Misunderstanding

I thought that I was going to wear that wrapped bandage on my arm for 48 hours, and I did. What I misunderstood was that it was going to be EVERY 48 hours for almost three weeks. Ha! Ha! The joke's on me.

I took the bandages (all 8 of them) carefully off Friday morning and meticulously rolled each one up, putting them in a plastic bag. She had said to do that, then get a nice shower (which I had not done for two days due to the bandages), then return all the wrappings to her at my 8 a.m. appointment. Done and done. That's when I learned that after the massage, she was going to rewrap me for another 48 hours. Oh, fun. I took them off this morning, Sunday, and meticulously rolled them up for my appointment tomorrow afternoon. BUT!! Now my arm is FREE, FREE, FREE from the heavy wraps until tomorrow at 2 p.m. I showered and later today I'm going swimming.

Of course, I do have to put the normal compression sleeve on. That's going to be my new normal for awhile. I was able to do it mostly by myself today. I'm sure I'll get better at it when I start doing it more frequently.

The other good news is that the wrapping helped tremendously. I noticed a big change in my fingers and hand in the amount of swelling and pain. There is virtually no more pain in my forearms at all. The wrapping works, so I'm not complaining about it. My right hand is learning to do more things pretty well. I've always been somewhat ambidextrous in that I use scissors and knives, brush my teeth, throw a ball, pour from bottles and pitchers, and brush my hair right handed. When I was still teaching, I used to erase the board right handed. Mostly my left hand is for eating and writing. Typing has been a problem, too, since I couldn't hit the keys too successfully with my left hand, so I was getting tired typing one handed. This morning I'm trying to write a big blog now because there is only the compression sleeve and gauntlet. Although I must say, that even this much typing has tired out the left hand completely. I'm now taking a break to rest it up, and then I'll be back.

OK, I'm back. I took the gauntlet off. That was just so tight that it was restricting my hand and fingers, making them ache as I typed. I'll put it back on when I'm done.

So here's what we've been doing in a nutshell. Thursday I met my new dentist for a check up and cleaning. That went smoothly. I liked the office and all the staff and I had no cavities. Yay! Then we drove an hour to Plant City for a luncheon meeting of that chapter of NARFE, National Association for Active and Retired Federal Employees. Mark was extremely active back in MD in the Laurel chapter, so he's going to get back to it now. The meeting at Outback was interesting, and the people in the chapter seem committed and active. It's just the sort of group Mark has been looking for. That night we had our free wine dinner at Lakeside and the free movie, Morning Glory, with Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford, at the Solivita Starlite Ballroom. Fun times.

Friday started off with the unwrapping at home and rewrapping in the office. Then I went to my first medical oncologist's appointment. That went very well. My blood work is completely normal, including the tumor markers. YAY! In fact, here's a great big HIP HIP HOORAY! She is pleased. She scheduled my mammogram and my next appointment in four months. She also scheduled a CT scan of the head and an ultrasound of my carotid artery, both sides. So that's another story that I'll explain in detail later. I'll do it tomorrow as a separate blog. Nothing to worry about, but an irritating story of incompetence from my PCP's office.

Yesterday we went to shul in the morning, weight machines and treadmill in the afternoon, and then dinner at the home of some new shul friends in the evening. It was an hour's drive, 42 miles, to their house. What a house! They are from Providence, RI, and they admit they UPSIZED their house. Ha ha! I have not heard anyone say that before. She is a retired elementary school teacher; he's a retired lawyer. He is also an amazingly talented writer and composer. The purpose of the dinner was to talk me into being musical director for any future shows he does at the this new shul. They have been here two and a half years, and he wants to start doing his original musicals at this shul, like he did back in Providence, but he couldn't find someone to teach the vocal parts. He showed us a lot of clips from two different shows. Mark and I were duly impressed.

Unfortunately this shul has no stage or any facilities conducive to a show. We are getting a new rabbi as of August 1, so who knows how that will change things. He is real gung ho about this, so I told him I would help him by teaching the music to the singers. His wife does the choreography and his son plays drum and guitar and sings. They were both in these productions. It's a talented family, and we enjoyed our evening with them. They are also huge Disney fans! It was a nice night, and who knows, maybe we will get one of these shows off the ground.

Today we are leaving in twenty minutes to go see the new X-Men movie followed by the Silver Spurs Rodeo in Kissimmee. Whoo Hoo! We haven't been to a full rodeo since the summer of 2009 in Dodge City, Kansas. I'm wearing my blue cowboy boots that I got from Denise. When it ends around 5 p.m., I'm going to the pool while my arm is still unwrapped.

I promise to explain the medical snafu with the PCP and the CT head scan problem tomorrow before I go back to the therapist for more wrapping. I also do not promise to blog at all for the rest of the week because until next Sunday because I will be continuously wrapped from Monday at 2 p.m. until next Sunday morning when I remove them for the day. I might type a little bit, but it's very awkward and tiring with those bandages on.

Have a good week! There will be a big blog tomorrow, I promise.