Keep on Keeping On

I woke up this morning a bit late, husband and son had already left for work. I did not sleep the best again last night, but after my shower today I was thinking I could take on the world. I started puttering around my house. I call this my "walk through" where I basically pick things up, and put the house into some type of order from the weekend. I was feeling pretty good and started a load of laundry. I actually made my bed (really for the first time on my own since the second surgery) and kept going with one odd job after another. I thought, "Gee, I am thinking I could go back to school today the way I feel."

Then noon hit. Ouch. My right arm started screaming at me. Not the whole arm, but the muscle that runs from your neck into your shoulder. I have to say that it was actually very painful. I spent the next few hours in the recliner with a bag of frozen peas sitting on my shoulder and 2 pain pills in my stomach.

I guess I am not quite ready to take on the world. I just want to get back to normal. I cannot sit around all day doing nothing. I feel like I need to push the limits a bit so that I don't go from zero to everything all at once. I am so very glad that I had accumulated enough sick days to afford to heal at home, and glad that I have a district that allows you to take some of them in a lump like this in order to heal. I just did not want to take more than I need. Honestly, I have always been very careful about taking my sick days legally. I don't feel I have ever abused the system and have actually used a no pay day before when I could not bring my self to calling in sick when I had something important to do but was not actually sick. I have used one no pay day for a wedding, another for a funeral, and another when we took oldest to the airport when he left for Amsterdam. I don't want to ever take advantage of this benefit. Maybe that is why I push myself, and think I should hurry back. I just need to find a balance.

On a really good note, I am noticing today that the swelling is becoming less and less, I told my husband I did not realize how swollen my jaw line has been. and that today I felt my lower face was thinner. My neck is still very thick and firm though. I feel like a Barbie Doll that had her head removed, a stick inserted, and then her head placed back on the stick. (Yeah, I think I probably really did that before to poor Barbie, plus my G.I. Joe also had a terrible war wound which required similar treatment...by the way, my Barbie dated my G.I. Joe, because I never cared much for Ken and his plastic hair, and I had military brothers).

What I am trying to say, is my neck is that stiff. It still has a limited range of motion and feels as thick and firm as a stick.

Okay, I guess that is all for now: supper is calling . Today we were blessed with all the fixins' for taco salad. Oldest gets to set it all out though. I am back to my bag of peas.