July 27, 2011

  • Move Beyond The Pain...And Find MORE Pain


    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    I was determined today to move *beyond the pain* in my feet and try to be more active.  All this lack of activity on my part during the healing process has sapped my endurance and made it difficult to stay upright for any real length of time.  I can feel my legs starting to give out on me and MUST sit down or risk falling down.  I've definitely been upright and on my feet more today than the past several days and I can tell you this much.......I AM IN AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF NEW PAINS NOW!

    It's really not funny but I now have muscle spasms in the muscles at the back of my thighs, for example.  That's entirely new.  My calves are tight and painful, too.  The Beast was laughing at the way I walk because he says it changes as I am moving around.  I can feel the difference so I imagine it has to look funny.  What I have been doing is trying to walk normally instead of walking a bit like a crab.  I started thinking back to the way some of my aunts used to walk and I thought it was just the way old ladies walked.  Now I know they were probably battling their own types of pain and just making the effort to do things normally.  It does make me glad that I wasn't the kind of kid that would blurt out what they were thinking like Chewlee does at times.  She was actually trying to give me lessons in how to walk and even how to walk FASTER.  It was so funny to see her taking little steps and then making them bigger and faster as she saidk *See, Grandma?  It's easy!  Just walk like I showed you!*  I was laughing so hard, she stopped and threw me that *mad face* look kids get when they know they are the butt of a joke but just don't understand what the  joke IS. 

    When the Princess dropped off Chewlee today, she asked Chewlee what she was going to eat for dinner and without a second of hesitation, she said, *Toast!*  That puzzled the Princess and I told her she had chicken noodle soup but she wanted toast with it.  That's all she remembers eating because it was different and a bit of a treat for her.  At least now Chewlee even eats the broth , too.  She used to just eat (and fish out) all the noodles and didn't want the rest of it.  She would give it to Baron who apparently likes chicken broth.  He will lap it up enthusiastically.  Now she finishes it all and loves to dip her toast in it.  She thinks that is so unique that she will tell me, *Look, Grandma.  It's really, really good this way.  You should do it, too.  Go get yourself some toast and I will share the juice with you.*

    We have a couple games we play together like *tickle ears*....not your normal, run-of-the-mill type game.  She gets so tickled and laughs so hard she gets the hiccups.  I will grab her and cover her face with kisses to make her get her hands away from her ears so I can tickle them.  How I love the way she laughs!  We play that until we both are tired and have to take a break.

    I am always exhausted by the time she leaves every night.  I usually just drop into my recliner, put my feet up and take a short nap.  By then, Bratfink is usually online again and we chat for a while, play our games on Pogo and check out the late news.  Bratfink is a Letterman fan and tries not to miss it.  Sometimes I join her, but I'm not a fanatic about it.  I miss Johnny Carson.  **Sigh** 

    Tonight Chewlee said something I have to pass along.  I asked her if she was ready to watch her Barbie movie and she said, *The one Aunt Bratfink bought for me?*  I said yes and she said, *Aww....she's so sweet!*  It sounded so natural and  sincere.  I thought it was a really nice thing she felt about Bratfink.  She wanted to call her so she could talk to her and was disappointed when I told her that Auntie Bratfink was taking a nap and we didn't want to wake her up.  So, she told me, *But we will do it another time when she is up so I can tell her thank you, okay?*  I told her that I tell her every time we watch all the movies she sent to her and that Auntie Ruth knows she really, really likes her movies.

    We actually had a heat index here today of 105 degrees.  I was shocked when I heard that on the news.  I knew we had hit a temperature of 97 degrees but the heat index isn't usually that much higher.  Our humidity is high since we have had 5 inches of rain here locally just in the past two weeks.  Oh well.  The heat goes on......

    Love you all.  Just trying to get better and move around more and more every day.  It's painful but I hope to eventually not increase the pain with the effort.  Other than that, pray for me.  I MUST get over this....and soon.