It was six weeks ago that I had the first of two shoulder surgeries in a period of four days. The road has not been easy. I would never wish the pain that I have gone through on anyone else. But, I am thankful for so many other things that this ordeal has brought into perspective.

Since I didn’t notice any negative effects from only taking one pain pill every six hours, we kept up with that overnight. That meant that we only had to wake up once during the night instead of three times before.

I do not remember the last time I was only awoken once during the night. I have been woken up several times throughout the night for the last seven weeks.

Speaking of sleep, I published an article on sleep hacking today. It seems to be getting good mileage so take a peek at it if you’re interested in quick sleep hacks that you can try.

In an effort to spend more time with Laura, I went with her on three of the four walks with Sasha today instead of the usual two mid-day walks that I have gone on previously.

The one thing that sucks is not wearing my UP24 band consistently therefore I am not receiving ongoing reliable data. It is hard when the band is not on your wrist.

After Laura left, I started the morning by begrudgingly setting up an Ello account to test the waters. You can find me over here.

I took time to chat with my dear friend, Ann Handley. It made it even more special because this morning Ann found out that her new book, Everybody Writes, ranked on the Wall St. Journal's bestsellers list. Go Ann!

Today seemed to be the day of purchases. 

I purchased a pair of compression socks and an acupressure mat and pillow to try as part of my sleep hacking. 

I received approval from work to order a stand-up desk and gel mat. I have wanted to buy a stand-up desk for a while now but I did not know which one I wanted. Thanks to a recommendation from Teresa Basich I ordered a Varidesk Pro Plus.

I continued doing a bit of research into the vitamins that I want to begin incorporating. You would think that with my extensive vitamin and supplement knowledge that it would be a fairly simple task but when you’re creating a vitamin stack it actually becomes complicated. I locked in on the final list and took to VitaminShoppe.com to place my order. 

While doing a bit of research I realized that the Sleep Cycle app came out for Android over the Summer. I used it when I had my iPhone but hadn’t realized that they had pushed it out for Android.

I had a timing snafu with physical therapy so we came back home for a bit. When it came time to head back I walked there alone. It was something that I have wanted to try doing for a few weeks. 

With Laura having to run back and forth from work, I thought walking over today would work out well. It is approximately 1/4 mile each way to the physical therapist’s office. It felt good to get the walk in in addition to the two other walks with Sasha.

The physical therapist was impressed again with the mobility in my arms. As usual for the past few sessions, we started with dynamic stretching before hopping into the pool for aquatic therapy work.

Once I got back home I was warm wearing my zip-up hoodie. Like yesterday I had to shimmy it off and then I spent another couple of hours out of slings.

Next Tuesday I will hopefully receive the green light to transition to active physical therapy and lose my slings permanently. 

When everyone else was unboxing their new iPhones last Friday I had technology lust so ended up ordering a new Samsung Tablet S. It arrived this afternoon so I had fun setting that up for a bit.

I had received a Samsung tablet on Christmas from Laura. With the speed at which Samsung has pushed out new tablets throughout the year they have made huge strides.

Tonight I received the final lockups for the Built Unstoppable logo. Thank you SO much to Caroline Kelso Winegeart for the effort! The logo maintains its simplicity but adds uniqueness to it beyond simply being header text. I am very happy with the final result!

With this being our first Friday alone, Laura and I decided to have a pizza and movie date night at home. Since this ordeal began it is only the second time that we even had a movie night together. We decided to watch Neighbors which was hilarious. Exactly what we both needed after the craziness of these past several weeks.