I have been doing just that for a few weeks now and it is much different than I was expecting. I was expecting my life at the OTC where I ate, slept and swam. It is much much different at home and it admittedly gets a bit boring and a bit lonely. So you understand what I mean let me tell you a typical day: Wake up at 5am. Swim from 5:30-7:30. Come home. Eat breakfast, watch Regis and Kelly. At approx. 10am I get on my armbike for 1.5 hrs and watch The View. 11:30- shower. 12- lunch. And then it stops. A few times a week I will swim in the afternoon as well and I will leave the house at 4:30, returning at 7:30 to eat dinner watch some TV and in bed by 9:30 to get up and do it all again.
Now this may sound like a great life to many of you and who am I to complain about having nothing to do. After all from 12:30 on I can do whatever I want. Read a book, see a movie, watch TV, sit on the couch, Anything. And I get caught up on my celebrity gossip with all my TV shows. But THAT is exactly the problem. Dick and the friends I have here all work or are in school so I am by myself this whole time and it gets rather lonely. Not to mention it can get a bit boring. I also feel very un- productive in the world. I am getting myself physically fit which is great. But as far as having an impact and doing something meaningful on a day to day basis..not so much.
I have also come to the realization that I'm not too fond of travel. Especially for multiple nights as being away from Dick isn't fun. I am going to be traveling so much for athletic events this summer that if I add speaking engagements in there I will be gone at some point every week. And I really don't want that. So, I have actually made a decision (WooHoo!) in that I am going to limit my speaking to the Chicago area unless something that comes my way that is really appealing. In March and April I will be out of town for speaking engagements I have already committed to but I am going to limit them from now on.
Now, to get to the point. You may want to brace yourself but I am actually going to be starting my prosthetic residency in the near future..gasp...I actually made a decision.
Scheck and Siress is such a great company to both be a patient at and an employee that I would be really stupid to not do my residency with them while we are still living in Chicago. They are willing to be flexible with my schedule, allowing me to do all the events I have already planned on and I will be starting on as a resident as early as next week. I will still be able to swim in the
mornings and then other workouts will be pushed until after work. If I have a particularly long one I may take off from work a few hours early. The typical residency is one year long but with all the days I will be gone it will take me up to 18 months to complete. I am very excited for this and happy to have finally made a decision. I have been in to help out in the prosthetic lab the last 2 days I feel so so much more productive. I get to start my residency out under David Rotter and he is my prosthetist as well. He is so passionate about his work and his patients (he even came to Beijing to cheer me on) that working with him will be fantastic. He's the one in the picture. Check out the company at http://www.scheckand siress.com.Starting in the end of Feb I will be out of town frequently through the end of June and then a week in July. But Scheck and Siress is so gracious to accommodate my schedule and I feel lucky to be affiliated with them.
I keep thinking that perhaps I made a wrong decision a few months back but had I not made that decision I always would have wondered what this 'so- called' glamorous life was like. I am happy I tried it even if just for a few weeks and that I have the resources that allow me to flip flop. What can I say, I'm a flip- flopper.
So, that's the latest from my end.
Swimming is good but hard, armbike is good but hard, running is plain hard but prosthetics is fun. I can't wait to get started...
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