Learning Patience While Healing
Oof! This has been abad year for me, health-wise. I had 2 stays in the hospital, one for 9 days inJuly, and the other for 7 days in September. Then I took a fall in a local mallparking lot at the end of October that resulted in 6 broken ribs. I’m lookingat 6 weeks while those heal.
Enough already! I amready to be well!
Of course, things don’twork like that. The body takes the time it needs to heal. And when the timecomes that your brain is ready to get back to doing things, but your body isn’tdone healing, guess which one wins the argument.
It wasn’t so bad when Iwas in the hospital. The first half of my stay, I was too sick to do much buteat when my meals arrived and sleep. When I did reach the point where I feltlike doing things, I never thought to have my hubby bring my laptop to mebecause I was sure I was going to be discharged any minute! And when it didn’thappen that day, I was sure it would happen the next, so I’d find somemind-numbing shows on the tv, and think about all I would do once I got home.
But cracked ribs are alittle different. You get to be at home; you just have to be careful not to aggravateyour damaged bones. And get plenty of rest. The ache of my ribs made me extratired. I found myself sleeping 9-10 hours at night and taking a nap in theafternoon. And maybe one in the morning. It left me little time to get anythingdone.
Each day, I would stareat my To Do List and cross off those things I did manage to do; take mymorning pills, check my blood sugar, check how my Amazon Ads are doing, openthe daily snail mail, brush my hair and teeth, take my evening pills… smallstuff that had to get done. And each day I would gather up all thethings I didn’t manage to do that day and shove them off until the next day.Things like write my family letter that usually gets sent out every 2ndmonth, write my weekly newsletter, write my weekly blog, format the nextmanuscript waiting to be published, ride my stationary bike for some exercise, andso on.
The first couple ofweeks after my fall, I had plenty of pain to remind me why I was sleeping somuch. “This isn’t forever,” I told myself, and so I wouldn’t beat myself upabout all that I wasn’t getting done. But as the pain subsided – and by now,it’s just a gentle ache in my ribs to remind me to take an afternoon nap – thenI find myself impatient to start doing all those things I’ve been putting off.To ignore the ache and keep working.
I could do that. Somedays I have done that. However, if I choose not to take a nap, then I am extratired extra early that evening, and I sleep even longer that night.
I have to learn to bepatient. It is no good beating myself up over my need for extra sleep. Thatjust makes me depressed, and I’m already fighting chronic depression, so Idon’t need any more of it. This won’t last forever. By mid-December, my ribswill be fully healed. That’s only a month away.
Thankfully, this pastweek has afforded me the opportunity to get some writing done; the familyletter, this week’s newsletter, this blog, and even a couple thousand words onmy current Work In Progress. Although that story has passed 10K words, so I’mnot sure it truly qualifies as a short story anymore, but we’ll see how long itgets. However, that time for writing is obtained by being away from our homefor the day, so I can’t get an afternoon nap. Here’s hoping that these daysgive me a little boost in stamina for getting through a day without a nap. Thatwould be nice.
In the meantime, I mustbe patient. Being impatient doesn’t get me anywhere.
