home for a rest

and it's snowing!! YAY snow!

I'll have to enjoy it from inside this winter, no making snowmen in my pjs on Christmas morning this year.

My Mom, who had so kindly come to Vancouver to make life easier for both me and Alex, packed up my stuff and my walker and bundled me off to the airport a week earlier than planned. We had all discussed what the next move in the heal-Shannon's-back adventure would be and decided it would be easier for everyone to move me to k-town with my family.

This way Alex doesn't have to organize for more time off work or for friends and family to babysit me while he worked. My Mom doesn't have to worry that maybe one day Alex would go to work and for whatever reason the day's sitter wouldn't make it on time. And we have been able spread the babysitting, night time pill giving and other business out among the various members of my family which has given my Mom a bit of a break during the day and completely relieved Alex of his night time duties. Me, well, my main concern is that my back starts healing so that I can start doing things on my own again.

Improvement has been slow, but steady. I still need the walker to get around most of the time and the wheelchair to get around for long periods of time or where there are lots of people and a risk of being accidentally bumped or jostled. Without going into too much detail, I am now able to use the bathroom alone and have begun the process of mastering the special seat for the shower. Everything happens at a much slower pace than I'm used to but we're all noticing things are getting quicker.

The first day I was home from the hospital, it took Alex two hours to get me from the bed, to the bathroom and then dressed and settled into the chair that was my constant companion in Vancouver. The day I left Vancouver, I still needed assistance, but it only took us twenty minutes. Progress! The set up here is slightly different and I've hit one of the fabled healing plateaus where not much visible progress is happening, but I know I'm healing. The biggest clue is that I've been able to sleep through the night a few times!

Friday is the next doctor's appointment - he will reassess my progress and maybe give a narrower idea of when I might be able to return to work. Right now it's six weeks to six months from the time of the injury. We're getting close to three weeks since the fall, so maybe I'm half way there?

The super-duper pain killers have had a bit of a numbing effect on my brain, although I'm down to half the dose that I was taking when I first came home from the hospital. I have acquired a few new quirks...like I needed any more of those! I have be caught wandering around the house with Post-It notes stuck to my shirt...usually with an address or phone number on them. Because of the walker, it's hard to carry things from place to place, so I'd make trips to the computer for addresses (I think this is the first time ever I've sent ALL of my Christmas cards BEFORE Christmas) and the phone book for phone numbers and then back to my trusty chair to address an envelope or make a phone call. Sometimes, and I'm blaming the super-duper pain killers, I'd forget about the notes and wander around for the better part of the day wearing them.

My lovely sister has nicknamed me Granny-Shanny, I think due to my slipper wearing and chair sitting with a walker in front of me, wrapped in a blanket, prune juice beside me, knitting while watching game shows....even I feel like I'm 80+ years old. I *love* the new diet I'm on until I'm done the super-duper pain killers and their somewhat unpleasant side effects (like babbling on and on and on and bad short term memory and forgetting things and babbling on and on and on...ooops...I already said that).

I can't believe how fortunate I am - partly for not doing more damage to myself but mostly for all the wonderful people who came to visit, offered to spend time with me, made us food and generally were wonderful in their support! The last few weeks would have been brutal without all of them!

Now that I've rambled, rambled, rambled...well, that's all...

oh, and it's still snowing!