The new normal

We are settling into a routine here, and have begun to adjust to the many changes we have been through. Every weekday morning Jeff gets up around 7am and goes for either a walk or a jog. I wake up at 8:30, and it takes me until about 10am to get dressed and eat breakfast and get ready to go (I shower in the evenings; otherwise we wouldn't get to work until noon). Then we go to the University, and work until about 4pm, when we go to the gym. We get home around 5:30 or 6pm, and make dinner (mostly Jeff does this, though I'm beginning to be able to help more). We eat, then I shower while Jeff does housework, then we either run errands together, or work on unpacking, or I watch TV while Jeff works on writing lectures. Around 10pm we start getting ready for bed, and it's lights out by11pm. Then we sleep, and the routine starts again.

Hopefully sometime soon I will start to be able to do things faster, and will be able to help Jeff out more-- he is doing a lot right now, and it's wearing on him. One thing I am able to do reasonably well right now is my job, in it's reduced-capacity form. There is no better type of job to be in when recovering from a major medical issue than a job in academia. There is so much flexibility, it allows me to focus on tasks I can do right now, and save other things for later. In almost any other type of job, I would have to be out on leave right now because I wouldn't be able to guarantee that I could show up on time, or keep up with the pace. I have said in the past that academia is stressful, but right now it's anything but stressful for me-- this job is my lifeline, my connection to feeling normal, and a heck of a lot better than sitting at home watching TV all day, which is probably what I would be doing if I didn't have a job to go to. And so far things are going well job-wise, for both me and Jeff. We like our department, like our colleagues, and are starting to get into the swing of things.

Also, our stuff finally arrived with the movers just under two weeks ago. It finally is starting to feel like we live in this house, instead of feeling like we are camping here. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to help as much as I would like to with unpacking, putting one more huge task on Jeff's shoulders. As soon as I'm physically able to do so, I'm going to take Jeff on a vacation wherever he wants to go, and make sure he has no responsibilities at all. He deserves it.


And finally, my progress: My standing is getting a lot better-- I can now stand for brief periods without holding on to anything. My walking also gets better and better-- yesterday I walked 5 laps at the track with my walker in 42 minutes. That is a distance of 1km! My ability to walk at the track does not mean I can go that distance or go that fast in real-life situations-- on Sunday I went for a walk on one of the paved paths near our house, and it took me a full hour to walk 600m and I thought I might not make it back to the car I was so tired. But still, even a few weeks ago I couldn't have done that at all, so a huge improvement. My typing is also getting better. I typed this whole post, and it took about an hour and a half. Still have slow typing speed, and am typing with two fingers and have to look at the keyboard, but much improved. The one thing that still hasn't improved is my double vision. But I'm hopeful, given the slow, steady progress I have had in the 3+ months since surgery!