Studies have shown having a routine is important for most people, and most people fall into a routine. My routine has changed a couple of times this year already, from my 40+ hour a week grind with school, to the crazy hospital routine, to the rehab hospital routine, to what I am on currently which is home healthcare routine. Now that routine has been pretty crazy in general, with the housing considerations, but still most days have fallen into a sort of routine.
Most days I am up around 8am, sometimes earlier, the school routine dies a very slow death, and on school days I was normally up around 4:45am. Sometimes 4:30am or so is when I wake up with bad nerve pain or muscle spasms because that is when the medicine begins to wear off sometimes. Usually I am able to return to sleepy land, but not always.
Regardless of when I am up, I post my morning coffee, or brekkie in my stories, it’s just my thing. Mom is like “why do you post your coffee?” It’s an easy way to let people know I am alive everyday. Between that and the Wordle lets everyone know I’m up and about and doing okay. I probably spend too much time scrolling the social medias, doing the wordle, and in general waking up, but the combination of gabapentin and tizanidine often leave me foggy for awhile, but not taking them is not an option at this point because the muscle spasms and nerve pain are too intense without them. I can only hope that as I recover I will be able to dial those down, but some folks with spinal cord injuries are on those drugs permanently.
Then up until this week, since I am on the discharge train from home health, I’ve had in-home PT, OT and Nurse visits. PT started with twice a week, and the last two weeks I’ve only been once a week. OT was consistently once a week and the Nurse visit was once a week. The routine with these was pretty random, but generally concentrated on the middle of the week days of Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursdays.
On day’s I didn’t have therapy scheduled I’ve been making sure I’ve been doing my exercises and helping out around the house with dishes and laundry and the light cleaning/cooking I am able to do. Usually in the morning if we are home I watch The Price is Right while doing my tasks. Sometimes like earlier this week it involves reorganizing my closet again. Trying to fit a walk-in closet into a 4 ft reach in closet is hard, and I don’t have a huge dresser.
Lunch is usually in the 12pm-1:30pm area, depending on whether Dad is working from home (Monday’s and Friday’s) or if Mom or Dad is taking our neighbor to work, and how Mom is feeling day to day. Sometimes we are coming back from an appointment, or we are out and about and have lunch out or bring lunch back with us. Mom usually watches Days of Our Lives if we are home, and I either watch and make funny commentary of the Devil storyline (yes, they are on that again) or I head over to my room and take care of business.
The business of recovery is long and vast. I have not had any insurance battles yet (and fingers crossed I don’t), but as I have mentioned the wheelchair bit is a stubborn bit of business. I also will soon be transitioning to outpatient therapy, and getting those appointments scheduled will be tricky. I cannot wait until I am cleared to drive again, though the gas prices do give me a bit of pause. I also keep myself busy with this blog, keeping up with the school lessons a little bit, writing my articles for SBO Magazine and BPO Librarian stuff.
My OT in particular has suggested I try to take a siesta every day, and while it doesn’t always work out that way, I do take one 2-3 times a week as the schedule allows. 3pm-5pm is high siesta time around here, with both Mom and myself usually taking one during this time. Sometimes I don’t and I pass the time with either reading, knitting or taking lots of pictures of cats.
I do try to cook dinner 2-3 times a week, but finding things that I like/want/need to eat vs. what they like/want/need to eat is sometimes hard. We fall into a too familiar routine of meals that we all like enough, but I am so ready for grilling season and the options that brings. I have also convinced my Mom to grow a couple of cherry tomato plants in the garden this year. Dinner is usually 6-6:30. Then we all sit down and watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
Mom and Dad have very different tastes in TV than I do, and that is okay. I usually retreat to my room after Jeopardy, and watch what I like to watch. Sometimes I take my knitting in with me. Sometimes I play my switch lite (currently playing a lot of Pokemon Arceus and I love it!). Sometimes I blog, sometimes I watch various YouTube videos from WheelsNoHeels or Wheels2Walking both channels which offer lots of advice for me as a future wheelchair user, at least for time distance, and endurance. Check out their channels for some wheelchair user do’s and don’ts while interacting with me.
I do my best to be lights out about 11pm, but sometimes it’s later, and then then sun rises again. I don’t anticipate my routine changing all that much once I start outpatient PT/OT though I know that traveling to the Drake Center from Middletown is a bit of a hike, but they have all the wheelchair people there, and it’s honestly the best for me. The days are simultaneously dragging and flying by as things do in life.
More Later…
Bratschetech Baroque 