Thursday evening things

 * I guess I'm SLOWLY getting better. I can stand longer and walk longer, but I still have pain after a while. Usually sitting, especially if I can elevate my leg and put ice on it, helps. 

I'm hoping I can be largely stationary tomorrow (one class in which I give an exam) to rest up because I still do want to go to AT LEAST Quixotic Fibers on Saturday (and if I have the energy/lack of pain, maybe either Ulta or Michael's, and as a stretch goal, the Green Market). 

* I did a grocery pickup from Pruett's today. I ordered it yesterday when I was *really* hurting (had been on my feet a lot) and I'm glad I did even if it's $5 (to cover the cost of the extra employee time, which seems fair). I needed more butter and lemons, in addition to milk and some canned goods and a few other things. There's a potluck Sunday and it's supposed to be "Italian" theme, and I don't quite feel like making pasta (and I presume lots of folks will bring that), and I found an "Italian Lemon Cake" (just a simple, one layer round cake, no frosting - allegedly Italians don't care for it, so the site author claimed) and it sounded good and not too difficult, so I think I'll make that. 

* First birthday gift arrived; a box from Republic of Tea came. At first I wondered who it was from - my mother had sent me a box of small wrapped gifts and a check, and I thought, "Oh I wonder if my brother actually got me a gift on time this year?" but no, it was an extra gift from her

It's a sampler. There are some in there that look really good (some blueberry ones and a couple of hibiscus) and one or two I'll have to "rehome" (ones with chamomile, which I'm mildly allergic to). There are also green teas and black teas in with the herbals. 

* One of our good students (he is a McNair scholar) has been helping me a bit with lab set-ups, and he saw me today and asked, if I didn't mind, what the final diagnosis was, and I said the main issue right now was a bone bruise, and he said "ohhhhhh those suuuuuuuuuuck" so I presume he has experience with them. And yeah, they do suck. It'll probably be at least another month before I'm back to normal. 

I'm seriously considering for when I restart exercise, maybe trying to get a membership at one of the local gyms (the place I used to do PT does them, and it's a friendly enough place - more retired folks or people rehabbing after surgery than hardbodies or women who might look askance at a fatter woman there)  and start out just walking on a treadmill instead of trying to go back to the cross country skiier right away. I also might be able to pay for a little time with the PT guy there to be sure I'm going back to exercise safely. (And when the weather's good, I can always walk the sidewalks up at campus, though too many hard surfaces get uncomfortable after a while). The PT place also has rowing machines and a few other machines where I could get a more balanced workout. 

* This evening though I just relaxed and worked a bit more on the new socks. I did 20 rounds of ribbing, and at this point I'm 16 rounds into the four-round pattern:

* And here's hoping I sleep better tonight; I had some pain last night, probably from being on my feet too much and pushing myself to walk more. 

I guess I didn't ruin the Moon book ("Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are" by Rebecca Boyle) by reading it at doctor's appointments (including the one where the guy suggested the idea of mensicus surgery - which I might still get but I want to see how I feel by June, I want the bone bruise to heal first, some folks have told me that once they healed from other injuries they didn't need the surgery). Sometimes that happens, though - I come to relate something I did during an unpleasant time with that time, and then I can't enjoy it any more. 

But I AM glad to be done with doctor visits for a while; I have two afternoons during the week when I DON'T have lab, and I like those to work on things and also eat a proper lunch at home. I haven't been able to do that for the past couple weeks. 

* I also haven't drunk tea in quite a while; I don't like to drink it after 4 pm (I am caffeine sensitive enough it might bother me) and when I had to go to the doctor OR ESPECIALLY THE MRI I didn't want a large cup of a caffeinated beverage on board - because if you have to urinate while you're in the MRI, I guess you either try to hold it or you make them stop, and get you out, and then you have to start all over.

I'll get to have a cup tomorrow; Fridays I can eat lunch at home.

* Also I realized today how incredibly fortunate I probably was: yes, bone bruises suck as do meniscus tears BUT I also read (while trying to research if there were more home remedy type things I could do to speed healing of the bruise) that in rare cases, a hyperextension/twisting accident like I had can lead to a spiral fracture instead of a bone bruise. And you really don't want to websearch what a spiral fracture is. I did, and felt slightly sick to my stomach after reading it, and it seems not unlikely if I had had one, I'd have lost a year and a half of my life to surgery, and incapacitation, and then rehabbing. I don't know how I'd manage that; being in a cast for six months (not being able to drive, not being able to do anything). So I guess my guardian angel was watching out for me even if the bone bruise is really unpleasant.