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Sunday, December 2, 2018

Getting through it



It’s sixty one today. Thank you global warming. Enough sunshine to lift my heart. Monday will dump a frozen mix, in forty degree temps. I have nowhere to go, but a therapist is coming here. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I have places to go and bad weather to do it in. As if a leaf turned, I am feeling none of the trepidation that incapacitated me earlier.

I’ve given myself a deal to get through this year. Back in July, not so bad. Then I fractured my butt, adding insult. In between I had my shoulder repaired. I would have done the shoulder repair irrespective, and it’s not subtracting from recovery.

Recovering from a shattered fibula hampered by a fractured butt sucks, however. I’ve not fallen again, and that, truthfully,  really was a mighty fine somersault over my walker. It has hampered my walking gait, though, and like any kind of advance, motion is required. It’s like needing to keep the car at thirty or above in slush in order to keep traction. You must keep moving through it on foot, too. Anything less invites being frozen in fear, or falling.

I bought “prongs” for my other cane, and tried them out. They are great in theory, but too heavy to be practical. Then one day I eyed the expanse of not well salted ice between me and the car, and came back for the modified cane, too. One in each hand, like Nordic walking, but with canes, I advanced on the car and achieved it!

Shoulder recovery does require unanticipated pain to get through. The prognosis was no less mobility than I had on going into surgery and more, if I would work for it.  Using muscles that have been idle for two years is painful, initially. I grumbled about that, last Friday. “But you are so far ahead of anything I expected!” from young Dr. Whippersnapper. I can reach behind my neck. I am another twenty degrees above lifting my arm to ninety degrees. I can reach behind my back.

Bend both arms, finger tips straight up, palms out, elbows pointing down. Now, extend each hand straight up, Hermione Granger correct answer style. At this point I can get my left fingertips to the top of my head, no further. I cannot recall the last time I raised my left arm, or for what reason. But that I cannot annoys me!

And in other news, advertising has captured me: Pleasure-Way Industries, Class B Motorhomes. I had one in the eighties, but not by this manufacturer. Mine was a Dodge Ram chassis. These folks build their camper on a Dodge Ram and on a Mercedes Benz. My family camped over much of the USA in mine. Mom used it last in her sixties.

I was thinking, what if I found one in my drive, one morning. I could drive it, of course. I could fill it with propane (if it needs propane). I don’t know about using a dump station; mine didn’t have that amenity. Could I afford it? Of course not. How did “they” know I’d click on that ad in a heartbeat?




40 comments:

  1. So happy that you see progress. And you always have such courage to get up and go. As for advertising, I sometimes get stuck on clothes and shoes and general fashion that I will never ever wear again, but it is fun to dream. đŸ¥°Linda@Wetcreek Blog

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  2. It's good to have goals...both physical and dreams.

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  3. You are making progress, Joanne. Just keep thinking about that camper. Sometimes dreams come true. We have to keep dreaming.

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  4. You're making good progress. That is certainly something to celebrate. I agree with the above comment. Concerning the camper, you never know you could win a lottery. You could become a beneficiary. Never stop dreaming ♥

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  5. Hooray for dreams. And dreamers.
    And progress.

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  6. Dr WhipperSnapper knows you are a trooper. You're probably his best patient!

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  7. Five months from now, winter will be over.

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  8. You are so tough and such an inspiration with all that determination! Go, Joanne!

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  9. Just be careful out there on the ice and snow! Glad to hear progress is being made!

    betty

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  10. Good progress..keep weaving on!!

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  11. You are such a brave and inspiring woman.

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  12. Good idea to use both canes to get across the ice. You're thinking of a motor home and camping? Yikes! Give me a stable home and my stacks of books and movies any day.

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  13. Hari Om
    Yes, as said, you are making progress - as am I - but we both have the "it should be better now" gene, right?!

    I too browse the camper vans. sigh... as to how 'they knew'. Well that's the cookies at work, Joanne. I mention it again in today's post over my way. It's kinda nice, but also freaky. YAM xx

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    1. We can go together. Lovely little thing, isn't it.

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    2. ...heheheh - well, then again... the reason the internet can use such algorithms is exactly because we do have our own internal patterning system... like a love a campervans! Yxx

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  14. Stay upright. Joanne. I don't know about your area, but here the canes that our health service issue are made from cabbage stalks which have been treated with something before being bent and dried out. I like that idea.

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    1. My bent wooden cane belonged to my great grandfather, Melvin Cox. I like that idea.

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  15. Just saw these about Welsh Weaving on FB and thought of you.
    https://www.facebook.com/BBCCymruWales/videos/2001491366578940/

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  16. I imagine you'll be tooling around in that camper sooner rather than later.

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  17. I would love to have one of those Mercedes campers. If I win the lottery, I will buy one for you, too. Promise! Take care.......

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  18. You are such an inspiration. I too am recovering from a tibia plateu fracture and it has been a humbling experience. The surgeon just told me it will be at least a year before I will be completely healed. You are making wonderful progress. Thank you for sharing it helps others I similiar circumstances.

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  19. I'm really excited for your movements. There was a celebration when I could reach around my back again. The problem with those vehicles is that they are narrow and very tall.

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    1. Yes, the original high profile. I drove one for 20 years, on the art circuit. My sister complains that I change lanes more slowly than anyone except her husband, a retired semi driver. Another high profile vehicle.

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  20. You have made amazing progress - all because you are a determined person. Therapy involves pain and not everyone is willing to push through it.

    Those campers drink up fuel like camels at the end of a cross-desert trek - but they are so cute and compact!

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  21. "feeling none of the trepidation" - good. Wishing you good traction for all of your travels.

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  22. Dear Joanne, today, after cleaning the kitchen counter, I put out one of the two red, woven towels you sent me three or four years ago. Those towels always lift my spirits.

    I want you to know that you and your attitude/philosophy toward life and its vicissitudes always lifts my spirits too. And I suspect all your readers feel the same. You have touched our lives with goodness. thank you for being the you you are! Peace.

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  23. I don't know how bad it gets in Ohio, but there is a product called Yaktrax. You slip them on over your shoes and they're like chains or studded snow tires. Go out to Amazon and search on "Yaktrax Walk Traction Cleats for Walking on Snow and Ice." Friends who have hiked down into the Grand Canyon through ice and snow swear by them.

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    1. I have ordered them from Amazon and they have not come yet, due to production issues. Amazon keeps asking me to cancel the order, but I won't because I want them.

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    2. REI has them on their website, for twice as much, but they might be in stock.

      https://www.rei.com/product/760280/yaktrax-walkers-traction-system

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  24. You are making progress, Joanne. Well done, in spite of the pain!

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  25. Jenny has always hankered after a campervan/motorhome but I've always resisted. I don't think we would have used it enough to make it worthwhile. And anyway I like my comfortable hotel rooms!

    Good to see your physical recovery is going well and "far ahead of anything I expected".

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  26. Just keep safe! And I'm sure you plan to! You are so determined you will be back 100% soon...

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  27. I swear I feel like an old automobile needing spares and lubes and body work. Then I read what you are up to and I gasp! WOW, I say, that woman is the strongest person on the planet today. You be YOU so well!!

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  28. Rather a long time ago, when we camped all over Europe, we used one of those tents made out of two ex-army ponchos that invariably leaked . Now I'd only leave the house if I had a weatherproof van like this. I don't do rain down the back of my neck at midnight anymore.

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