I haven’t had much time to do any writing this month. June 30th started me on month-long roll of running to various doctor appointments, with a dental appointment in the morning and an MRI of my shoulder in the afternoon. And I never would’ve believed that anything could be worse than the dentist – but the MRI was excruciatingly painful, just because of my shoulder being so painful and the difficulty keeping still in one position for periods of time. It was rather brutal.
Then on July 1st, I was scheduled for an eye exam, but got a phone call in the morning informing me that the MRI didn’t turn out well and I needed to come back in and do it over! I ended up having to reschedule with the eye doctor because this time I wanted to take plenty of pain meds and a muscle relaxer before subjecting myself to the MRI again and there’s a question about whether the medications might interfere with my vision. And I am glad that I did that because again, despite the meds, it was still brutally painful. This time though they were able to get clear results.
On July 9th I learned that the prognosis was likely rotator cuff tendinitis. And I decided that the best treatment might be a steroid injection, so the following week I made myself an appointment to go have that done.
Prior to that though, on July 11th, I had my eye doctor appointment. And (no surprise) I was prescribed bifocals. I’ve had perfect eyesight my whole life – until now. Oh well…
On July 15th I went in for my shoulder injection. At first, everything felt fine. THEN… the anesthetic wore off. And for the next 2 or 3 days I was in absolute AGONY. It was pretty awful. I could not go to work or do much of anything. But then it did begin to get better. A LOT BETTER.
Being unable to work, I found myself working on some things that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I decided to work on my “Oddbirds” project and did some more writing. I ended up getting a bit silly in the process. It was fun.
And I started another “Frog” picture. And got it all sketched out and put a watercolor wash over it. (I really should take a watercolor class! I’ve found this mentioned repeatedly in my journal.)
The first day after the injection, my sister was feeling sorry for me and she handed me a book of hers that she thought I might enjoy:
The Principals of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman.
So I read it and I did, indeed, enjoy it. An adult picture book; what a cool thing.
And then I started thinking about this poem I wrote years ago and I decided it might be fun to illustrate it. After reading it I decided it needs a little bit of revision, but I still like it and it might be a fun project; one for another time though – I have many more projects that I need to finish first!
I finished the Gorey puzzle that I began on July 4th – this was a really fun one. I don’t know why I like puzzles so much these days, but I do (if they are the right kind of puzzle at least).
So things have been bad and good. I watched the movie Ender’s Game on July 27th – it was good. Not quite as good as the book, but that isn’t surprising.
I have not done my walking in a couple of weeks now, but it’s hard to be motivated when there’s so much pain.
But my shoulder is beginning to be much, much better. And that makes a huge difference – with everything.
And finally, IT IS RAINING – IN JULY!!! Who ever heard of such a thing? (In Northern California that is.) Weirdness…