the past few weeks

I had a request from a reader to write about how my arm has been doing for the past 3 weeks.  No, I am not making that up.  Someone did actually make that request.

I've been living my life.  Takin' it one day at a time, ya know?  Some days I forget that my arm is injured until I try to do something like push a drawer closed...then I remember real quick.  Some days I wake up and stretch and I feel like I am pulling a muscle in my forearm just by fully extending it. Some days I just stare at my emaciated arm, mesmerized with the fact that I can feel the outline of all my bones and cartilage. 

This splint has not been kind to my clothing.  Velcro does not agree with satin, cotton, cashmere, lycra, chiffon...or even polyester for that matter.  I have snags in just about everything I own now, with the exception of my jeans.  Now that I can actually fold and iron my clothes, they look like I've had them since the 6th grade. Mom- if you're reading...wanna send me some shopping money?  I can't bear to go outside with a snag in my nice new target wife-beater.  I would no longer be able to impress the jorts guys who lives in my building.  Just kidding- you really think I own a chiffon article of clothing?

The good news is that my range of motion is slowly coming back.  If I had to guess, I would say I'm at about 80% when it comes to bending my wrist around.  My arm hair is also lightening in some sections.  It's more of a gradual change to black now, rather than a legitimate LINE where it changes from blonde to black.

Aside from the stiffness and the appearance of my arm, I still constantly feel sorry for myself for not being able to do lots of things I like to do (or things I would like to TRY to do).  Why has everyone I know suddenly taken up a serious interest in bowling?  It seems to be EVERYONE'S first suggestion when deciding on something to do.  Are they trying to mess with me?  Maybe they know I can't come and are just trying to get rid of me.  That would be kinda mean.  Regardless, I would appreciate it if the word 'bowling' didn't come up in conversation for a while.

On Monday, I went for a nice run in Washington Park.  My old volleyball team plays on Mondays in the same park, so I stopped by to say hi and watch their game.  I probably shouldn't do that again until I can play.  It was pretty depressing.  They tried to make me feel better by telling me how cool my splint looks, but I'm pretty sure they were actually making fun of me.  Then they lost the game- so that made me laugh a little on the inside. 

Countdown to tentative full recovery: 65 days down, 19 to go.