So last night

Jay Leno was on when I closed up shop, took my insulin and other nightly meds, got all ready for bed, and was in it prepared to sleep when I realised the one thing I hadn't done was take the Tylenol. But, with the trouble I have schlepping my way out to the other room these days, I decided to screw it and see if I could sleep without it. I'm very stiff and sore this morning, but I made it seven hours in bed for the first time in days, waking up just once briefly at 2 am. Needless to say, the first thing I did once I got out here was take the capsules. And it does hurt, but I can tolerate it with some mild breathing exercises while the medicine kicks in.

Every morning when I wake up, though, the stiffest part of me are my hands. I have carpal tunnel. For years, I couldn't feel either of my hands, and then they started to contract up at night. Seven years ago I had surgery for it, with instant relief, but there is some residual impairment in the left and it's back on the right (no doubt from using that touchscreen at the gas station for five years). So since I'm mostly ambulating on my hands these days via a walker, that makes a difference. I also have some blisters on my hands from using it, but those are getting better. There isn't much to do about the carpal tunnel now, I don't think, beyond hand exercises and some physical therapy. I keep my mouse on the left side to offload some of the work at the computer, which causes no lack of consternation when the tech guys remote into my work station at the hospital (it changes to a left-handed mouse for them, too). Fortunately I have a lot of coordination with my left hand. On the other hand, I am finding that while I suck majorly at upper body strength, my left arm, which should be stronger because I carry everything with it, is actually not when it comes to do repetitions with a band over my head. In other words, the muscles that hang and carry sacks, etc. are fine, but the others are very weak. But I am doing my exercises to help with that.