Feb 9th PM

I had my last physical therapy appointment for my shoulder this AM. I was scheduled for several more but I'm to the point where I don't think they are going to change anything. My shoulder still hurts at times, but I don't think more therapy is going to reduce the discomfort, its just something I will live with. The therapists have given me an exercise routine that would take me at least a half hour to complete. It is only for strengthening my shoulder muscles. Strengthening the muscles may help prevent more damage in the future but I don't think it is going to reduce the level of discomfort I currently experience. I don't want to blow this out of proportion. It isn't a big deal. I was able to spend several hours digging a trench one day. Another day I was able to fill a wheelbarrow with rock, push it across my yard and dump it 15 times. These activities did bother my shoulder some, but only to the point that a single ibuprofen was all I needed. I could have gotten by without even that. I started the entire doctors visit, MRI, physical therapy process because I wanted to learn if there were things I shouldn't do, things that would likely cause further damage. What I learned was, "If it hurts when you do it, quit doing it." Makes sense to me.

After I returned home from therapy Lydia went out with me to help me work. The temperature was in the low 20 's. We took the tie downs and tarp off the trailer. I was folding up the tarp and looked over at the trailer. She had climbed up on the trailer and was throwing pieces of wood off onto the driveway. I told her to stop and explained that I wanted to back the trailer up closer to the wood shed so that we didn't have to carry the wood. The next time I looked over she had climbed down and was throwing the wood back onto the trailer. I backed the trailer up next to the woodshed and she handed me all the pieces she could lift. She found a couple of rectangular blocks of wood, in the trailer, that I use to block the wheels. She asked about them and I told her that I use them to block the wheels. Next time I looked over she had put them behind the tires, with no coaching from me. A few minutes later I looked again and she was down behind the truck trying to unhook the cable where I tie off the break away brake cable when I pull the travel trailer. I told her that didn't need to be unhooked. She then helped me put down the trailer jack and she unhooked one of the safety chains while I unhooked the other, not as easy as it sounds because the hook have safety clips. After driving the truck up to the shed I lifted her up into the bed and she handed me out all the tools she could lift. At that time we had been out long enough that I was feeling the cold. She would not have been ready to come back into the house but I told her I wanted a cup of coffee.

Kelsey & Nolan came over for lunch. Nolan is now walking.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.