Just Like the Wicked Witch of the West

I’m melting! Well I certainly have been the last couple of days. My world has completely shrunk down in the last couple of days with the combination of broken arm and ridiculous, extreme heat.
Surprisingly my arm has been pretty well behaved and seems to have settled down well. I’m no longer taking pain killers during the day and I don’t have to wear my sling as much. Even more excitingly, I’m regaining a lot of movement and now have the full extension the brace allows me. I can also easily lift my arm above my head and I can grip things now. I’m very much looking forward to my doctor’s appointment on Monday. My new found movements mean I can actually use the camera now so I thought I’d do a very small photo essay to try and bring you into my tiny world of the last few insufferably hot days.
Yesterday in Christchurch it hit 40+ degrees C and the day before it was in the high 30s. When it’s this hot the only thing I can do is close all the curtains and windows, and shelter in the bedroom that gets the least sun. Luckily that’s our bedroom.

I have been loving my oscillating fan. As I surf between infomercial after infomercial telling me I need this machine to be fit and thin and that product to erase my wrinkles, it’s gentle breeze has stopped me going into a homicidal rage and ripping the TV off the wall and jumping on it! I’ve realised infomercials are truly evil. They really attack a person’s self-esteem! I can imagine if I had to watch them (through the utter boredom of being house bound) much more I could actually start thinking that I need these bloody stupid and sometimes down-right insane products to make my life better. Terrible.

Fortunately the trusty Xbox has come to my rescue. When the boredom gets too much I’ve discovered that I can work the controller and it doesn’t hurt my arm. I would prefer to be playing GTA on the playstation, but it’s not hooked up in the bedroom so no go. Ideally I’d like to be playing guitar hero, but that is completely impossible in these circumstances. Unfortunately my joy of gaming seems to have been severely diminished in the last few years. Where in years gone by I could quite happily play games for hours and hours and hours on end, now I get frustrated and impatient in an hour or two.

Then there’s nothing to do, but sleep or fiddle with the elbow joint of my brace. Yep, not only is my world shrinking down to be the size of my bedroom, but my mind seems to be shrinking also. Arrrggghh.

Knowing this I do try to get out of bed and do stuff, like watering the plants on the deck, or having a nice cold bath, and to do this I have to put my sling on. Which is fine, except a quirk of its set up, or my incredible skill means that every time I put the bloody thing on the safety pin pokes my in the eye. Every time! Shrinking brain see.

Luckily yesterday there was a glimmer on light in my hot stuffy tunnel of boredom. My wonderful mother couriered my up a box of cherries from Central! Thank you, thank you, thank you! So yummy and refreshing when eaten straight from the fridge. I even managed not to eat the whole box in one day! Yeah, mad props for me and my crazy self-control!

So that’s kinda been my week of recovery to date. Even though I feel like I’ve managed to shake off most of the effects of anaesthetic and I don’t get dizzy and feel sick every time I stand up, it’s been too hot to do any sort of active thing. My poor bike, which has been sitting patiently waiting in lounge for me to get on it and spin and spin, sits neglected. My lovely husband, who thrives in the heat – bastard, has of course been riding every day in the heat and has been using my lovely bike to hang his stinking clothes on. Sigh. The fantastic news for me is that the weekend is going to be much, much cooler and I’m going to ride my bike, itchy arm be damned! I can’t wait.