Monday, January 30, 2017

Last Hurrah Before Surgery (Week 5 2017)


Tomorrow is the last day of January. Wow – that was fast!

I used my Bullet Journal more often last week and I decided I did not like the new spread. It looked pretty as a whole, and was certainly very different. I found those wedges distracting and counter-productive. Now I know and that spread goes in the “NO” pile, which is absolutely acceptable.

This week I am using another new spread. It has less space per day and has all the days on one page. It is more boxy and more linear than the most recent spread. I don’t think I’ll have a problem with the form. I will use it this week and next week, which is the week of surgery and during which I will be in hospital at least three days. I will also use it for the week after I come home from the hospital. When I had the other hip replaced in October 2015, I spent the first week at home in the lift chair, zoned out on pain killers. I don’t know if I’ll even open my BuJo that week.  I do want to set it up in advance so I can use it if I want to. I think using a spread that is familiar will make it easier to use, especially if I have diminished capacity.

Yesterday, my BuJo fell off the shelf and the binder broke. The rings won’t close. My sweetie was out and about today and he bought me a new one. I think I will need to stow it in a drawer when I am not using it.  Besides, I need to make a space for it that is not on a shelf because I won’t be able to reach higher than my head for at least a month post-op. I am bringing it to the hospital with me, so I can have them 3 hole punch all the paperwork they will give me and I can put it directly into my Bullet Journal and it will not get lost.

Here is my February monthly spread:


 This is the first page of the new spread:

And page 2 for the new spread (which is not the page that was in the original spread, but is what I need)



I may not post again until February 20th.  I know I won’t post next week since that is the day of the surgery itself, February 6th.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll be lucid enough on the following Monday, February 13th, to create a Blog post. If I am lucid and capable, I will do it. If not, I won’t.

Since it will be several weeks until I post again, I decided to do my recap of January, even though there are still two days left in the month.

My progress on my January Goals

Work on Newsletter

1.     Sent out Volume 1.

2.     Volume 2 will go out tomorrow.

3.     Brainstorming did not happen and I did not generate a list of topics. I don’t know if I will complete this after I get back from the hospital – I’ll decide then.

Finish Essence of Life by Beltaine

No writing happened because the pain was worse than I expected and caused less sleep and a lack of energy that really sapped my brain power.

Bullet Journal Creativity
I have changed my weekly spread every two weeks as planned. I am going to make this week’s new spread carry for three weeks because of the surgery and the probability of having diminished capacity for ten days or more from pain killers.

Surgery
Made all my pre-op appointments. Final blood work and pre-op appointment with the surgeon are tomorrow. Then all I do is take meds to help not get a staph infection, do the prep on Sunday evening, eat nothing from midnight on Sunday, do more prep on Monday morning, then off to the hospital for surgery.

Better Communication with Ruedy
We had so much to deal with for the pre-op surgery preparations that I did not have the energy to pin him down on this.

Reading

1.      Started one non-fiction book on 1/22/2017. Read the first chapter and did not have the brain power to do the exercise that ended the chapter. I will resume after surgery.


2.     Fiction – read all six books of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher, and “Naked In Death” by J.D. Robb

Building my e-mail list

1.     Sent out all the invitations.

2.     Will follow-up with non-responders after surgery.


What went well?

I kept up with my Bullet Journal for the most part. I did all the required pre-op things for surgery.

What could be improved?
Many goals had no progress made at all. Since that was a direct result of medical conditions over which I had no control, there was no way to improve the situation.

What did not work and why?
Many things did not work due to the unexpected levels of pain and lack of sleep and energy.

Word Count
My word count numbers are only recorded for 1-29 January. 

New words: 26018
Research/Editing/Time:  65600

I will update in my next post since the count does not include the work on this blog post nor will it include the work on Volume 2 of the Wordcrafter Chronicles.
I will be back in touch with you on the other side of surgery when I will still have pain but it will be a much better type of pain, a type of pain that denotes healing is happening.

Take care, be well and have a wonderful few weeks!

Bright Blessings   – Cedar

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 


And my company page:



I have my Author page on Facebook:


 I am also on Twitter:

 @michelle owings-chri

 LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-owings-christian-bbb7278








No comments:

Post a Comment