I'm back at home after a weekend visit to my parents for the national holiday of my dad's birthday (I'm not kidding -- he puts out his American flag. It's sort of around Memorial Day every year, but the flag goes up on the birthday). I didn't get to go through with my plan to tease my dad about being slothful for going to bed early since I was going to bed at the same time, though it was fun to shock my parents by getting up before seven. It did get a bit annoying Sunday morning when I didn't even have to get to church early for choir, and yet I got up early enough to eat breakfast, read most of the newspaper, drink my tea, try on a few possible outfits for church, take a shower, dress in casual clothes, check my e-mail, go to the grocery store, put together a wedding shower present, read the rest of the newspaper, undo the bed, fluff the feather bed, remake the bed, do a full makeup job, and get dressed for church -- all in time to be early for church.
It was a good thing I had time to try on outfits, though. Normally for church I wear a skirt and a t-shirt -- a nice, solid-color, fitted t-shirt, not something from a trade show or 5K run -- because I'm wearing a choir robe, so no one sees me, and the important thing is to be cool and comfortable. But since I wouldn't be wearing a robe this Sunday and would be going to a wedding shower after church, I wanted to wear something nicer. I then found out that with this frozen shoulder, I can't get into a lot of my dresses because I can't reach the side or back zippers. If it takes two hands to get the zipper to close, then I can't wear it right now. I guess that's a down side to living alone. I don't have anyone handy to do me up, and I don't really want to walk into church with my dress still partially unzipped and ask someone to do me up the rest of the way. Even worse, I'd need help getting the dress unzipped to take it off, and I really wouldn't want to ask someone at church to unzip my dress for me. So I went with a skirt and pullover top. Oddly, because of the particular range of movement (or lack thereof) I have, pulling a top over my head is easier than putting on something that buttons down the front. I can do up. I can't do side and back, as I discovered when trying to put on the cardigan I carried in case the church was cold (it was). I'm writing a character with an arm in a sling, and I'd had him wear things that button up the front because he struggles with up and over, but I still think that's right for his condition because it's not a shoulder problem for him. I imagine there are still some limitations to the up and over thing. I might be able to get into a sports bra, for instance, but I'd probably have to be cut out of it. Then again, that's not too far from normal. They should probably investigate the person who invented those things as an escaped Nazi scientist.
I need to find a physical therapist for this shoulder. I thought I had it all worked out because the directory for my health plan showed one in my neighborhood, in walking distance, which I thought would be good, as I'm supposed to take Vicodin to get through these sessions and I don't know if it would be safe to drive on that stuff. Unfortunately, on my way to church yesterday I drove by that place, and there's a different business name on the building. I couldn't find anything when I Googled the name of the business or the therapists listed on my plan. There are a couple of other options that are really close, but not in walking distance. I guess I'll have to see how the drug affects me, or else I'll have to either tough it out or maybe bring a book and wait it out before I try to drive home. My church does put together volunteer drivers for people who have medical appointments they can't drive to or from, so I suppose I could look into that if I really need the drug and really can't drive while taking it. There are two places I could go -- one is probably a bit closer but involves going through some traffic and a busy intersection to get to, and one is a little farther away but is more "small town," traffic-wise.
I've already done a lot of my Memorial Day commemoration by crying my way through the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS last night. Tonight, I'm singing in a Memorial Day concert that I hope will be less tear-jerking. We will be doing the Armed Forces medley and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which is more goosebump-inducing than tear-jerking. We'll be joined by the Dallas Banjo Band, which supposedly plays the theme from Rocky with 30 banjos and a tuba. I can't wait to hear it. The women's chorus also gets to do "The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," which is way too much fun to sing. I would have loved to be a singer with a big band, but I guess I was born at the wrong time.
Now off to enjoy a little bit of the holiday before I have to get to rehearsal.
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