Wintering Over

I just brought my scrawny, little stevia plant into the house for the winter. This was the neglected plant, the little sibling to a larger version of the same herb. Stevia is a plant that wants to be outdoors in the warm sunshine in warmer temperate and sub-tropical regions. Here, I'm just hoping to keep it alive all year. At the first sign of sub-freezing weather, I brought it into my garage. The poor little plant was not happy. It's cold and dark in the garage.  It's the place I bring some of my plants to wait out the winter while they cling to life. By bringing it into the house, I'm hoping I'm giving it a better chance at survival. I can give it more light, both natural and artificial.  I can keep it's soil moist. I can give it what it needs to grow and thrive again in the spring.

 

As I look at this little plant, I'm reminded of the past year. There have been seasons of struggle and seasons of bloom for me. I'm trying to find the time to remember to nourish myself physically, mentally and spiritually so I'll have the strength to flourish and bloom in season.

 

Maybe that's what wintering over is all about. Shorter days and longer evenings tend to force a slower pace of life. It's a time for plants and people to rest and regroup.  It's a good time to reassess priorities and revamp plans. We're approaching the holiday season with Thanksgiving Day this week. Perhaps, taking time to start with a reflection on the blessings of this year will help to put all the rest in proper perspective.

Seeds of Discouragement

I'd promised myself that I wouldn't pay any attention to my doctor saying I might never get my flexibility back and that I might always need help of some sort in tying my shoe or putting on socks. I told myself I could just put that thought out of my mind and wait to see what happened. I was wrong.

That little negative thought has been swimming in the back of my head all week. Although I've worked to ignore it and laugh off the early warning of possibly impending limitations, it was still there. It left me feeling like, maybe, I wasn't really progressing. Maybe, it was all in my imagination.  Maybe, pushing myself to stretch until it hurt a bit was wasted effort.

I've tested the reality so there's no question. Four weeks ago, I could walk about a half mile in 25 minutes.  This week I was consistently walking 1.5 miles in 30 minutes and I've stopped using the hiking pole for reassurance. Four weeks ago I could not reach my left foot at all. Now, If I work it just right, I can get a sock on without using my assistance device. I can't always do it but I can some of the time.  Four weeks ago I couldn't sit on a 18 inch tall stool and raise myself up with just my left leg. I could do it at 20 inches, but not 18. I can do that today.  Four weeks ago, I couldn't step up with my left leg onto the top of a 12 inch tall step.  Today I can step up on a 14 inch tall step.

My progress may be in fractions of an inch but it IS progress. A quarter of an inch gained this week, a couple of degrees more bend over the next week or two. That's all I ask. It is progress, even if it's slow progress. I know there will be times when I don't seem to be getting better. I will not let someone stop me from trying.

The power of a negative suggestion, a criticism, or a negative thought are amazing. Keep it positive because the negative will do nothing but hold you back and tear you down.

Status Report

Tomorrow will mark the 84th day since my hip replacement surgery. Things seem to be going very well. I've not been quite as good as I intended at doing the daily physical therapy exercises as I originally planned. It's easy to forget to do that.

 

I had my 12 week follow-up appointment with the surgeon today.  He was pleased with my progress. He said the bone grafts he did are healing well. The prosthesis appears to be well seated and bonding to my bone. I did manage to leave him stammering with one question. I wanted a concrete idea of what the outer limits of my recovery might be.  I showed him a picture of a climbing wall at our local Boy Scout Camp and asked if there was any reason I might not be able to eventually climb it. He was shocked by my question. It seems no one has ever asked him that.  He was kind but he really advised against the climbing wall. O.k. I'll find something with less risk of twisting limbs into odd positions while bearing your weight precariously on randomly placed knobs.  The list of things I can do is still much longer than the list of things I can't or shouldn't do.

I'm finding ways to work exercise in that is specifically designed to help strengthen my hip and increase my flexibility. I keep the list of physical therapy exercises where I can see them. I try to do a few every day at some point in the day. I walk between 1 and 2 miles 3 or 4 days per week. That's done wonders for helping me regain a natural stride. I'd limped for 7 or 8 years.  I don't limp any more!  I'm also back to exercising at a gym 3 days per week.  Each week, almost each day I go, I get to try some movement or exercise that wasn't possible before.

 

My doctor indicated, and I agree, that continuing exercise and stretching are going to be important to my ongoing improvement.  I still need to work on further stretching and strengthening the muscles in my hip. It's possible that I may never regain the full range of motion.  I'm not going to think about that.  I don't want to limit myself while I'm still working toward maximum recovery. For now my focus is on making my best efforts a little better each time I try.

Stuck in a Rut

Sometimes I get a bright idea to do some quick little job by myself instead of asking for help. This past June I needed to pick up some wheat straw to mulch my garden. It was a simple task. It would give me a chance to see if I could use our manual transmission truck to run a longer errand.  I'd begun to have problems being able to use my left leg to depress the clutch enough to change gears. Holding the clutch in a stop lights was becoming very painful some days.

I climbed into the truck and scooted across town to the co-op for some bales of straw. I hadn't gotten far before I was sure a longer drive was out of the question. This was just going to have to be a quick errand. I got to the co-op and back without incident. I decided to drive through the yard to the garden to dump the bales out of the truck beside the garden.  I'd walked around to check to see if the ground was firm.  It had rained a few days earlier but everything seemed o.k.

 

Well, I didn't allow for the fact that the truck would have to pass further from the end of the house than I walked. Just a few feet over from where I walked, the ground was so soft that you sank in a bit as you walked. I didn't know that. You can imagine what might happen to a truck weighing a several thousand pounds. The truck bogged down 30 feet from the garden.  Nothing I could do would make it move forward or backward. It's a two-wheel drive truck so I couldn't get the extra traction I needed. I was well and thoroughly stuck.  Some days, you just have to walk away and not look back. Our truck sat there for a couple of days until a friend pulled the truck out of the rut with his Jeep. What can I say? The right tool made the job look easy.

I need a mental Jeep. I'm stuck in some sort of sticky, muddy, mental muck. There's plenty of things I need to do but few I'm really motivated to do right now. I need a tow rope and a tug to get me past this so I can get back to work.