily so I stayed off the elliptical sunday and monday but still had the pinching...but only at night when lying in bed and trying to fall asleep. Wasn't bothering me during the day, so it's clearly not that bad. Did discuss it with PT on tuesday who did some compression and rotation tests on that hip and pronounced it not a labral issue but my psoas. Oh psoas, you so annoying. But major relief on my part: muscle pain I can deal with. Return of joint pain would be terrifying. No pinching since PT followed by massage on Tuesday for for that I am profoundly relieved. Didn't even have to resort to muscle relaxers this week, just tylenol day and night and nightly hot epsom salt baths and hourly stretching. Plus the exercises, oh so many exercises. I really need to start carrying around a notebook and writing down all the squats and lunges and other exercises I do every day just for documentation purposed. Especially noting how much time I spend doing these PT-appointed movements every day. I know I do at least an hour daily but suspect if i started logging all the time during the day other than the "it's time to do exercises now!" chunk in front of the tv that it would be pretty substantial.
Home projects are suffering due to my excessive lack of spoons. I still want those new windows...but this Clean Energy Works program is no longer seeming so perfect. It's ideal because they have a system for financing the costs into a mini loan that you pay off every month as part of gas bill so it's not thousands of dollars up front. But they are taking FOREVER and I really don't like the contractor doing the windows. Then my amazing father transferred me couple thousand to help with the new windows and with that extra chunk of money it seems more feasible to find my own contractor who I like and trust and be able to pay them without fancy financing options. Maybe I'll wait till spring when I feel like I have the oomph to make those phone calls and emails and meet with those contractors and compare those bids...and when I write it out it really doesn't sound like nearly as onerous a task as it feels. And it sure does feel onerous. But 2nd major financial onerous task that I fully planned on completing during my convalescence (hah! Completing tasks during convalescence! I was so optimistic) was to refinance the house in order to stop paying mortgage insurance. It has been pointed out to me that part of a refi is getting the house assessed. And best to do all major upgrades *before* that. SO need to complete new windows before refinancing house. Meanwhile flushing $70/month down the toilet monthly in mortgage insurance no longer necessary now that I have some equity built up.
Wow, that last paragraph makes me sound like such an adult. Better go play in the bathtub for a bit ;)