In the category of a little good news at last, I visited the orthopedic doctor yesterday, and he declared my fractured proximal humerus fully healed. As you may recall, that’s a break in the arm up near the shoulder. No restrictions other than to use pain for a guideline as I return to activities.
He also said my range of motion was excellent for this stage, which is four months from the day I tripped over a power cord and went down onto a hard tile floor. I did my physical therapy religiously, and it’s nice my hard work paid off.
Of course, I still do have pain and expect more, but it’s not awful and I don’t have to fear the bone anymore. It’s all soft tissue recovery at this point.
I set up the golf net in the garage when I got home and hit a few wiffle balls. Today I will start with some sort of a program to re-enter the golf world. There are also lots of little things around the house I was avoiding due to restrictions on how much weight I can lift, but now I can get to those, too.
Again, I’m being mindful and taking it slow. I mentioned I’ve been studying Stoicism. In my last post, I had a little fun with it, but I am serious about this and have started to feel much better about a lot of different things. I’ll write more as this progresses, but I’m eager to share my experiences because I think it’s going to be a game-changer for aging and navigating the next phase of retirement.
I remind myself many times a day to live up to the four pillars — wisdom, justice, courage and moderation.
May I suggest the book…The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. I read the short passage daily every day for 365 and then Read again each year. Been doing this for years. Amazing how smart and insightful the stoically were all those years ago. A dear friend recommended this about theee years ago when I was struggling. It’s been very helpful to me to try and get things in perspective.
Happy to hear about your progress. My big fear is injury since I’ve no family and out here on my own at 71. Scary.
I’m on the waiting list for that book at the library, but I suspect it’s one of those I will need to buy. Probably a hard copy not Kindle. I also signed up for their daily email. I’m glad to hear it is working for you. It is already helping me manage the emotions about all the injuries at our house. I know what you mean about no family. We don’t have anyone close by, either. It is scary, but the Stoics help me with that, too. I play through all the worst things that can happen and then work through how I might deal with that logistically. Not emotionally.
Yes, I think that it’s best to buy the book….its paperback…..I have underlined the highlights of each day….was not aware of any daily email…..would you mind sharing the link to the daily email. Yes, don’t get emotional…get focused! Easier said than done!
Congratulations on the full healing of your bone and the beginnings of getting back into the game you love. I’ll be interested to read abut what you gain from your study of stoicism. Anything that aids positively to the aging process has my attention.
Yes, I will have lots to share. I definitely think it will help with the aging process.
Hey, congratulations on your fully healed bone. Being able to start doing the things you haven’t been able to do in the last four months must be a relief. Maybe the physical therapy will have helped your golf game in some way–I don’t know how, but stranger things have happened. I’ll be interested in reading about your stoicism journey and plan to check out the two books you mentioned.
Thank you! It is a relief.
I asked ChatGPT to design a curriculum for learning about Stoicism, and the book the bot recommended to get started with was “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” by William B. Irvine and others. I’m reading a little bit every day and then writing in a journal about what I learned and how I feel. So far, it seems like a really good introduction.
Congrats on your healed bone, and the ability to get back into the swing of things! Please share your recs on stoicism. Many of us here are interested.
The swing of things — got it!!
Yes, definitely more to come on Stocism. The big eye-opener for me was that it’s not about deprivation. That’s a different philosophy. Whew.