Day 74: Cold Water Showers, Sound Sleep and Reflecting Back

Last night was the longest that I have slept (7.4 hours) in as long as I can remember. I typically hover in the 6.5-7.25 hour range when I’m getting a regular night of sleep.

Something I think has been helping the last few nights is taking a shower before bed. Pre-injuries I would take a shower when I woke up but not before bed. 

One of the reasons why I’m taking a shower before bed is to help induce sleep. Toward the end of my shower I have been spending a few minutes slowly making the water colder until I start to shiver. I can only spend a few seconds under the water at that point. 

I am going to test 2 things in the coming week(s) - not taking a cold shower tonight to see if it affects my sleep and continuing to increase my cold water stamina. I will expand upon this in an upcoming article reporting back on my adventures in sleep hacking.

Another morning started dealing with medical bills and other related paperwork. It seems to come in waves over the last month or so. I then had a couple of meetings before banging through a bit of work.

After getting through some work I walked over to physical therapy. On my way I listened to Mike Vardy chat with David Sparks about task management, habit tracking and other fun productivity topics. 

I asked my physical therapist to test the range of motion (ROM) in my right shoulder. When we tested my left shoulder on Monday it was at 125 degrees. My right shoulder had a ROM of 130 degrees. As expected, it is better than my left shoulder.

A couple of times today I was asked if I wondered why all of this happened to me and not someone else. Throughout this entire journey I have never wondered that. In fact, I have told several that if it was to happen to anyone in my family, that I am glad that it happened to me because I know I can take it without cracking. 

Also, I could never have gone through this without the support from Laura and my mother-in-law. There were times where they had to take care of every task for me - eating, drinking, showering, shaving and the list goes on.

I am proud of where we have come in a relatively short period of time while also acknowledging that we still have a long road ahead. Every PT session reminds me of that!

Tonight was a healthy leftovers night so that we could watch Game 2 of the World Series.

Hopefully you’ve had a great Wednesday!