Mentally Out of It

Physically, I'm doing great. The knee is right on target for it's recovery.  The incision looks good. I get a kick out of the random aches, pains, and prickles that my Bonesmart group assures me are all normal.  Just yesterday, I experienced some sharp prickles under the skin, which tells me some more nerves are reconnecting.  All the steri-strips are off. I'm walking pretty well. If I take the time to concentrate, I can do stairs "the right way." Most of the time, I don't, because it's tiring, but I try to do a few each day, and I can feel some strength returning.

I'm doing short duration housework tasks -- dishes, laundry, litter boxes, segments of outdoor work but nowhere near the whole task. No problems with personal care. I'm getting better about handing the drive to Temple and back. Well, I haven't actually made the drive yet, but I can do the ride in the front seat. I take my cane with me, and I use it when I'm out and about, but it's "just in case." I will have to make the drive on Thursday, because Mr. L will be in San Antonio for a week and a half.

My challenge comes with intellectual tasks. I can do light reading. I cannot pull together any writing work yet. Even blog posts are eluding me, and I usually find them pretty easy to put out there. I've been assured this is normal.

I fired up the Mac Mini earlier this week thinking I just needed to sit at a desk and try to get some work done, but it died almost immediately after I fired it up. I think it's the power supply, and that thing is so old, even the Apple Store didn't have a power supply for it when I took it in last year to get Lion loaded on it. So I whipped out my Armed Forces Communications-Electronics Association  discount (thanks to Valerie if she's reading for inadvertently reminding me I had this) access to the Apple Web Site and saved $315 on the Retina iMac. It should be here late in the week.

The scooter Mr. L thought I needed arrived this week, and it should do the job. I know Stephen is disappointed it doesn't have flames and a pirate flag, but I'm happy to have interchangeable red and blue panels. For the record, Drive Medical makes good quality equipment for a reasonable price. That's been my experience with the tub grab bar, the shower stool, and the scooter.

We're still getting lots of rain. I'm not thrilled about the flooding, but I know when the rain stops, the heat sets in and will not leave. I don't like that, so I'm not complaining about the rain. I haven't heard God's voice from the heavens telling me to build an ark, so I'm either one of the damned, or He isn't planning on drowning me yet. Either that, or I need to be paying closer attention to the thunder.

I never heard back on pain management strategies from my doctor's office, but I added one Aleve to my two bedtime Tylenol, and I've been fine. I even forgot to take my afternoon Tylenol one day this week (I don't recommend this yet).  Outpatient PT was underwhelming, but at least I'm comfortable that we're going to have compatible philosophies.

No progress on PBOTL, presumably because of the intellectual fog mentioned above.

The Week Ahead:

• Continue gradual physical improvement process
• See if I can find a way to gauge mental acuity improvement