Slow but steady wins the race, or so they say. It seems as if I will have to add that idiom to others that govern my life. This morning I checked the calendar to see my timeline since surgery---it has been six weeks and I'm feeling pretty good about my progress. At six weeks during my first break, I had just had the cast removed and could do almost nothing. It may please you to learn that I can do any number of things if I go about it slowly. Is it all better yet? No but day by day I'm seeing improvement.
I am re-entering the world doing things that a few weeks ago would have been unimaginable. My fingers are working pretty well and my thumb is cooperating some of the time. I even lifted a one pound weight in therapy the other day!
Who knew they even made such a light weight? Although I can grasp, lifting is yet to be accomplished. That is if you don't count a one pound weight! Lisa has added more shoulder work because most of my pain is there. She sent me home with this the other day.
Apparently what has happened is I've created a capsule that is not allowing my shoulder to move freely, along with muscle memory that is making it hard for me to easily fix. Should I have only held my arm in a protective way for six weeks this probably would not have happened, however 13 weeks was long enough to do damage. My Mother's words keep running in my head---stand up straight Gail!
The fact that I can now do the exercises without crying is huge! Doing them in the pool is a huge help and I would do so every day but we are most definitely in the rainy season, easily erasing any rain shortfall we were experiencing.
Friday night we had a marvelous evening at our friend Mary's house. She went all out on the 4th of July theme.
Seeing this photo, it is clear that I am still holding my arm in an unnatural way, a habit that I must break!
We were so happy to attend our first real dinner party since the pandemic began. When I say she went all out I am not exaggerating as she provided us with silly necklaces that lit up and sent us home with the scarves she used to decorate the chairs.
Bruce commented that it had been a long time since he'd had such a colorful dinner, served on her 1930's purple dinnerware.
And who has purple dinnerware you ask? Mary loves her some purple, socks, shirts, pickleball paddle--you name it. She's not the first person I've met who is very passionate about a specific color. Duh--orange for me. How about you?
Telling Matt about the beautiful trifle she made for dessert, he found it somewhat amusing that she served what is essentially a British treat.
Speaking of Matt, he attended the annual American ex-pats 4th of July celebration in London. I've searched the archives of my blog but for the life of me can't find the day that we went with them, held in some park in Central London. Mostly I remember having a whiskey cocktail there and the HUGE hydrangea blossoms. Crazy what I remember. Anyway, on July 5th he celebrated his 45th birthday, something that is hard to fathom. It seems like only yesterday that we became parents for the first time. It should be noted that he has yet to receive a gift from said parents as they can't think of anything. Pathetic.
Saturday it poured for most of the day. A dreary day in Orlando for sure. Generally we hold a party at the lake with fireworks, however, some budgetary constraints canceled those plans for this year. That did not stop Susan's husband Dave from putting on his own show. Meant to begin around 8:45, the rain magically stopped at 8:30 and we went to enjoy the show. Seriously good!
Sandy put together a cookout for Sunday afternoon and, if you can imagine, I was able to contribute. Not that my preparations were not without incident. Nothing serious, only something that showed how out of practice I am in the kitchen. Looking in the fridge I decided to make a simple macaroni salad so first thing was to hard boil the eggs. So far, so good. Digging in the pantry I got out a box of pasta, except, somehow I dumped in penne instead of macaroni! What the heck? Plan B was called into practice and I made a pasta salad instead, chopping these vegetables all by myself!
What that means is that my left hand is working pretty well for steadying things, a huge improvement from a few weeks ago. I still had to have Bruce dump the pasta into the colander but I pretty much did the rest solo, including even grating some fresh parmesan to mix in. I scrounged the last bits of my parsley plant which has gone to seed due to neglect.
A quick rain shower was enough to send us undercover.
Gosh it felt good to be out and about, not to mention a contributor, something so easy to take for granted until it is taken away.
I would show you my new eyeglasses if my hair didn't look so bad from swimming. After living with the scratches on my lens from the face-plant for a month we both had our eyes checked and ordered new glasses. One of the things we picked up while we were at Costco was raspberries, one of my favorite fruits. Turns out they created all sorts of problems because under the top layer they were mostly mush creating juice that then got on a new shirt Bruce bought. Oy vey! I plopped them into a pan and made a real mush of them, dumping it atop a small yellow cake I made. Yes, I made a cake from scratch. Learning from my last cake baking experience, I used the lightest bowl I could and managed to get most of the batter into the pan with little problem. Can I just tell you that I was thrilled to have cake for breakfast this morning?
As Bruce was leaving pickleball last night, our friend Lorelei appeared, dropping off a peach cobbler she'd made for us which will now be tonight's dessert. Getting the peaches from Clemons, she knows how much I have missed my visits there. Thank you Lord for these wonderful friends of ours!
A good many people I know ease themselves into a pool this time of year because the water can be a little chilly, in part because of cloud cover and in part because of the influx of rain. Myself, I'm a jumper preferring to get the shock over with quick. Now, however, I have had to learn to ease myself in. Yesterday afternoon I was even having a hard time doing that as it was super windy. While I was reading on my lounge chair a woman pointed out an unfamiliar bird that she claimed hadn't moved. Another friend Mary saw it on Tuesday while we were there. Hmmm....I had to walk home to get my camera for a photograph that I could study. At first a Limpkin came to mind, yet, they don't have yellow eyes. What could it be and why was it in the same spot for two days?
Candy to the rescue! Sending her the photograph she identified it immediately as a juvenile Night Heron, most likely Black Crowned. It is very nice having friends in the know when it comes to birding. First thing this morning I walked to the pool to see if it had moved, otherwise I was going to call Audubon for help. Well, the perch was empty. Bruce is out fishing and has the pool key, but as soon as he returns, I'm going to double check. In the meantime, I will just watch the Great Blue Heron in the lake that I see out my window. And maybe if I get lucky, I will see these little cuties.
Amazing how much they blend into the landscape isn't it?
One thing I learned from Lisa yesterday was an answer to a question I posed about the history of physical/occupational therapy. I wondered how someone figured out that by making someone hurt (exercise) you could make them better. Seems counterintuitive to me. According to her it was the Great War that brought this kind of treatment to injured soldiers. I was telling Nancy that all the words attached to therapy cause pain when I'd always thought of therapeutic meaning something good. I've checked the dictionary and it turns out that is the second meaning. Shows you what I know!
I still can't put my hair up by myself, that will take my shoulder to heal first which according to Lisa will take some time. Slow and steady Gail, slow and steady.
your friend,
Gail
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