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| Bibi's Build-a-Bear Eli |
This week in physical therapy was interesting. On Tuesday, my regular therapist wasn’t there
so I worked with someone new who added a couple of exercises to my routine and
increased how long I would hold some of stretches longer than I had been. On Thursday, my therapist was back and she
told me that she was not happy with my progress. Thank goodness, in the same breath she told
me that it was not because I wasn’t trying.
Fact is, I did my physical therapy exercises every day with a dedication
that surprises even me.
Okay. I didn’t do them on Saturday. I’ll explain that in a bit.
When I see her next, on Tuesday,
she’ll give me a letter for the doctor because she thinks more x-rays need to
be done, or some other tests. In any
event, it sounds like, when I first went into urgent care and they saw
osteoarthritis in my knee, they didn’t look any further. They had found a problem and decided it was
the diagnosis. Now my physical therapist thinks that there is something else
involved, either as a complication of the arthritis or aside from it
altogether.
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| Bibi mimicking Snowdoll |
I see the doctor on Thursday and
we’ll see what happens next.
In the meantime, my using the
bike has gone from using it once a day for 30 minutes to thrice a day for 10
minutes to twice a day for 15 minutes. I
wish I could say that using the bike has helped me lose weight. Instead, I
gained 2.5 lbs. But still I exercise. I do my physical therapy and use the
bike. I do crunches and curls. I lift my free weights, use my exercise
bands, my exercise tubes, to keep my arms from losing strength. I stretch and flex and try to stop myself
from gaining any more weight.
In other words, the physical
therapy isn’t working to improve my knee and my exercising isn’t helping me
lose weight.
In other news, I had a job interview last week. This week I received the rejection: thanks but we do not have a job that fits
your skills at this time but we’ll keep your résumé on file. The day after I received the email, the job
position was re-posted. I wish I could
say that I just brushed it off. Sure, I
said that it didn’t matter. If they didn’t want me, it was just a poor
fit. I rationalized as best I could but
my rational mind could not outweigh how I felt, how disappointed and
discouraged I was because, in the past five weeks I’ve gone from walking out on
a short-lived position where I was clearly not valued/appreciated, to being
diagnosed with osteoarthritis, to being turned down for an administrative
assistant position for which I was told I was not what they wanted in spite of
my over a decade’s worth of experience.
That’s a lot of blows I’ve mentally taken so, even telling myself that I
was “over qualified” holds no comfort whatsoever.
So I spent most of the week
refusing to participate in a pity party to which I was the only invitee and was
also the hostess.
Then came the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Thursday Rob had to go out of
town because he had a gig in Florida. We
reached out to everyone we could, trying to find someone, anyone, to be here to
help me with the dogs. I wasn’t too
worried but my physical therapist, who had given me permission to not be on
full bed rest anymore and said I should walk around the house occasionally,
still didn’t want me to walk on uneven ground.
In other words, taking the dogs out back was not recommended. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anyone to
help me from Thursday to Friday evening.
To add insult to injury (no pun intended), my mother called Thursday to
tell me that she was sending an overnight package to us for which someone would
have to sign on Friday.
Good thing my physical therapist
said that walking around the house was okay, right? Right!
So when there was a knock at the
door, naturally I thought, “Package from my mother.” The dogs thought, “Oh boy, someone’s here to
see us.” We were all mistaken because
there, at my door, were two Jehovah’s Witnesses and, as I tried to stop the
dogs from going out to say hello to them, Holly first slammed into my leg, and
then I was forced to wedge her between my legs.
Needless to say, she slammed into
my bad leg and I wanted to kill the two women on the other side of the door I
slammed in their faces.
I was close to tears in pain and
had no choice but to return to bed.
After all, my physical therapist had told me sharp/stabbing pain due to
movement is to be expected; if I was experiencing any aching or throbbing pain
I needed to get back into bed.
Thankfully, Matt came here Friday
evening. I fed him some spaghetti and
meatballs and he took care of the dogs, taking them out whenever they needed to
be let loose. I did my utmost to take
care of my knee.
Saturday, the day I did not do my
physical therapy, was crazy. Matt didn’t
get up early but, before Rob left, he had bought a lead for our back yard. Holly still needs to be restrained and,
because I could not take her on the leash, this was the best compromise we
could make. I still had to go out into
the back yard, down a few steps, but I wouldn’t have to worry about being
pulled or tugged incidentally by an eager Siberian Husky. By the time Matt emerged from the guest room
to help me with things, Joe & Co were here.
The plan was for them to spend the night Saturday. Because Joe had to work, it would be mostly
me and Erin and Bibi. So they were here
to relieve Matt from puppy duty.
He was still here when Kanika
arrived. I hadn’t seen Kanika in weeks! The
last time I saw her is when we took the aqua exercise class together. So we had a lot of catching up to do. I’d missed her July 4th
party. She’d missed Erin passing her
GED. Just lots of stuff happening and we
spent a good two hours together. I sat
with her in the living room, my leg propped up as best it could be.
Matt left shortly after Kanika. It was surprisingly late. We ordered pizza for dinner because I needed
some vermouth for a recipe I wanted to make and Rob hadn’t bought any before he
left. (He picked up grenadine by
mistake.) I had asked Matt to pick some
up if he went out but he didn’t. So I
gave Joe some money to bring some home with him, which he most graciously
did. I guess third time’s the
charm. LOL! Still, the pizza was good.
All in all, it was a good end to
a not so great week. I hope next week is
better but I’m anxious about the doctor appointment and verdict. I didn’t do much of anything by way of
reading and such. That’s why I am going
to seriously commit to the drawing and learning Italian and other things I can
do without hurting myself, positive things to fill my days so I won’t feel
quite so dull. My goal is to make this
week and better one so that whatever occurs when I see the doctor, it won’t
define the whole week’s experience.
PS: The
carrot cake we made last week was amazing. Absolutely the best carrot cake recipe I've found since I lost the one I used to make when my children were little.
