On Sunday mornings in the summer I get up before the crack of dawn (usually around 4 am) to meet my Dad for an early morning bike ride. It’s great; we will do anywhere from 30 to 50 miles and it gives us some nice father/daughter time while burning a whole lotta calories. This past Sunday I had a bit of an oops moment: I took a turn too fast and ended up wiping out…landing hard on my shoulder which landed me in the E.R.
The good news: I didn’t crack my collar bone, the bad news: I suffered an acromioclavicular sprain (a separated shoulder). Yes, it’s pretty darn painful. Beyond the pain though, is the irritation at all the things this injury is going to keep me from doing for the next 2 – 6 weeks.
1. No more Sunday bike rides for awhile.
2. No more Zumba classes for at least a month.
3. No more step classes, weight training, or pretty much anything else at the gym for a month or so.
4. Taking a shower and washing my mass of hair is torture.
5. My sand v-ball team will be down a player for several weeks (I tried to convince my husband I could play with just one hand…he disagreed).
6. My garage sale – planned for the 4th of July weekend – will be postponed….and all that stuff will have to sit in my garage and annoy me some more.
7. The money I spent on co-pays for the E.R. visit and a follow-up with a specialist could have been spent on something a lot more fun.
8. I can’t drive long distances – which means I’m missing out on some stuff I had been looking forward to going to.
9. Why do people wax rhapsodic about pain meds? The stuff makes me feel nauseous and gave me a headache.
10. Laundry, dishes, and many other chores have become more than just tedious; now they are literally a pain.
I know, it could have been much worse and I could be looking at months instead of weeks, but it’s still incredibly frustrating…the summer is short enough as it is! So, in the interest of looking for the “sunny” side of this situation…let’s return to my list:
1. I can spend my usual Sunday morning riding time on Sunday morning writing. Maybe I will finish this novel before summer is over after all.
2. I am really going to miss Zumba – but instead, I can schedule activities with the girls I might have skipped so I could make it to my favorite class.
3. No time in the gym for a month? This will force me to really buckle down and focus on diet, and after all, research has shown weight loss is about 70% diet and 30% exercise…now I can work on proving that theory.
4. So now I have an excuse to take really long showers…and I can beg my husband to comb my wet hair for me, which I love anyway.
5. This one really bums me out – I look forward to my weekly sand v-ball games so much. But I’ll go and sit on the side-lines and cheer and if we lose I can say it’s all because I couldn’t play 😉
6. While I would like to have this garage sale out of the way, a few more weeks will give me some more time to collect stuff we really don’t need…and de-clutter even more.
7. There’s really not much I can do about this one – at least I have insurance and only have to sweat the co-pays.
8. So I’ll save on gas money and while I don’t like missing out on things I planned to do – it leaves me with more time at home. Last night when I should have been at a writer’s meeting I was on the couch with my girls, watching Phineas and Ferb on Netflix. This is something I rarely do, and it made my girls happy just to chill out next to me. In the end, time well spent. (And now I know what my 3 year old is referring to when she shouts, “Candace Party!”)
9. Part of my problem was taking those meds on an empty stomach…so I saved them for bedtime instead. Aside from some VERY odd dreams last night, I didn’t suffer the other stuff – and on the plus side, I don’t need to worry about developing an addiction to these things – I have no desire to take them.
10. Since I can’t do most of my usual mama chores, the husband has been pitching in more. It’s kind of sexy to watch your man scrubbing dishes and carrying loads of laundry. Which leads me to another issue I didn’t mention, though I suppose it won’t be too much of a problem, it just calls for some creativity.
And with that bit of TMI, I will leave you for the day. I have some injury-enforced lounging around to do.
Melonie Johnson 