Thursday, May 16, 2013

Lamest Superpower Ever


I had my first PT appointment today. I keep trying to write "TP," which brings a whole new (and probably more interesting) meaning to this entry. They gave me to a student therapist first, who had me wave my arms in different directions and tested my strength in different directions (I am surprisingly strong, he said, so there's that). It turns out that my shoulders are hypermobile. It sounds like a superpower, right? More like a defect, although it is probably part of the reason I'm above average at swimming.

This is also the reason I have issues with my posture. No matter how hard I try to sit up straight and stand up straight, I have the Mom Hunch. Blelgh. Hate it. I makes me look shorter and even stockier up top.

When the main guy came over, the student was kind of excited and was all, "Hey, try the Jungerson-Manx [or something] test on her shoulders." And the main guy did, and said, "Whoah," and the student said, "See what I mean?" They did a few more "Try the..." "Whoah" "See what I mean?" exchanges after this. I felt like an unusual yet special specimen. I expect to contribute to Shoulder Science in a big way someday.

The phrase "loosey goosey" was thrown around a lot. They gave me a bunch of exercises to do every other day, and I go back in two weeks. He asked if I was good at doing my homework. Inside, I said, "Uuuuuhh.... Welll..." Outside, I smiled unnaturally and said "Yes!" like if I said it with enough conviction, it would be true.

I joke, but this is homework I will do. I will do it regularly. I will WIN at physical therapy. I will be the valedictorian of physical therapy.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Busy busy busy


So I did, in fact, mishear the receptionist over the phone. Or she misread. I suspect she said, "There's NO tear on the labrum," and I heard, "There's A tear on the labrum." I know I didn't just make it up because I'd never heard it before, and, as one of my noters also thought, it really sounded like it was more of a lady parts problem than a shoulder problem. Which made me think for just a second that the MRI tech was really incompetent.

I have bursitis. So, it still sucks, but I will be okay. I go to PT this Thursday, so hopefully whatever he has me do will help get me back to swimming.


We have found a house to rent, and we signed papers on it today! It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and family rooms, a not-horrible kitchen, a dining room that is completely open to one of the family rooms (making it possible to expand our table if needed), and a backyard. It also smells nice and has new carpet and tile floors.

The drawbacks: the backyard is a little weird and small, and the garage has been converted to a studio apartment and has tenants.


The children have been at their absolute worst for nighttimes. I am looking forward to them having their own bedrooms more than I am almost anything else. Whoever would think that your kids loving each other and getting along well would be a problem? But they're sleep-deprived and grouchy, which makes me grouchy (and sometimes sleep-deprived), and most days lately have been a TARGET="about_blank">Sneaky Hate Spiral.

I did start running outside most mornings, which usually changes my attitude for the better for at least a couple of hours. Much as I hate getting up early, I have to say that once I'm awake, I'm a much more cheerful, energetic person than when I get up just an hour later. Even if I don't go to bed earlier. Odd.


Jeremy went on another trip at the beginning of this month. He was gone for over a week, and I went nuts on the apartment. I started with the office, which has always been the repository for random crap we don't know what to do with. I'm a compulsive purger, but even I haven't really touched the office since we moved. It started out as our repository for random crap, and I just never got a foothold. So I spent five hours clearing it out. I threw away or gave away so much stuff. When I was done, it was the cleanest room in our place.

So that launched me into the rest of the apartment. I did a couple of closets, the kitchen, and the pantry. I sold our elliptical and packed up most of our books in order to collapse a bookshelf and tuck it away. I packed away half our belongings and stacked them neatly in the garage, which I also emptied of extra stuff.

I didn't tell Jeremy I did all this, so it was quite a surprise when he walked in the door. I did tell him ahead of time, "When you see what I've done, I need for you to act far more enthusiastic than is in your nature, otherwise I will cut you." So I'm not sure it was genuine or not. But I don't really care.