Monday, January 16, 2012

Counting Down the Minutes



Five weeks. Five weeks since surgery. Five weeks in a sling. Five weeks of sleeping on one shoulder, closing my vacant jacket sleeve in the car door, holding my camera with one hand, not being able to pick up my cat or able to cut my food. I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm at my wits end. My next appointment is next Monday and it can't come a moment too soon. I'm counting down the minutes.

The Velcro on my sling has lost it's adhesive characteristics so it pops free whenever I take a deep breath or twist. It's infuriating. I know I'm not supposed to but I have been taking the sling off at home to keep my sanity. I totally understand why they want me to keep it one though. While it was off, something slid off a stack of boxes and out of reflex and flinched to catch it. It hurt a lot.

Having the sling does have it's advantages though. I went to Florida last week and was able to get on the plane during the pre board process for those needing more time boarding. On one of the flight, I was assigned a window seat next to two other seats occupied by two elderly people who boarded a few minutes before me in wheel chairs. They were not able to get up to let me in, so I had to shimmy past them to get to my seat. The challenge was that I was only able to grab the overhead for leverage with one arm. I felt like a monkey swinging from a branch, trying not to spin around while I was leaping past them. I flopped in to my seat like a ton of bricks as I launched myself the last 6 inches over the mans knee hoping I didn't misjudge my approach and take the poor guy out in the process.

While I was in Florida, I went out with a buddy of mine on a flats boat on the Indian River. I didn't fish much because of the sling, but I did toss the line out a few times. I caught a Sea Trout on one of the casts and reeled it in on my own. It must have looked ridiculous trying to reel in a fish with my an arm that can only go five inches from my body from the elbow down. I feel like I have a little T-Rex arm or like I have a lucky fin like Nemo. It's a good thing I didn't fall out of the boat. I would have just swam in circles for hours.





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