Day 67: Putting on a Belt Myself for the First Time

While I slept well overnight, getting around 6.5 hours of sleep, I did wake up a couple of times throughout the night. 

I woke up to use the restroom around 1:00a and then, due to heavy rain starting, was not able to fall back asleep for 45 minutes or so. Once I was able to fall asleep I woke up again after a few minutes for another 20 minutes.

Thankfully I was not tired when I woke up this morning probably since, even though I was awake throughout the night, I was still resting with my eyes closed.

This morning was another milestone in my recovery: I was able to put a belt on by myself without assistance. Again, one of those actions that sounds simple but it has been my nemesis for the last few weeks.

I started my morning with a meeting before heading to physical therapy. Due to the rain I decided not to walk over today.

During physical therapy we continued to work on improving the mobility in my shoulders as well as rebuilding muscle in my biceps and triceps. 

My physical therapist wants me to start working on external elbow rotation at home since I’m still having significant tightness during those stretches.

It was nice to spend time catching up with a couple more team members today. It will take another week to get fully brought up to speed but after today I have a broad idea on where we are and where I need to jump back in.

Though today was only the second day back to work, one of the hard things that I’m dealing with is only being able to get between 30 minutes to 2 hours of actual work done per day due to meetings. 

While I have always prided myself on the ability to prioritize, the next few weeks before going back to full-time will be interesting.

Tonight Laura made homemade chicken, kale and cannelloni bean soup using the stock that she made last night. It was delicious and warming on another chilly night in the Bay Area.

I talked with Laura’s mom and my grandparents tonight. I had only texted and emailed my mother-in-law a couple of times since she went back to CT so it was nice to spend a few minutes catching up with her.

I can tell my grandparents are eager to come out to see us. It has been about a year since we last saw them. They also have never been out here since we moved here 3.5 years ago. It will be nice to enjoy a few meals and sharing stories with them while they are here.

After making those callbacks we spent the rest of tonight just relaxing watching the Giants jump out to a 3-1 lead on the Cardinals in the NLCS. 

As the night has set in my shoulders are getting increasingly sore from today’s physical therapy session. I’m hoping that my pre-bed protein shake and a good night of sleep will help me recover before tomorrow’s workout session.