a day in the life

Jeff, at the cottage on the weekend.
Yes, that's ice.


Today's entry is part of a collaboration for Wordgoddess. Assignment: "A day in the life."

Wasn't exactly sure what to do with this assignment because I haven't really had what I consider to be a "typical day" since I first experienced severe tendinitis a year ago. I have up and down days, a couple of setbacks, and what I do on each weekday depends heavily on the state of my arms. What follows is what I consider to be as close to "typical" as I can get these days.

But back to the assignment...

I wake up at 7:30 a.m. with a vague sort of headache which I figure is one of the side effects of the anti-inflammatories I have been taking for the past few weeks. I gingerly stretch out my right arm a bit; there is a twinge, but nothing major... looks like it's going to be an okay day in terms of pain as long as I'm not stupid. I tend to think of each day having a certain number of "arm points," a budget of potential activity before real pain sets in. As I heal, I get more points to work with. In the beginning, I didn't even have enough to hold a book (which majorly sucked).






First thing I do is take a pill, an anti-inflammatory. I take 400 mg of ibuprofen with food four times a day. Then I'm in my office with my headset on, using ViaVoice to research, write and upload my daily publishing news column for Writersmarket.com, Market Watch (note that you only see a partial column unless you're a subscriber). This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how much prep I did the day before and how much has been happening in the publishing world. I've been writing this daily column for over two years now.

Even though I use voice-activated software, inevitably a certain amount of mouse clicking and typing is involved, as well as some frustration. Some days ViaVoice garbles what I am saying more than others. Here is an example of a short ViaVoice session. Because of the manual typing aspect, I have to force myself to take breaks from the keyboard every 20 minutes or so. These days if I'm not careful, the pain gets bad enough that I have to stay off the keyboard the rest of the day to avoid risk of another setback.



View from my home office window this morning.


Today I'm lucky and my Market Watch session seems to go ok. I even update Inkygirl, my weblog for writers. I have some breakfast.

Next, I do my arm exercises. I exercise my left arm using a hammer, rubber band, and a styrofoam ball using techniques shown to me by my physiotherapist with the purpose of strengthening gradually recovering tendons. My right elbow is still recovering from a sprain as well as tendinitis, so I'm limited to some basic stretching exercises. Which hurt.

While I am doing my arm exercises, Jeff comes out of the bedroom, goes to his home office to check e-mail. I finish up and take a shower. When I get dressed, I opt for wearing blue jeans for the first time in a month (woohoo!) instead of track pants, which are easier to pull on and off with one hand. The jeans take some extra effort but no pain and I feel much less baggy. :-)

I make a feeble attempt to catch up on some e-mail. There are 1710 e-mail messages sitting in my Eudora in-box, and this number does not include filtered messages. While I catch up on 10 messages, seven more arrive. It takes mouse clicking to open each message and position the cursor to reply, one of the reasons it's a challenge to keep up.

I leave for my physiotherapy appointment. Jeff has already left to meet with one of his computer consulting clients.



Getting an ultrasound treatment.


One of the physiotherapists gives me an ultrasound treatment. In theory, high-frequency sound waves are vibrating tissues deep inside my arm, creating heat that draws more blood into the tissues, which supposedly helps healing. Once my elbow sprain heals, I will also resume the rest of my physiotherapy treatment for tendinitis, which can include soft tissue massage as well as electrotherapy.



Michal, one of my physiotherapists.


I have lunch at Queen Mother Cafe with my friend Parki. He always orders the ping gai; I sometimes get adventurous and try other menu items, but inevitably end up lusting for ping gai instead.

Back at home, I focus on my fiction writing. This year was supposed to be the year when I got two completed novel manuscripts to my agent, putting my magazine article writing as a lower priority; that was before my ice skating accident. Now I will be ecstatic if I can get *one* novel finished. Trying to do fiction writing with ViaVoice can be agonizing. I desperately yearn for the days when I could type as quickly as I could think, blissfully unaware of the luxury, the freedom.

Today I work on a short story project I am doing with my friend Michelle; this story is for a DAW anthology.
We are still in the planning stages. When my arms start getting tired, I go for a walk. I used to run and go to the gym, but these days can't manage it until my elbow sprain is fully healed.

I do some more work but my arms get tired more quickly; I'm nearly out of "arm points." If I push things now my arms will be worse tomorrow instead of better, so I decide to stay off the keyboard the rest of the day. Reading is OK for a while if I prop the book up on a pillow and turn pages carefully.





I have dinner almost ready when Jeff comes home. My cooking is pretty limited these days because of my inability to easily open jars, chop and slice, stir anything substantial, lift anything heavier than a glass of water, and use a can opener. I rely a lot on frozen convenience foods which can be just stuck in the oven, as well as ready-to-eat salads and pre-chopped vegetables. If I've used up my arm points already at this stage, I can't even manage this; I'm in much pain. If that happens and if Jeff is too tired to cook or it's late, we end up ordering in or eating out.

In the evening, Jeff shows me the photos he took on the weekend when he was at the cottage. I was originally supposed to go, but we decided it was probably best if I stayed home; I had an Urban Tapestry practice with Allison and Jodi instead. The photo at the top of this page was my favorite.

March 2004 comments: Read | Post | LJ