This past Sunday at church was one of three rather special choir-related events that happen over the course of the church year. It was Festival of Music Sunday. I participate in the adult choir and one of the bell choirs. This means I was singing and ringing in both services. Most times we do this, it involves climbing up into the choir loft, then coming back down, and going back up at least two or three times. This Sunday the service was organized in such a way that I started out on the floor, and only had to climb up into the loft toward the end of service, eliminating the need to climb up and down several times. Kind of nice for a change.
The piece we rang for the service was the introit, the opening piece for the service. I ring the next-to-largest bells we have. About halfway through ringing, I realized I was doing full, "around the football" rings. (For those unfamiliar with handbell ringing, the generally accepted technique is to ring the bell and arch it out away from the body, then back toward the body as if one was circumscribing a football.) This particular piece most of my notes were malleted rather than rung, but it was a pleasant surprise. It surprised me enough I nearly lost my place in the piece. And, most of my rung notes were in my left hand.
Since getting out of the sling, my rate of improvement has increased significantly. My physical therapist told me I should expect to be able to bring a cup of coffee to my mouth at about twelve weeks. We won't get into the fact that I don't drink coffee; it's immaterial. I'm at just past ten weeks, and I've been able to lift the proverbial cup of coffee for two or three weeks now.
Between services on Sunday, my roommate was commenting on just how much improvement I've made. She seems to feel my physical therapist highly underestimated my powers of recovery and sheer cussedness. I know every time she found out how much more I was doing, my physical therapist cringed, but there wasn't much she could say, considering I was making such huge progress. And, huge confession time, I've pretty much only been doing the physical therapy exercises while at the physical therapist's office. I just feel like I don't have the time for it. There's way too much else that needs doing around here for me to take an hour out of the day to do some exercises. I do wonder how much more improvement I would have made if I were doing the exercises regularly, or if just doing them twice a week is working better for me.
Having the massages every week has a great deal to do with my improvement. My physical therapist is very pleased that I am not only able but willing to pay the extra money to get the massages. I figure it's worth it. Good health and well-being is important to me. Having just put together my information for taxes and learning I spent over $3000 on assistants, I realize this is cheap. It won't be long before I can work utterly alone, especially now that I've got a smaller anvil. For the moment, I'm keeping my son with me to make sure things go smoothly until I'm sure I can handle things on my own.
Hoss has lately been more like his old self, giving me more of his usual obstinate and silly behavior. I didn't think much of it until I mentioned it to my husband. My husband promptly said, "Hoss must realize you're better now, so he can behave more like his usual self." Wow, that hadn't occurred to me. I knew when I first got back on that he was taking extra care with me, but it didn't dawn on me that going back to his usual behavior was indicative that he knew I'd improved enough to handle him. Now that it's been pointed out to me, I realize that must be exactly what's going on. Hoss realizes I'm better, and he's going to be himself now, thank you very much.
Last week I needed to get my son home so he could head out for a panel he'd been invited to participate in, but I still had a couple more horses to see. My husband was home, and at least he could set up the truck, so I had him come along. We went and did the one elderly horse trim, for which it was nice to have him along. He was able to hold up a hind foot for me so I could trim it. This horse has a really hard time holding her hind feet up. One of her hinds we've taught her to just tip over on her toe for me to trim it. With my husband to hold the feet for me, I was able to get the leverage I needed to get the trim done better than I can on my own. After that, we went on to shoe the last horse of the day.
I haven't taught my husband to pull and finish. He has nailed a shoe back on and finished it for me, while I watched. I don't think I've ever seen him so nervous. So I had him set the truck up, and I went ahead and pulled the shoes, trimmed the feet, made new shoes, nailed them on, and finished myself. Not so much as a twinge from my shoulder. My shoulder felt stronger than it has in a very long time. It was my back that started to give me problems! It will be a while before my back is truly back in "shoeing shape."
It's been weeks since I've taken so much as an Aleve for shoulder pain. Sure, the shoulder aches, but it's not painful. The ache is of the muscular variety, a result of using the shoulder more. The physical therapy exercises make me sore, but not painful.
I said to my physical therapist today that, if this was as much improvement as I'd get, I'd be satisfied. She said that was quite a powerful statement and was pleased. I am much, much farther along than expected. It was supposed to be a four to six month rehabilitation after the six weeks in the sling. I think I've shaved some serious time off of that. I think I'm pretty close to 90% of normal now, at least in terms of range of motion. The strength part will take longer, but the rapidity with which I'm regaining strength seems to have spiked. I can carry things farther without really noticing it. I've carried a fifty pound bag of dog food across the property from my truck, and a forty pound bag of chicken chow half that distance. I've carried both my old and new saddles back and forth from the trailer to clean them, even using my left arm to do the carrying exclusively. Interesting factoid: I weighed the new saddle and found it is three pounds lighter than the old one!
We're supposed to get rain the next couple of days. Oh, well. I suppose Hoss could use a little break for his feet to improve some more. I don't think he's nearly as sore as he was a few days ago. He's stepping out quite nicely on our morning walks. Again, I really think giving him grain is the culprit. Since I pulled it out of his feed, he's steadily improved.
As a result of watching rain move in, I decided I'd better get the pasture clean. I could have foisted the job off on my son. Indeed, later, he said he'd been planning to do it. Instead, I went ahead and did it myself. Not so much as a twinge in the shoulder. In fact, I was able to rake stuff together, something I hadn't been able to do before. I brushed Hoss out before I put his blanket on. Despite it being May, we've evidently been mistaken for Seattle, and the storm coming in is a rather cold one.
All I can say is, I'M BACK, BABY!!!
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