WRITER AWAKENED

There was a time in my life when my spare time was spent writing.  Late into the night.  Writing.  Creating.

My fingers could not type fast enough to get my thoughts onto the screen.  And before that, I typed on my Smith-Corona electric typewriter that my parents gave me for high school graduation.  And even earlier, I used #2 pencils and black ink pens to scribble my poems and stories onto lined paper. The margins contained notes and scribbles--my muse encouraging me to continue writing.

But lately I have not been writing creatively at all. I realize that I have allowed too many other distractions to pull me away from my creative endeavors.  My craft has become lost through electronic gadget access.  Television and DVRs wooing me to watch and the Internet beckons me to surf and I do; instead of writing.

While all along, inside of my head, there are still amazing plots to expand; anguish painted and soul searched poems to write, imagined mysteries to solve, characters impatiently waiting to come to life. But instead, I neglect them and sometimes cannot hear them anymore.  But they are still there.

I must find a quiet corner niche for me to hide away and write. I must be diligent.  I must nurture and listen to my muse and allow my creativity to spill out once again. 

I must.  I will. 

MORE FUN THAN ONE FALL DESERVES

Two days after I fell, I started with an off and on again headache.  I thought it was due to the incision healing and went with the flow.  After the sutures were removed, the headache continued and evolved to a point that it never left.  My head hurt constantly...sometimes only a little bit and sometimes more, but it never completely ever went away, not even with OTC pain meds.

A week after my sutures were taken out, I placed a call to my doctor about the headaches and his recommendation was that I get a CT scan (to be sure that there was no inner cranial bleeding from the fall), I spent 4 hours in the Emergency Department (mostly waiting since the actual CT scan took 5 minutes) and got a CT scan of my head.  Then I waited another hour and 10 minutes for the radiologist to read the scan and for me to be discharged.  The good news was that there was no bleeding. 

The bad news is that I had received a concussion in the fall and was suffering from a "Post Concussion Syndrome" headache.  My recent depressed feelings and anxiety  over going back out on my 4 mile walk (mentioned in my last post and which began at the same time as the headache) are also symptoms of PCS.  Learning that made me feel less crazy.

I opted to not take any prescription pain meds (I am allergic to several, did not want to stay home from work due to taking a narcotic and didn't want to wait in the pharmacy for another hour) and instead to simply take OTC meds. The ER doc said my symptoms could last another 2 weeks and to be cautious not to do anything that might cause me to bang my head again...meaning, no power walking. 

Friday was the same...my head hurt all day long.  Saturday morning, I awoke with a headache, popped two Excedrin...and I realized two hours later, the pain was completely gone.  And it has not returned. 

I am cautiously optimistic...but hopeful that I am symptom free. 

I really want to get back to my weekend walks! 

IN GEAR AGAIN

I'm back on the treadmill.  Yep, my early morning workouts have resumed after my injury-induced-week haitus. 

My knees are still badly bruised as is the side of my left hand (when I fell on it).  But neither are bothering me enough to keep me off the treadmill. 

The stitches are out and the scrapes on my face are just about completely healed.  I still have ugly scabs on the top of my left hand, but they are finally beginning to heal.

I am thrilled that I dropped a couple more pounds during my rest and recovery period because I was faithfully tracking my food and calories and drinking a lot of water! 

So, now it is time to add my 4 mile weekend walks back in...

I'm nervous, but I guess it's kind of like getting bucked off a horse...just gotta climb back on.  *sigh*  

I'm just saying that it ain't gonna be easy.

SPRING FEVER

I think we have come down with a case of Spring Fever and it feels good!

We have taken a dive into home improvement again.  The wallpaper in our entryway (that was here when we moved in and ugly) was lifting off (and driving us crazy in numerous ways).  It has now been stripped and the walls have been prepped and painted.  We chose a light color that reminds me of soft suede. We've also lightened the trim color for the baseboards and doors. 

We had to paint 3 coats of KILZ  primer on the interior side of our chocolate brown front door, but what an amazing difference it has made and I can't wait to finish painting it with the final color! 

We have decided to continue our paint project into the dining and kitchen areas and re-do our room.  We ordered an iron headboard and footboard, so since our bed will have to be taken apart, we are going to dismantle the room and paint it before setting up the bed.

My brain is in overdrive with lots of ideas...and I'm so excited to see how it all turns out!

DAY 5

It's been 5 days since my fall and there has been a lot of healing going on...

Every day I feel a bit better and that's encouraging.  I hope to be back to working out again very soon!