Here it is Sunday morning and I am coming back to you once again from the spice mines where I am recovering from my biceps tear repair surgery. I haven’t had a lot of pain; they had given me what’s called a “pain ball”—which is a nerve deadener that was attached to my shoulder so I wouldn’t feel any pain. I was skeptical, but it really did work. The most pain I ever felt was the equivalent of a Charlie horse, at least so far anyway! I do worry that I jinx myself a little bit by talking about not having any pain, but that’s just how it all shakes out. I try not to be superstitious, but it doesn’t always work. I was worried about the transition from the pain ball 2 not having anything other than painkillers on demand, but it hasn’t been that bad. The brace is bulky and uncomfortable, but i can live with that. It was the ice machine that was really bad, and I am off of that now unless I need it for swelling or pain or something in the meantime. It wrapped around the brace and blew cold air into the attachments that were around my arm to prevent swelling and to reduce pain and I took it off for the first time Friday to see if I could go without it. I managed to get through Friday night and last night without needing it, which i think is a good thing probably, right?
I have been a slug ever since the surgery. I haven’t really done much of anything except lay in my chair, let sparky sleep on me, and watch a whole lot of streaming. Some of it was really good, some of it was really bad, and some of it was just laughable. It is also really amazing to me that with all of these streaming options that I have on my Apple TV, that it is really hard for me sometimes to find something to watch. Is there too much choice? Are so many options that it’s difficult to make a choice? But there’s also the issue of getting into something that’s not very good. Paul and I do stick to our 15 minute rule with movies and our one episode and a half rule streaming series. And there’s so much to look for that I don’t even know what to look for anymore! I find myself forgetting shows that I wanted to watch because new shows are coming out all of the time and then we move on. It does remind me of the olden days of cable where you could have over 300 channels and nothing to watch all the fucking time. (Interestingly enough, I have discovered that dictation will turn curse words into asterisks instead and will not spell out the word so I have to do that manually! Who knew Microsoft was such a prude?)
Interestingly enough, I have also developed an enormous pimple on my nose. I am 62 years old and I am still getting pimples. I suppose this is payback for my adolescence when I didn’t have hardly any at all during high school and college! I don’t mind really, it’s just kind of funny to me and it’s also on the bridge of my nose, which is where my glasses rest. Of course! I am also hoping that I’ll be able to run some errands on Monday. I have a prescription to pick up and the mail, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to do a small grocery run to pick up a few things. Navigating all of this with one hand is not going to be easy of course, but it needs to be done and at least I’m not on pain medication so my mind is clear. I have the wagon to help me bring the groceries back, and I also think on Monday I’ll try to get back to normal around here answering e-mail, reading, paying bills (always a joy!), and maybe even trying to get some writing done through dictation which might be a little frustrating but—the more I do it the easier it will get I am sure.
This hasn’t been the easiest of years for me. Over the course of the last 12 months, I lost my cat and my mother, injured myself severely, had all of my bottom teeth removed and got new dentures, and had a major surgery. But the teeth removal was great because now I have dentures and can chew much better than I have in years; which is difficult to get used to again. But at least I no longer look like a hillbilly from the holler! It’s unfortunate that I didn’t have this done before mom died because I know my teeth really bothered her, even though she never said anything. WHEW! Just dictating that got me overwhelmed and sad, and a bit teary eyed.
I think that’s been the hardest thing about the surgery recovery; that anesthetic and the painkillers and just the recovery of from that trauma to my body has made my emotions all over the place. Also, just sitting around thinking about things and your mind starts to wander and you can’t help but miss your mom. Facebook also gut punched me the other day by bringing up a memory within adorable picture of scooter. But sparky wouldn’t be here if we still had scooter, and i am very glad we were able to rescue them both. I think I will always be sad about mom. I don’t think you ever get over losing your mother no matter how old you are. And of course, I always think about dad saying that your mother is always the first person to love you. I had thought about going to visit dad during this recovery time, and i still might—it just depends on how my arm feels and if I think I can handle 12 hours in the car in two directions. It’s probably a stupid idea but I really hate the thought of not seeing dad during any of the holiday season. However hard this has been on me, it’s been 1000 times if not a million times worse on my dad . Paul is also thinking about going to visit his mom during the Christmas season too—but I think by the time he’ll be able to go I should be functional on my own. At the very least, I’ll be going back to work before then. I’m still not sure exactly how I’m going to put shirts on; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.
We’re also watching bodies and Netflix which is really good, LSU won yesterday which was very cool, and Auburn lost the iron bowl in the most Auburn way possible. Heavy sigh. But for all intents and purposes as far as I’m concerned anyway, college football season is effectively over anyway.
And on that note, I’ll bring this to a close have a great Sunday everyone!
Queer and Loathing in America 