Summer Close Out

The last time we met with our medical team, the Plastic Surgery nurse was explaining all the things not to do after a double mastectomy.

The biggest one was no repetitive arm movements and no lifting the arm above shoulder height.  She specifically said no vacuuming.  Awww, darn, I’m so disappointed I’ll have to give that up for a few weeks!

She also said no doing laundry.  Again, awww gee, that really hurts my feelings.  Well, not really because Captain mostly takes care of that one anyway.  

No lifting anything over 10 pounds.  Okay, that hurts because of Cubby.  We’ll have to figure out a work-around for that because there is no way I’m giving up my Cubby cuddles!

It means that whatever canning I don’t have done before I have surgery just isn’t going to get done this year, and that’s okay.  There is always next year, and it isn’t like we’ll starve if I don’t get some of the tomatoes put up.  I did get pickles done, and I will get green beans done, and those are the two must-haves in this house.  

The lifting restriction also means I won’t be able to keep up with Calf Country.  Normally I am in charge of Calf Country sporadically during planting and harvest times.  Now that Captain has a permanent part-time job, so do I--feeding calves four mornings a week.  

For whatever reason, the group of calves we have in the hutches right now are some of the whackiest we’ve had in years.  We’ve got one that gets so darned excited about getting a pail of milk that he comes running out of his hutch, trips over his own front feet, and face plants in the pail of milk...spilling it everywhere.  I have learned to keep a good hold on the pail until he gets himself picked up and back on his feet.

We’ve got another one who seems to think that milk is solid and needs to be chewed instead of drank...drunk...drinked?  Whatever.  He takes freaking forever to finish his meal.  Yeesh!

The little white one in the middle row on the end invariably gets his back feet tangled up in his chain and has to kick like a mule to get it untangled.  That makes a cacophony of noise in Calf Country at odd times of the day, but we’ve sort of gotten used to that.  

I don’t know about crochet.  It’s repetitive motion but more from the wrist than the shoulder.  I’ll have to ask about that because that would be a wonderful time filler for my surgical leave.  

I do have a Plan B in case crochet is kaboshed.  It took me a few days to come up with this, but I think jigsaw puzzles may be the answer here.  Definitely a time filler, doesn’t require me to lift my arm above shoulder height, and visitors could actually sit down and puzzle with me when they visit!  We’ll see, but I think that’s going to be my plan.

It’s still a little surreal to think about the surgery because it’s been over a month since my diagnosis, and it is another month until I have surgery.  These next few weeks, though, are going to be busy for us, so that time will fly by.

Sometime before surgery, I do want to get down to Silver Lake and watch the Join the Journey dragon boat practices.  These are breast cancer survivors who do dragon boating as part of their survivorship.  I heard about it when I went to a support group earlier this month, and it sounded like something fun.  I won’t be able to join in this year, but it’s on my radar for next summer.  Won’t there be adventures there worthy of a blog post from that?!

We also have a trip to Superior Lakeside Cabins in Little Marais planned for next week with some friends to soak up three days of North Shore peace and quiet.  I can’t wait!!

To round out the summer, we will make our annual trek to the state fair for cheese curds, Martha’s cookies, and corn dogs plus a look at the butterheads.  

I hope that you all have some fun last-minute summer plans that will bring you joy and happy memories!

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