The Put-Upon Mrs. HM

I am six visits into my leg therapy. Only 30 to go! It seems like I have been doing this FOREVER! Not knocking my OT. She's good at what she does. I do think it's helping a bit. The schedule is what is wearing on me. I go three times a week. It takes up my whole day! Not that I have any pressing activities. I just like my free time, not fretting about being somewhere on a schedule.

The clinic is in Bill-Paying Town. It takes me 45 minutes to drive there. I budget in an extra 15 minutes, because I never know when I might get behind a tractor, or hit every stoplight red. My appointment lasts an hour. Then there's the drive home. So that's about a 3-hour chunk out of the middle of my day. I have to take my meds and eat my oatmeal and banana earlier that I'm accustomed. Wash the dishes earlier. Curtail my innernetting, so blog posts must be done a day ahead of the day ahead I usually write them. Shopping on the way there or home is not convenient, due to cold items on the way there, and my sweatpanted, tightly-wrapped legs on the way home.

So far most (of my six) appointments have been at 1:00. From 10:30 when I start my getting-ready process, my day is tied up until after 3:00. Don't even get me started if I want to shower before an appointment!

Removing the wraps takes 10 minutes per leg. Putting them back on takes 15-20 minutes per leg. There's a sock thingy, then cotton batting, then three wraps, starting with the smallest on the ankle/foot. They each must be taped before applying the next one over it. My shower itself only takes about 10 minutes! I've been doing the unwrap/shower/wrap routine on the days before an appointment. At least the OT agreed to let me remove the wraps for an actual shower.

NOW there's a new wrinkle. OT ordered some velcro wraps, for the lower legs, and the upper legs. They were delivered to the Mansion. Thankfully, this is ONE delivery that FedEx did not mess up. Save for changing the delivery date and time by an extra day and 12-hour window. They came yesterday at 3:50, while I was in town. It's an 8-pound box, about the size of a microwave in a box. I am expected to carry this box into the waiting room and treatment room. That's because they have to be fitted by OT, I can't just open the box and start using them.

That's not easy for Mrs. HM!!! I use my cane, you know. It's hard enough with a cane and my purse and the bag of freshly-washed wraps that I'm returning. So I put the wraps down in the box. I'll leave my purse in T-Hoe. And try to go without my cane. I'll have to take up an extra seat in the waiting room to set the box on. I'd never get it up off the floor, where it would be in the way anyhow.

I'm trying to keep a more positive attitude, but it seems that every week there's something more added to my "duties" in having this therapy.