Halfway There

I've been really tired the last couple of days. And also really busy with various pursuits. Which is why there was no blog post yesterday. I see my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow -- the one month follow up. In preparation, the physical therapist measured my range of movement and we compared it to his original measurements. I've made decent progress and am about halfway there on the waving/flapping motion with my hand, and maybe not quite halfway on the twisting/rotating motion (twisting your arm so your palm faces up or down -- facing up is the hardest and the one with the least progress)

Between the visiting dog, interrupted sleep, various chores needing doing, the increased number of arm stretching sessions, errands and appointments, I haven't had more than a hour 0r so a day to focus on Box. Tomorrow doesn't look much better but I might be surprised. I'm off the skyscrapers, and have made the relevant decisions about my building. For one thing, I intend to abide by Connie Willis's advice to research and work out no more of the details of your background than you really need. I'm not writing a novel about constructing a building, after all...

The latest area of inquiry is what life is like for a postdoc (and what exactly a postdoc is) and in a research institute. Yesterday I overwhelmed myself with the vastness of my ignorance. Today I remind myself that I am not writing about life as a postdoc or in an institute, either. It's good to keep the goal before me. Also, the Lord knows exactly what I'll need to know and I'm going to trust Him to guide me in that pursuit.

To that end I started reading Michael Crichton's Next which I just picked up from the library yesterday. Already I've learned about dewars (steel thermoses you fill with liquid nitrogen to transport embryos) and cytokines, got reminded of venture capitalists and the biotech world and, having been slogging through a fairly boring biblical novel (a different one from the one I talked about a few posts ago), am quite pleased to be carried along again.

But I still think I'll be going to bed shortly after this is posted. And after I ice my arm one last time...

Grace,
Karen