Apology

When I came to rehab, I thought I would have loads of free time.  For a lot of people, that's probably the case.  I thought I would spend a few hours each day with the therapists, lifting weights and learning techniques, then I'd have hours and hours of complete boredom every evening.  I can honestly say that I don't think I have experienced a whole hour of real boredom since I've been here.

My average day starts off with a night where I am awoken every 2 hours by a nurse who wants to take my blood pressure, flip me on my side, push some pills in me, or take some pee.  I wake up for real around 8:00 AM when breakfast is delivered.  If I have a 9:00 therapy session that day, I have to wolf down breakfast and get help getting dressed and into my wheel chair.  If not, then Andrew will make me struggle with my own socks or shorts or make me do one of the many stretches or exercises that I hate but benefit from tremendously.

Once therapy starts, I don't usually get many breaks until it's over between 2:00 and 4:00 PM depending on the day.  Dinner is at 5:00, and I use this time to call any businesses that might close after 5:00.  For instance, I would call about any hospital bills I don't understand.  I might also use this time to look at apartment information that my friends have gathered, or complete tasks assigned to me by Caitlin, my Director of Estate Affairs who is organizing the effort to sell my house.

After dinner, the bowel program lasts another hour until 7:00 PM.  Sometimes I have evening guests starting around this time, in which case, my evening is shot until 10:00 PM.  If I don't have guests, there's always more paperwork, phone calls/texts/emails from friends to answer, and of course the blog.  I love my blog, and I appreciate each and every one of my readers (of which I believe there are around 50!), but some nights, I just want to button up at 9:00, and go to sleep.  A blog post like this one takes 4 to 5 hours to plan and write.  It's difficult not to make it feel rushed or sloppy.

A fairly normal evening

But I can't let it feel rushed or sloppy because this blog is my way of thanking all the people who have kept me going in here.  I know how lucky I am to have all these people on the outside thinking about me, and working for me.  The least I can do is put in the effort to let them know how I'm doing.

I write all this to beg your understanding on the days when I have to keep it short.  I don't like to do it, but it's just hard to find the time to write about everything I want.  I have half a dozen ideas right now that I don't have time to write about yet.  I hope to get to them all one day and do them properly.



Today was long and hard, and now I'm tired.  I felt good today, and I did my best in rehab, but it's getting more physical.  They are starting to concentrate more on strength and endurance which they think is the main thing holding me back from some of the ADLs (Activities of Daily Life) that I still can't do.

I also spent a lot of time today filling out an application for the apartment I hope to move into when I get out of here.  It's been a long time since I've done one of these, and I had forgotten how invasive they are.  I think the only thing they didn't ask me for was my underwear size.