Bad Wing

Back in October I reported trouble with my right arm and that dreadful fall. Since then especially, I have really been favoring it. The arm works fine (and without pain) when it is employed at chest level or below, but I cannot really raise it.

The small things you’d never think of are perhaps, the most taxing, like washing your hair. For months now I hold the shampoo bottle in my left, squeeze a dollop into my right. Put bottle down. Transfer shampoo to my left and lather one-handed. Kind of a pain but it doesn’t take much ingenuity and beats the alternative of being icky.

Every day I spend some time doing a homemade rehab, and have found that it is slowly getting better, I think. But this morning I reached a measurable little milestone: two-handed lather! Aah, felt good.

I’m on the mend!

Reloading

It has been a long time since I have posted anything meaningful on this blog. I often consider officially taking this blog down since I update it so infrequently. But I don’t because I don’t know when insights will hit me or new silver linings will become manifest.

I don’t know when, or if, a remission is pending, but it does seem that my condition, for better or worse, is destined to change very gradually. What that means in “blog-speak” is “boring.”

I mean, I do have stories of near falls, fun with sleeping pills, and how frightening bleachers can be without handrails, but none of these anecdotes have much redeeming value.

In my Sunday school teaching odyssey, I was so relieved following my December lesson. I was done! I had made it! I had completed the nearly impossible! They couldn’t continue to supplant Gospel Doctrine lessons and they wouldn’t seriously ask me to keep teaching. I learned a couple of weeks ago that, yeah, they can, and yeah, they will. So I taught again on January 3 and the worst part was the concern during preparation. I really dreaded teaching again. But I can’t ask for a release. It seems so spineless.

Two cool things stand out to me about last week’s lesson.

1. Although I don’t think it was my best lesson, parts of it were. Absolutely were. During preparation I had a distinct prompting to look something up, so I did, still kind of unsure how it would fit in the lesson. Then during the lesson a situation unfolded where that preparation was precisely the right thing to say at that moment and it was incredible. Hearts, including mine, were moved deeply.
2. I found that my voice does much better at 10:15 a.m. than at 2:15 p.m. Don’t get me wrong; it is still borderline atrocious, but no mike and no slurring. On a scale of 1 – 100, it has improved from a 6 to a 9. Maybe. We’ll see on Feb 7.

Legal Ads

(this was posted originally a week ago but because it got some unwanted spam in the comments, I deleted it, added comment moderation, and I am re-posting it)

I was watching a football game with Ryan and a Legal ad came on and asked: “Did you take (drug X) before 1992 and now have (medical problem Y)? If so, you may be entitled to financial compensation.” I told him that I was waiting for the ad that says, “Did you eat a lot of Arby’s in 2003-04? The Rueben? Do you currently have M.S. with severe vocal strain? If so, call this toll free number; you may be entitled to financial compensation?”

Or “Do you love little chocolate donuts? Cream Soda? At Tommy’s, did you eat a lot those fiery hot yellow peppers to show of for the ladies and now walk unsteadily? Well, that wasn’t wise, we feel bad for you, and there has been no link proven, BUT if you want to just roll the dice and sue someone, call us.”