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How are you making the most of being Quarantined?
Being quarantined is TOUGH!! I have to admit I’ve brushed up on some of my technology skills. I’ve called some friends that I haven’t spoken to in a long time. I’ve even been reading some of the things I’ve been wanting to read.
What have you been doing while quarantined? Has the Shelter in Place lifestyle limited your guest list? What aps or experiences can you share with our members to help make the these times a little easier, and dare I say, possibly enjoyable? Share your favorite aps, games, books, movies, tv shows and stories here! Has anyone been facetiming, making phone calls, or even writing old school letters? We would love to know how people are passing the time and what they are doing!!
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7 Replies
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We are planning to participate in a virtual Happy Hour today with friends that we normally see every Tuesday evening. Our friend will be connecting with 3 of us using Messenger on Facebook. We haven’t done this before so I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have a friend who drives to our house and we visit with her in the driveway and me on the front porch. At least we get to see each other in person. It’s difficult because we just returned from wintering in Florida and we can’t see/hug our friends. But we’re figuring out other ways to connect.
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Susan,
How was your virtual happy hour? I getting together with a coworker for a virtual lunch this week. I’m excited! There has been some talk of a virtual happy hour too!
Has anyone else been visiting virtually?
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Susan,
How was your virtual happy hour? I getting together with a coworker for a virtual lunch this week. I’m excited! There has been some talk of a virtual happy hour too!
Has anyone else been visiting virtually?
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Hi Amanda,
It was my first virtual happy hour, and it was fun but a little strange. I’ve had some online visits since then, so I’m beginning to get used to it. We did actually meet with a small group of friends on a friend’s concrete parking pad. There were 7 of us and we stayed at least 6 feet apart, and brought our own chairs, drinks, snacks etc. It was also a little strange because we hadn’t seen these friends in a long time and normally we would greet one another with a hug.
Have fun at your virtual lunch. My son has done that with friends while hanging out in their individual kitchens and cooking dinner. 😉
Susan
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I’ve been enjoying phone calls, texts and Facetime with my daughters and with a few friends. I’m trying to reach out to someone every day and I also make it a goal to learn something new every day.
I’m also enjoying some wonderful courses on The Great Courses Plus such as “Experiencing Hubble: Exploring the Milky Way.” In the introduction, the instructor tells us:
“The Milky Way glows with the light of 300 billion stars, dimmed by vast clouds of interstellar gas and stardust. And new stars just keep forming—roughly 1 new star every year! The Milky Way is one among many billions of spiral galaxies in a universe that stretches billions of light-years in every direction. With the Hubble Space Telescope, we can see details in distant spirals that mirror the vast star-making capabilities of our own galaxy. Its spiral structure both stimulates and reflects a galaxy-wide process that has been recycling matter between stars and the interstellar medium for the past 13 billion years.”
Watching the lectures with their awe inspiring photographs provides me with such welcome respite from 24/7 coronavirus news and from my own physical challenges. It’s calming, sometimes, for me to get that wider perspective of our existence in our galaxy, and—the photos could pass for masterpieces of art!
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When my calendar finally completely crashed in early March, I made the decision that I was going to take this time off to rest and heal. Last fall I moved my business into the bottom level of our house. I was so focused on the move that I forgot to do my physical therapy exercises. The repetitive motion of getting up out of chairs and off the toilet created a weakness in my pronator muscles in my arms. I went to physical therapy for a few months and then it happened again. It wasn’t until my calendar was completely blank that I had time to figure out what was going on. I’m sharing this because someone else out there might be having similar struggles.
The most important part of the healing process is figuring out what activity is causing the problem, and it may be more than one. I can pull myself off of the toilet without my shoes and leg braces on, but when I add the leg braces and shoes it adds a lot of work for my arms. I realized that we needed to elevate the toilet seat, which is part of a bidet. My husband found a commercially available bidet riser and we ordered it but when it came, it was too tall for my ADA toilet (4”). Fortunately I had some 3/4inch plastic stock that we could cut strips from. Little by little we raised the seat one, two, and finally stacked three strips for a total of 2 1/4 inches. Then my husband drew a pattern that fit each side of the bowl, shaped like parentheses, and sent the design to a machinist we know. He is now producing more strips and hopefully the toilet problem is solved. If you want to bypass the machinist, try cutting hard foam with an electric knife to the shape and thickness you need.
The next thing I did was begin my exercises that were given to me by a physical therapist when I broke my arm 18 months ago. Fortunately my husband came with me on my appointments and recorded the exercises on my phone. I had digital recordings of my exercises for my broken arm and for the pronator problem. I reviewed and organized all of them and labeled each exercise with a name and a number. I am now giving each exercise a nickname because the names my therapist gave me are often redundant. I put them in a file on my desktop and when my husband helps me with the exercises, we can pull it up on my iPad. This is so much better than trying to interpret handouts they give you at physical therapy. The little recording shows me what I look like when I’m doing the exercise and I also get the benefit of hearing the coaching my therapist is giving at the same time.
I am now into my fourth week of the exercises, increasing them in baby steps. I need to work up my strength gradually. To keep track of what I do I started a PT Journal of the exercises every day. I’ve also been taking a lot of hot baths to warm up my muscles before I start the exercises and I skip a day between workouts. This process has required a lot of patience and trial and error and there’ve been times when I’ve been very frustrated. But the gift of the quarantine was the quiet time to sit down and think through what was going on and how to fix it. When the shelter in place order is over I will also go see my massage therapist and maybe my physical therapist. In the meantime I am gaining better understanding of each exercise and improving on my own.
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Nancy – – that’s great you’ve been keeping consistent with your exercises! I love your suggestion to record the PT coaching you to playback and use later! A “PT Journal” is so good too. You and I share the same philosophy: figure out what the problem is, then fix it.
May I offer you this suggestion I use to maintain my leg strength for the ability to sit & get up again: https://alsandwellness.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-power-of-just-one-chair-squat.html
Keep at it!
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