“Still sitting up and taking nourishment.” That’s what a friend answered years ago when we asked him how he was doing. It was a joke and my husband has been using the line ever since. At the moment that’s exactly what I’m doing. I finally got flattened by that cold I was fighting and it’s a doozy. I spent most of Thursday and Friday in bed. I had a bit more energy yesterday and spent a lot of time sitting on the couch. Hey, progress is progress! It’s not to be sneered at.
I haven’t been eating much and figured it’s about time for more nourishment, so I’m typing this on my iPad as I’m finishing breakfast. Then I’ll go take a nap.
My own oldster saying is, “Doing the best I can with what I have left.” And I do have some low energy things I do. One is listening to audio books. At the moment I’m listening to Hitlerland, about the Americans in Germany as the Nazis took over. I’ve always been interested in that period of history and Hitlerland shows the varied reactions of the Americans to the Nazis as time went on. At the moment I’m only up to about 1935 so the full horror hasn’t sunk in yet.
The other thing I did yesterday was to figure out how to resize pictures on my iPad. I always like to include at least one picture in my posts and would like to be able to do a whole post from my iPad. I’m a lot closer to that now.
Anyway, that’s how I’m amusing myself. What do you do when you’re in a low-energy, recovering state?
I see why you want to learn to resized pictures & do the whole post on your ipad. That way you can lie in bed & won’t have to WALK over to your computer:D
What I do is sit on the bed & watch pre-recorded TV fast- forwarding through the commercials. I don’t just sit. Oh no. I fold my legs underneath me. OUCH! -but it gets better. I saw a picture of a granddaughter sitting like that. (Wonder if she can still do that.) I cheat with a flat pillow between, hoping someday to eliminate the pillow with thighs against calves. No pain, no gain. Doing the best I can with what I’ve got left.
😀 🙂 Some make yellow faces.
Moan, groan, and whimper. I’m a wimp when I’m sick or not feeling good.
bikehikebabe,
It’s not just having to get out of bed and walk, it’s that I have to stand on my jogging trampoline to use my computer. Mostly I hate to sit. I took a three-hour nap this afternoon and am now using my computer again. 🙂
Yes, I do use smileys, and I do look at friendly dog pictures. They lift my spirits even more.
Mike,
I know plenty of other people who do that. Whatever works, I say! I tend to be more of a weather wimp.
oh monk. hate to hear it.
i read once ~ don’t know if it’s true ~ that a cold is one week coming on… one week in full force… and one week leaving.
whenever i’m sick with anything i mainly just sleep. i sleep like a bear in hibernation. i want to be left alone and just sleep. i’m probably a cranky bear too. i don’t know. nobody’s around to be cranky with. part of the peace of being alone i guess. LOL.
get well soon monk!
xo
tammy
tammy,
Thanks! This cold has been a long time coming on–I hope it doesn’t take that long to leave. 🙂
Yes, I too believe in sleep and in drinking plenty of warm water. (I’m not a tea or coffee drinker but believe in plenty of fluids.) This morning it was clear I wasn’t going to get my energy back if I didn’t eat, and the combination of eating while I wrote my post then taking a three-hour nap made a huge difference. I will keep you posted!
I have not had a low energy recovering state in a long time. The last time that I had one was in 1976 when I had a bout of jaundice. Since then I have had five major surgeries involving some recovery period in bed, but those were not low energy situations. I simply read as much as I could and slept when not busy with the post surgery exercises.
Sleep, just sit, watch TV
‘Mustn’t grumble’ is a saying here about humans in delicate stages or older…
If you have my particular chronic health there is lots of talk about your ‘envelope’ and how much you can do or not do in a day. If someone on-line reports on overdoing something or other…questions are always posed “have you been trying to escape the envelope?” and such like.
Envelopes and grumbling aside – I have had a rather week, and we are only at Tuesday. Yesterday, I was semi-involved watching a group of women become so inside themselves that I wondered if I was an alien who had stepped into another world. One woman even asked me if I was a “member” – I’ve been a member since 1980! Today it has been the turn of mainly gov’t depts both national and local…trying to unravel the problems with who pays what in relationship to me the tenant and the landlord – every inquiry threw a completely different answer…and then on top it all, I found out that my Internet/phone company have basically been shifting my payments in/out of “lost accounts” since 2010! Boy I’ve been with them since 1998!!!!
Rummuser,
It sounds as if your normal state isn’t that much more energetic than when you’re recovering from surgery. 😉 You’ve recently said some days you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. Are those mornings more low energy than usual?
Evan,
That’s a great strategy too. I did watch a couple of light comedies on Netflix to balance Hitlerland.
Cathy,
Keeping within our limits is a nontrivial thing. When I was younger books were my main form of mental stimulation and my eyes can’t tolerate much reading at one time. I was always pushing them and they would water, I would get dizzy and have ferocious headaches. If I pushed them too much they would refuse to focus for days on end. A bit of a nuisance when I was in college and didn’t have complete control of how much I needed them. The secret was to major in something that required a lot of thinking and not much reading. Thank goodness for physics! I wouldn’t have survived Stanford without it. Anyway I do understand working around invisible handicaps and other people not having a clue. I’m glad you have online friends who understand.
I’m sorry you’re having such a hassle with red tape. It reminds me of a health insurer years ago who would refuse payment because they said we weren’t enrolled. We would jump through the many hoops and get in straightened out only to have it happen again and again. Arghh!
I like the “mustn’t grumble”. It’s better than lying and saying, “Fine.” Or going into a lot more detail than the poor polite person asking really wants to hear. On the other hand, I know one person who would say, “The golden years, bah!” It was honest and concise. So far the golden years are among the happiest of my life. They won’t last forever so I’m making the most of them.
No, not low energy, just laziness and an unwillingness to get out of a comfortable warm bed to make tea and start the day. Once I realise that no body else will make the tea, the laziness disappears.
i hope you’re feeling better!
i agree about the golden years.
i am so happy i can hardly believe it. time was always what i wanted more than anything. and now i am simply loving it.
aren’t the commenters in your blog great? it’s like having a cup of coffee around an old round table with interesting people.
tammy,
Thank you, I’m back to normal now. I agree about the commenters. That’s what I was hoping for–sharing.
PS Your latest post about simplicity and (vs?) computers inspired me to write about simplicity tomorrow at Transforming Stress. Not sure exactly what I’ll say, but I do have my graphic, usually the first step for me.
The connection I get through the internet is more than worth the occasional hassle with computers.
what???!!!
how do i get to your other blog? how did i not know this? or remember it if i ever did?
i will visit.
hello!
i found transforming stress by going to ‘about jean’ above.
and i’ve been reading some of the back posts.
not sure how i missed all that!
not the brightest knife in the drawer.
no. the sharpest.
or the brightest bulb. dang.
There’s no reason you should have known about the other blog. Thanks for looking it up!