I suspect this will be the last time I post about this stuff, since I don't want this to become a blog about my ankles... (It's nominally a food blog, after all, so it should obviously be about bunnies and football instead...) Nonetheless, I just wanted to post an update on how things are going, now that I'm (somewhat) getting back to my routine. I say "somewhat" because my back is still recovering rather slowly. I own two of these patio chairs:
one of which is now in my den and is the chair I sit in whenever I'm home (and not in bed), and the other of which is now in my office at work to help me ease back into sitting in a normal chair all day. As is my nature, I've been tending to over-do it, but hopefully in a few weeks my back will be strong enough to at least sit at my desk all day like a normal person. Being back at work has given me a chance to better gauge how much my cyborg parts are going to be able to help me. I work in a building with many hallways, and the floors in all of these hallways are made out of evil.
The stimulator definitely helped in terms of dealing with the pain that comes from a typical work day, but on Friday night things started to come into focus, and it's become pretty clear that my cyborg parts really aren't going to let me do any more walking than the very limited amount I was able to do before. What they can do is let me live that almost entirely sedentary lifestyle without all of the accompanying pain. The thing is, the stimulator can mask my pain (when it's turned up high enough), but that's quite different from being able to get rid of my pain. Since my pain has always been a cumulative thing, this means that even if I don't feel any pain while, say, walking to get water at work, the damage is still being done. Then when the stimulator isn't turned up high enough (the signal varies with position, so I have to turn it down to lie down and sleep, then turn it back up to stand again), all of that pain I've been building up is still very much there. This sort of sucks, quite frankly, but the situation is still vastly better than what it was before surgery, so I'll take it. Luckily, nothing can ever seem too bad when you get to sit around watching Rico eat hay:
one of which is now in my den and is the chair I sit in whenever I'm home (and not in bed), and the other of which is now in my office at work to help me ease back into sitting in a normal chair all day. As is my nature, I've been tending to over-do it, but hopefully in a few weeks my back will be strong enough to at least sit at my desk all day like a normal person. Being back at work has given me a chance to better gauge how much my cyborg parts are going to be able to help me. I work in a building with many hallways, and the floors in all of these hallways are made out of evil.
The stimulator definitely helped in terms of dealing with the pain that comes from a typical work day, but on Friday night things started to come into focus, and it's become pretty clear that my cyborg parts really aren't going to let me do any more walking than the very limited amount I was able to do before. What they can do is let me live that almost entirely sedentary lifestyle without all of the accompanying pain. The thing is, the stimulator can mask my pain (when it's turned up high enough), but that's quite different from being able to get rid of my pain. Since my pain has always been a cumulative thing, this means that even if I don't feel any pain while, say, walking to get water at work, the damage is still being done. Then when the stimulator isn't turned up high enough (the signal varies with position, so I have to turn it down to lie down and sleep, then turn it back up to stand again), all of that pain I've been building up is still very much there. This sort of sucks, quite frankly, but the situation is still vastly better than what it was before surgery, so I'll take it. Luckily, nothing can ever seem too bad when you get to sit around watching Rico eat hay:
3 comments:
I'm not injured, but that hallway looks evil to me, too. Does blood trickle down the walls at midnight?
My two doggies are being pretty darned cute right now too. But I have to say, that they require walking, which the bunnies don't need to much of so they are perfect for you!
I'm glad the cyborg parts are working as well as they are for you. sorry they aren't making you bionic and able to leap off buildings and run up mountains!
looking forward to seeing you christmastime! hey, when you poke where they put your battery pack, can you feel it with your finger? just wondering...
@Max: I would actually get tackled by a security guard if I tried to bring a camera into the building, so that's a random internet hallway... but mine is approximately as evil-looking. =)
@Maggie: The bunnies really are perfect for a kid like me, and these two are pretty much the most awesome bunnies ever. I find Pedro to be almost unbearably adorable, but I think Rico is still my favorite, probably because we have similar personalities (both being smart, cranky, overly-hostile weirdos...).
And, yeah. You can totally feel the battery pack in my ass (well, technically "hip," but I find the word "hip" less amusing than "ass"...). It's surprisingly close to the surface. Sort of a trip... I'll show you in December. =)
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