Though the exact phrasing may vary, it’s a question we all ask: “Did you have a good weekend?”
Immediately after my “op” no-one asked me, of course. But for the past 18 months or so, people have again been asking.
I have been offering a variation on “lovely, thanks” but the reality is that in my weird state of rehabilitation/recovery, all days seem the same; weekdays and weekends merge almost seamlessly.
During rehabilitation/recovery, routine is vital. So, I have developed a daily routine. And my daily routine is exactly the same whether it is Monday, Wednesday or Sunday. That is not to say I don’t do stuff at the weekends; I do, and have been for the past 18 months at least as much to try to feel “normal” as to meet friends, enjoy nice meals, etc. But the reality is I’ve had to force myself into a “weekend” frame of mind. The early part of my day, the getting out of bed; showering, getting dry and getting dressed (all a very Big Deal when impaired); going to my laptop to work, are done daily and in precisely the same order whether it is a weekday or the weekend.
Or were!
I am just beginning to notice a distinction emerging between weekdays and weekends.
This is good for me and my ever-patient husband but not quite so good for SoSensational, as I am beginning to want to carve out a bit more leisure time on Saturdays and Sundays.
Talking of weekends, meeting friends, eating, drinking and chatting – the simple, normal stuff, right?
Er, no. It turns out that eating and drinking and chatting/having conversation, is quite a skill and takes a lot of energy… Soon after my op, I could eat and drink but had no brain-space (or, TBH, energy) left over for conversation. When I did try dinner-table conversation, the thought or idea I had wanted to express invariably petered out long before it was articulated.
So when we all say (in my case, used to say), somewhat glibly, how wonderful the human brain is, these days I try to remember that it truly is wonderful; the “central processor” which permits all the functions that we all take (in my case, used to take) so much for granted.
Watching the adorable baby Annie, the first grandchild to have been born since I had my surgery, trying to grip and hold things, noting her lack of depth perception, it reminds me that I am a lot like a baby (albeit a somewhat overgrown one), learning, or perhaps re-learning, these skills and functions. We were all, of course, once without all of them but we have forgotten because we learned as babies to acquire them.
One of the skills I haven’t yet re-acquired is driving. So, for now at least, I work from home. That, of course, is the Joy of Techs – technology, which allows me to be part of SoSensational from my kitchen.
I have a running joke with husband about “going to the office”. This basically means moving from one side of the kitchen table to the other side, where my laptop sits. The second part of this running joke involves me “picking up a coffee” on the way to work. I literally pick up my coffee cup and move it.
I can’t drive a car yet, but my commute is trouble free…
Anyone else love their commute?
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