I'm a terrible patient, I know this. In the past doctors have gotten quite upset with me because they will tell me things that I have do to and tell me thing that I definitely am not supposed to do and then I leave the doctor's office and just do whatever I want to anyway. I don't believe that this is the smart thing to do, but it is the way that I operate.
The one thing I do often do exactly like the doctor's tell me to is taking the medication. I know that it is naive to think this, but I believe there is a "magic pill" solution to just about anything. Often though, they just won't give the pills to you because they also can have some rather serious side effects such as addiction. I've been down that road before, trust me. I'll talk about that some other time because it is important.
but for now I just want to talk about how I think it is a bit extreme when doctors tell you in a situation like my own with broken ribs and a broken shoulder, that you are just supposed to lie down and do nothing for 3 months.
I am not going to do that.
one of the things that is very important to my life is my local bowling crew that me and 3 other dudes established over 4 years ago called DUMBO. I have only ever missed one of these outings because I was out of the country visiting my family overseas. Then I planned me departure and arrival back in Vietnam so that I would miss as few of them as possible. The awards presentation ceremonies suffered in my absence and I found it kind of amusing how awful the other people in our group are at doing something I consider quite simple.
I never missed a week of attendance, but for the first couple of weeks after I had 4 broken bones on the left side of my body, it would have been ridiculous for me to have attempted to actually bowl. I sat out two weeks.
When I came back on the 3rd week, I could tell that it probably wasn't best for me to be doing this because it did hurt, but I made it through it. I actually ended up bowing one game at 140 which isn't great, but it also is pretty fantastic considering that I had a sling on and couldn't use 1/2 of my body.
The following week I ended up in a competition for a certain award and unsurprisingly, lost!
I also have been doing whatever exercise I can such as the walking on the beach that I have been talking about a bit lately.
I found myself being jealous of the people that were surfing but I briefly want to talk about how awful the surf is here. Look at that! There's barely any swell and it looks like a lake. Oh well, I guess I admire their dedication especially since there is a sign there that clearly says to not swim there. Good work, you rebels!
It's kind of funny to me that I never actually wanted to go surfing but now that my body is physically incapable of it, I feel drawn to it. Perhaps that is human nature. Don't worry though because as soon as I get the all clear from the doctor that I can now go and do these things, I probably wont. It's just because that I am not supposed to that I want to, that is just the way that I am.
Another thing that I did that was probably really stupid was I went up to the gym during the 1 hour a week the cleaners are in my apartment and I had a go at lifting some weights. Including with the arm where the bone in my shoulder has not yet fully healed. I could tell right away that this was not a very intelligent thing to do but I am more of a "let's try it out and see" sort of person. It wasn't painful per se, but it was uncomfortable and my body was definitely telling me "hey! Stop doing that!" so I listened.
Doing a bench press is something that I was always kind of proud of being able to do a lot of so I loaded up the stacks with something that a 10 year old girl could probably easily do and whelp, I can't! I suppose we should hold off a bit longer because it has only been around 5 weeks and I have been told that full recovery can take 3 months or more. I often will attribute myself with super-human qualities that I don't actually possess.
I listen to doctors to a certain degree but for the most part I just let my own body tell me what the score is. I reckon I can do certain things, but it might just not be a great idea.
I do think that doctors will often tell patients the most conservative plan of action imagineable because I am not super-wealthy and therefore they don't exactly cater every aspect of my life specifically to me whereas if I was rich, or some sort of professional athlete, they would likely look more specifically into what is appropriate for me. This is why I don't really trust doctor advice. There is no such thing as a universal cure to everyone and therefore I think they tell you to do things that are much more safe than you actually need to do.
For me, I think the plan of action is to just not be on pain killers and then listen to my body. If I am doing something and it hurts. stop. Simple right?
In the meantime I think that Nadi is still very much enjoying having me around the house so much and she is never more than a few meters away from where I am. If I am in the bedroom, she wants to be in the bedroom, if I am in the living room or kitchen, she follows me there, if I go to the office... well, there she is. She even tries to follow me into the bathroom to make sure that I haven't devised some sort of escape hatch in there to leave her on her own. The mind of a loving doggo is truly a wonderful thing.
So I am hoping that in another week things will start to be normal for me again even though that is only half the amount of time the doc has suggested it would take. This next Monday when I go in for x-rays is going to be the last time I actually go to a hospital for this because it is starting to feel like a waste of money. Every week they just tell me something along the lines of "yeah it is healing like it is supposed to, just keep doing what you have been doing."
I'm off all medication other than a calcium supplement and ibuprofen when I feel like i need it, so I guess that is a good thing.