Lessons from the House

I am generally positive and optimistic (and overall grateful for what I didn't lose) but every now and then a rant is required.  The honeymoon phase is over, the novelty has worn off, and the frustration is setting in.  Normal and inevitable I would think.  You can't lose major motor function and not go through a phase of grumpy irritation at the world.

Things I've learned so far ...

I'm useless after 10 minutes.  Wow.  I continue to be amazed at how little I am able to handle, and struggle to remain convinced that I'll get my energy back sometime in my lifetime.

I'm so grateful for the pre-surgery Sarah that focused on getting the house organized, especially the laundering of the bedding.  Not so much for the ability to crawl into a clean bed, but that I don't have to be thinking about washing sheets this week!

Being away for a month means there is no food in the house.  At all.  Next time I would arrange for a delivery service to deliver a whack of groceries first day home.

Making it a priority to fill the painkiller prescription is important.  Enough said.

Get  your butt into bed when the old people do. I pushed it too late (seriously? when did 9pm become too late?) and paid the price in physical ability and mental attitude. I flopped into bed discouraged that my right leg wasn't behaving and that this rehab would never end. 

Expect plateaus. Even as much as I expect plateaus, I don't actually expect them because, I am special and will be the exception to ALL the rules. Right.

I'm bored.  Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.  I need a hobby ... fast. Not work, not helping out with your work.  Something that I can do when I want to, but without the feeling that I have to. Crocheted lap blankets anyone? Macrame is back in fashion ... hanging plant holders?  And I'm still seriously considering starched lacy doily christmas tree ornaments!

When it's cool and rainy outside it's even more boring.

I'm going to have to create my own structure until out-patient rehab starts, and force myself to do something rehab-ish twice a day.  10am and 2pm.

I'd love to find those "studies" that the hospital people kept refering to.  You know, their justification for kicking people out so fast.  Those "studies show that people improve faster in their home environment".  Right.  People get bored in their home environment. People do stupid things in their home environment. People don't get motivated to do any self-rehab in their home environment, and I'm sure there is a large percentage of people who wallow in depression in their home environment.  We won't even get into the scientific validity of any study that has no control group.  (Without cloning, how does one, exactly, say that person A improved more at home than they did in a live-in setting.)

I eat less at home ... especially if I have to make it.  Maybe I will be able to shed those hospital pounds.

I can't stand a messy house, and not having the ability to do anything about it.

End rant :)