Still in stitches

The surgeon gave me the OK to have my stitches removed today, but so far I’ve resisted every urge to do it myself. It can’t be that hard, but there are three sets and I can only reach two, so I am trying to hold out to let the nurses at work do it. Removing two of the three really does me no good overall.

I still have a couple hours til bedtime, and it’s really, really tempting, but I’m trying.

Tomorrow I need to make an appointment with the health unit for them to do it. Too bad Wendy’s not here.

Yesterday, I successfully pitched the Singapore sling while using the elliptical, although I am not putting that hand on the moving handlebar thing just yet. I also picked up the 1-kilo weights. I really don’t want to have to go to a physical therapist again and pay $200 a visit for someone to hurt me and watch me lift weights, so I’m trying to push it myself.

Today, I added swimming, but not the regular stroke, more like a dog paddle. I have such a nice pool here and I hate to not use it. I was on the elliptical for an hour plus and the pool was empty the whole time. I finished, did some weights, went up, changed clothes and when I came down it was still empty. I wasn’t in there for more than 20 minutes, but it was all mine and so peaceful.

I'm trying to expand my range of motion. I still can't do some movements and I have no idea how long it takes for them to come back, or how much I have to push. I still wake up cursing (as opposed to screaming) in pain. For some reason, when it hurts like hell, it feels better when I sit up straight.

This has been a blissfully boring weekend. I went outside once, which is good because it’s been drizzling all weekend. That’s a vast improvement over last week, which warmed up after the first snow since 1929 but was wet as all get-out.

I did have plans today to meet some Australians, but I guess I got forgotten and relied on the fallback, which was visiting with some colleagues in the building. Other than that, the most productivity I’ve had is being patient enough to finish streaming “Still Alice” with less-than speedy internet. I’ve also watched Lethal Weapons 1-3. I started “Lonesome Dove” again but then realized I still haven’t watched “Band of Brothers,” which someone gave me in August. It’s been sitting on my coffee table since.

It’s been a fabulous weekend.

Next weekend is Chinese New Year, which, considering my last few weeks, almost completely slipped my mind. I have a flight to Miri, Malaysia (my fifth trip to the country) and then will take a bus the next afternoon to Brunei, which is the only country that’s not a tiny island country and lies in south, east, or SE Asia that I haven’t visited. (I toured the DMZ, so I count that as North Korea.) I have no idea what to do there. There’s supposed to be good shipwreck diving, but I am not cleared to do that. Honestly, that’s not enough to stop me, but I don’t think I could pull on the scuba suit so I won’t even try.

I counted. Brunei will be country No. 47 for me. So far, I have no plans for Presidents’ Day, but I do plan one more getaway while I am here – the other side of Australia. I’m planning on spending my birthday in Perth.

And it’s looking like that’s going to be the only relaxing time I will have in March. A lot of people mail it in during their last few months, but that’s not going to happen to me.

So far, I have two big days for which I am a key planner, plus at least two outreach events. No, wait, I forgot one. At least three. I also am in line to hold one training, attend two more and on Friday I *finally* got access to a warehouse I thought was a rumor. It’s full of a bunch of useable stuff, plus a lot of outdated, partial and broken stuff, and by mid-March I’m supposed to sort through it all, inventory it, plus two other areas I didn’t know about, and develop some comprehensive tracking system.

All this, of course, is in addition to the normal workload, which is already extraordinary, plus the added spring workload, which is a bear. There’s also the “this is your last month” stuff you have to do, like packing up your apartment and all that.

I really hope that’s it.