Our dog, Kali, had her ACL repair surgery yesterday. The orthopedic surgeon discovered once he got in there that she also had a meniscus tear, so that was repaired as well. She got to come home last night and she was out of it for the rest of the night. I went to bed at 9:00 p.m. and set my alarm for 11:00 p.m. so that I could give her some pain medication, but she wouldn't take it, and she seemed to still be out of it and not in pain, so I decided to sleep on the couch and keep an eye on her. She slept all night until I heard her at 4:30 a.m. trying to lick her leg, so I could tell she was feeling more awake. As soon as I got up, she bounced up and headed towards the back door, so I put her on a leash and we went outside to go potty. After she did her business, we came back inside and I thought, welp, I'm up now, might as well make coffee. Lord, I'm tired today.
I have to take Kali back to the vet in two weeks for staple removal and then again in February for repeat x-rays and evaluation. In the meantime, we are supposed to prevent her from running, jumping, and playing. She is to be on a leash whenever she goes outside. We are also supposed to do physical therapy exercises with her leg and ice it afterwards, but I'm skeptical if she will allow us to do this. I guess we'll see. All we can do is our best.
A friend of mine said her dog had the same procedure recently and that this whole process probably stresses us humans out more than it does the dogs. She's probably right, but it still doesn't make my stress any less!
Anyway, I'm on day 2 of no workout and I feel completely out of sorts, but I'm trying to cut myself some slack and stay focused on priorities which for now center around caring for Kali and getting work done. It will be a four-day weekend coming up with the Christmas holiday, so I can hopefully catch up on rest and then once things calm down, I can get back into a regular routine.
It has been several years since I've done it, but I thought that for 2024, I would pick a word and use that for my theme of the year. After giving it a lot of thought, the word that kept coming to mind was "contentment." The definition of contentment is: a state of happiness and satisfaction that comes from having our needs met and being in harmony with ourselves and our surroundings. It is described as a state of peaceful happiness and the absence of worry. Contentment does not mean we cannot desire something or wish for a change in our life circumstances, but it means that we have learned to be satisfied with what we have in the present.
As I look back at 2023, there were a lot of challenges, but the main theme for me was the desire to want things to be different. I wanted David's health to get back to normal. I wanted Kali's leg to get better without the need for an expensive surgery. I wanted to be more committed and consistent with my body recomposition journey. And the more I wanted these things, the more frustrated and stressed out I felt when none of these things happened.
It's not that I'm giving up. I'm not settling. But I'm also going to try and just celebrate where things are right now. And being happy with that.
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