Well, July has come to a close. This means that it’s time for the next installment in my Currently series! This is a series where I open up with you guys about my feelings and life by sharing what has been happening currently. It’s a fun way for me to be more personal, and I hope that you guys enjoy these!
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Currently, I’m …
feeling … happy in my job, impatient with my ankle, glad the summer is flying by, and apprehensive about my infusion running out – I’ve been working at my new job for 6 weeks and I’m loving it! I’m mostly done with training and am doing actual work and I really enjoy it. It’s so rewarding, especially because I’m using my education and masters degrees, and this week specifically I’ve been working on a project to help disabled students. Overall, I’m so glad I’m here. But I’m also very impatient with my ankle, which is healing, just very slowly. I knew it would be like this, but I’m also annoyed that I’m only 1/3 of the way to being fully healed. With my left ankle, it took a full year, and it has been 4 months since my surgery. Granted, it was the most grueling 4 months of the recovery, but still. I’m only 1/3 of the way to being completely healed! Ugh.
And I know that I’m probably in the minority of people who are happy the summer is flying by. But I don’t like the heat. I’ve never been a fan of heat, and now that I have POTS, it’s even worse. My body gets very angry with temperatures above 75 (heart rate in 130s, feeling dizzy, feeling nauseated, etc.), so I’m so glad that we’re in the second half of the summer. But this almost means that I’m coming up on my next infusion, which is the end of August. This means that I have less than 2 weeks before my last infusion fully runs out and I feel bad everywhere. It has been starting for a few weeks now – more joints in pain, more fatigue, most inflammation – but it will be even worse in just a matter of weeks. And this will be my first time experiencing this in my new job, so I’m feeling apprehensive at best.
The emotional side of my tarsal coalition surgery recovery
reading … A Column of Fire, The Romanov Sisters, Little Fires Everywhere, and Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade – I FINALLY FINISHED A COLUMN OF FIRE! I’ve been listening to this on Audible, and because I really only listen to Audible when I’m on a long car ride or commuting, I didn’t listen to it much from March on. But I finally finished it. I really liked it! It’s the 3rd in the Kingsbridge series, but you do not need to read the other 2 books in the series to read this one. I also read the book The Romanov Sisters, which is about the daughters of the last tsar of Russia. It’s super interesting! Because the family was so close, their history is extremely tied to the family’s history, but as a heads up, what led to the Russian revolution isn’t really mentioned. To me that makes sense because the girls didn’t really do anything to contribute to it, but it was also a little confusing because of that, and I would have appreciated a bit more background to it.
I also recently started reading Little Fires Everywhere and listening to Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. I’m still towards the beginning of both of these, but I’m liking them both a lot so far. I got Little Fires Everywhere for my birthday and am finally getting to dig into it. Everyone says it’s amazing – and it’s going to be a TV show – so hopefully it lives up to the hype! I loved Everything I Never Told You by the same author (Celeste Ng); hopefully that means that I’ll also like this one. I’ve also started listening to Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade on Audible! Lord John is a character from the Outlander series, and Diana Gabaldon, who writes the Outlander series, started writing a whole series of books for Lord John. I’ve read the others, in most of which he solves crimes and deals with other 18th-century problems. I’m really enjoying this one so far!
My 2018 TBR list |Why you should read and watch Outlander
thankful for … my physical therapist, my job, and air conditioning – I’ve been in physical therapy now for 3 weeks and man do I like their office. I went to the same place for my knee surgery PT last year, and I’ve seen several PTs and liked all of them. My PT this time is super in tune with my health issues (which is difficult for literally everyone, so praise) and is just overall great. It reduces my anxiety to have my ankle in her good hands, both literally and figuratively! And, again, I really like my job, so I’m thankful for that. And, once again, the heat is not my friend, so thank goodness for air conditioning.
watching … The Handmaid’s Tale, The Americans, NCIS, Hawaii Five-0, Big Brother, Oceans 8 – It’s no secret that I watch a lot of TV. There are a lot of blog things that I do while watching TV, especially when it comes to scheduling social media. The shows I’ve watched while working this month are Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS. Both had their most recent season come out on Netflix, so I’ve been catching up. I really like both of these shows, but I’ve been running into some problems with show order: some episodes have been arranged out of order. Has anyone else experienced this? And then there are the shows that I watch at the end of the day. These have been The Handmaid’s Tale and The Americans. I’m finally all caught up on The Handmaid’s Tale, and it really is as good as everyone says, as is The Americans. I’m in the 3rd season of The Americans and it’s amazing. And I also got to see Oceans 8 this month, which I loved. It’s just as good as the other Oceans movies, as well as just as fun.
looking forward to … being 100% out of my walking cast, cooler temperatures, more time in Maine, and my next infusion kicking in – I’m slowly but surely working up to being out of my cast! I’m currently spending 7-9 hours a day in sneakers and not my cast, and I can’t wait for that to be full-time. Hopefully my infusion running out doesn’t make this progressive more difficult! So, as you can understand, I’m also looking forward to my next infusion kicking it. It’s at the end of August, so it won’t kick in fully until September, but I’ve got my eye on the prize. But as much as I dislike summer, and I am looking forward to some lovely time in Maine before the summer is over. It’s so peaceful, and most of my family is up there. And, as you know now because I’ve mentioned it so much, I can’t wait for the temperatures to be lower outside. October can’t come soon enough!
listening to … my M3 playlist, my Working playlist, Waitress soundtrack, Dierks Bentley’s new album – M3 is my next novel, and I have a playlist for it that gets me in the mood of it. My Working playlist is a playlist I made that has over 8 hours of music on it. I update it pretty regularly, and you can follow it here or below. I also finally got on the Waitress bandwagon and goodness gracious is that soundtrack fun. And I’ve been loving Dierks Bentley’s new album, The Mountain.
enjoying … being out of my cast more and more – Like I mentioned, I’m spending time out of my cast and in sneakers. My surgeon has me increasing my time out of the cast by 1 hour at a time, so I spend 1 more hour out of it every other day. This gives me an extra day to adjust and see if my ankle can really handle being out of the cast for so long. For example, on Friday and Saturday, I spent 6 hours in sneakers and not the cast, and on Sunday I went up to 7 hours. I’m slowly but surely getting to the point of spending all of my out of the cast except for when I’m at work. It’s taking forever, but I’m getting there!
wearing … lots of dresses, these J. Crew shorts, my favorite Madewell shirt, Jack Rogers sandals, Hoka sneakers – With this heat and my body’s reaction to heat, I’ve been wearing lots of dresses, especially to work. And in my time off, I’ve been wearing these J. Crew shorts. I love that they’re 4″ because that’s long enough for my comfort but not too long. (I have short legs, so everything on my legs hits longer than it would on others.) And, of course, I wear my Madewell tees. I either have or had this shirt in 6 colors. That’s how much I love it.
As for shoes, I either wear Jack Rogers (well, one Jack Roger shoe) if I’m in my walking cast or my Hoka sneakers if I’m out of the cast. My surgeon recommended these sneakers to me because their shape is one that almost is a step between walking cast and regular shoes. And my ankle will need the support that Hokas give for months and months. I love them!
My everyday summer makeup | My workwear
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Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
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