After talking with a few friends over video and having my first passive PT session late yesterday, today’s goal was to completely rest with nothing on the agenda. No video chats with friends. No appointments. 

Planning today as a rest day worked perfectly because I had a terrible night of sleep last night. It was a great trio of Darren being a terror, Sasha deciding to be a loud sleeper and an issue with my hand falling asleep several times. I’ll explain more about that in an article that I’ll publish tomorrow about overcoming helplessness.

Right before dinner my grandmother called to check in on us. It’s been really sweet of my grandparents, calling every day or every other day to check in. Actually, my grandmother and grandfather have been rotating days of calling so that they each get some dedicated time to talk. 

I have always been close with my grandparents. When I was growing up I would spend two weeks with them during the summer. As an adult I would often call them weekly while living on the East coast. But since moving out to the Bay Area we’ve been talking once every few weeks. 

I know that they’re worried so it is nice to talk to them, even for a few minutes, at least every other day.

Thanks to my team at work, we were able to try Munchery.com for the first time tonight. I had never heard of it before my team sent us the information. It’s a cool service that uses local chefs to create daily menus. You select the meal that you want, just like at a restaurant, and they deliver it to your home with heating instructions. The food was fantastic, saving Laura and her mom a night of cooking.

Laura's mom surprised me with a chocolate pudding pie with a graham cracker crust - one of my favorite desserts. Hey, if I have to be laid up, not able to workout for a while, I mind as well enjoy a few extra desserts from time to time.

With the NFL season starting again tonight, Fantasy Football also kicked off - two things that will take my mind off of everything going on, at least on the weekends. It’s a fun league that I’m in with friends including Scott Stratten, Alison Kramer, Matt Ridings, John Morgan, Peter Knox and more.

As we were eating dinner tonight my ortho surgeon’s assistant called us to check in which was a nice surprise. We had just talked with them two days ago when I had to call in for a question. We weren’t expecting to talk with them again until Monday when I hopefully get approval to remove the bumpers that are on my slings. Removing the bumpers will be more comfortable for me so fingers crossed that on Monday we can take that next step.

Tomorrow morning I have another PT session. While last night’s session was painful, it made this morning’s pendulum swings much looser. Unfortunately that didn’t carry over into tonight’s pendulum swings which were difficult, as they have been since I had to start doing them. However, I was happy that we've gone three days in a row with doing pendulum swings twice per day.

It’s been overwhelming the number of status updates or messages I have received where people have mentioned using our situation as motivation for not missing a workout or starting to get healthy. While this is a very difficult situation to go through, I’m happy that it is motivating others to lead increasingly healthier lives.

While there are many people going through very difficult situations in their lives, someone that remains in my thoughts is Dorothéa Bozicolona-Volpe. 

As a consultant she doesn’t have healthcare yet she is facing a very serious medical problem that is going to require more testing and surgery. 

Much like Christopher Penn did for me, there is a fund set up to help her get through this situation. Please take time to watch the video she filmed and if you can, try helping her out. She is a friend to many of us and she needs us.

As we get the pillows set up around me and I drift off to sleep, here’s hoping that tonight is a much more restful night than last night was.

Tomorrow I will publish an article on overcoming helplessness before it becomes something more serious such as depression. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and provide amazing feedback like you did earlier this week.

Thank you for the continued support. Goodnight, my friends.