Grounded

I am grounded off of horseback for a week.  It’s been a long week.

Last Wed I had sinus surgery, to correct some structural issues in my nose that the doc thinks contributes to my frequent sinus and ear infections.  I’m a lifelong veteran of ENT offices and the assorted surgical things they can do.  I’ve put this particular procedure off for about 8 years now, mostly because I truly hate general anesthetic’s side effects, but this year the sinus infections and earaches have been almost constant, so it was time.

Normal people usually return to work a couple of days after this particular surgery, but as dust, getting bonked in the nose, and breathing heavy are parts of my daily life with horses, the doc advised me to take a week off. 

For those who have not had sinus surgery, essentially, while you are taking a nap, the doctors do their thing.  Before you wake up, they fill your nose with what they call “packing” and “splints.” Then they use a giant rubber band between your ears to hold a hunk of gauze under your nose.  In essence, giant plastic discs and tampons go up the nose and a maxi pad goes underneath.  Over the course of the next week, these things are gradually removed. No, I did not take a selfie of my swollen, black-eyed self with all this stuff on and inside my face.

All that aside, I felt like crap for about 2 days.  Then I got restless.

My friends know I’m not exactly the lay-around type, and keep asking me what I’m doing to stay busy.  In order to entertain myself, I did typical geeky-dressage stuff, and other day-off stuff:

-          Organized a fix-a-test for my students to keep them busy while I am trapped in the house.

-          Played with freestyle choreography and music for Capi.

-          Mapped out and laminated some dressage tests and organized my judging bag.

-          Scanned in everyone’s USEF Vaccination report and sent them to my students      electronically.
-       Brush my teeth. Breathing through my mouth makes my mouth feel gross.

-          Printed Coggins/Vaccine report/Membership verification for the horses I’m         competing this season.

-          Wrote an article for DVCTA.

-          Did SFD’s beginning of the month paperwork.

-          Colored my hair. This didn’t go so well. My bathroom looks like a homicide scene, and my hair looks like Ariel.

-          Cleaned out my inbox.  That took a while….

-          Took the time to figure out how to make my phone quit doing the series of annoying things it does.  That didn’t take nearly as long as I expected.

-          Followed up on judging requests.
-       Brush my teeth again. It just feels nasty.

-          Finished reading a book about the end of WWII – way too heavy of a read for being trapped inside.

-          Got off my plateau in Candy Crush.  That took FOREVER.

-          Spent an afternoon shopping. I hate shopping. I was that bored.

-          Tortured my husband with my cooking.  This really didn’t make sense, as I can’t taste much. But it did remind him why he does the cooking.

-          Touched base with several friends who were checking up on me – first to see how I felt after surgery, and later to make sure I was following doctor’s orders and not doing too much.
-       Brush my teeth again. I have the best dental hygiene ever.

-          Got caught up on House of Cards and Agent Carter.

-          Played with my dogs. The puppy is becoming a pro at fetch.

-          Wrote this nonsensical, fairly pointless blog about trying to entertain myself. 

I have resorted to standing outside of the barn and asking people to bring me horses.  I did sneak in one afternoon, after all the dust-rousing sweeping and chores were done, to visit.

Today I plan to make cookies and run some broken tack to the repair shop—hardly a full day’s worth of activities.  Wednesday I’m going to go visit Harry, our young horse who is off being backed, visit the hair salon to correct my Little Mermaid look, then get the toothpicks, er splints, out of my nose.  If that’s not enough to fill my last two days left of my confinement, I may need to sneak into the barn to pet horses again.

I can’t wait to sit on a horse Thursday. I suspect Friday morning I’ll be feeling the effects of a week with no exercise, but it will be completely worth it.