I am lying on the sofa with my leg in a full brace after undergoing ACL reconstruction surgery earlier on today. To keep myself amused I have a full bottle of pain meds, an ipad and a daft Lab who keeps wanting to jump on the sofa with me. My boss told me he will cut off email if I respond to work emails so I guess I will try and catch up on some reading and homework helping for the kids (and generally more kid time as I travel for work a fair bit). I am likely to be here for a couple of weeks.
What did you do to amuse yourself when immobilized for an extended period or did you just go loopy? I am on Percocet, what did they have you on?
Also any suggestions for ipad games or books or is there anything worthwhile society wise that one can do when lying on a sofa.
I should probably work on sensible sentence construction.
Well, I didn’t have as tough a recuperation as you did I think. I was on my feet as soon as I got back from the hospital, though I didn’t have a whole lot of energy. I remember watching a lot of DVDs, including some Degrassi TNG, (getting way too emotionally connected to Spinner’s melodrama,) and a big Firefly marathon to console myself for missing the Toronto CSTS charity screening. I was also riding the bus out to Stoney creek every day to get my dressings changed, after the home-visit nurse came the first day and told me off for not having the supplies that nobody had given me or told me I needed to get. headsmack
Within two weeks I was making it into work for half days.
Sorry if this isn’t too helpful. If you haven’t already played every angry birds game ever, that might kill a couple of hours.
I only took one week off, but I spent it watching tv shows, reading and just staring off into space. I wasn’t immobilized, but I didn’t feel the need to move much.
I was on leave for six weeks earlier this year. I surfed the net, getting lost for hours at times in sites like Wikipedia, sketched (have one of your family or friends bring you a pad and some colored pencils), did a bit of papercraft later in the recovery, watched the first season of Duck Dynasty and a lot of stuff on the nerd channels.
If someone brings you a paper pad and colored pencils, see if they can find a coloring book for grown ups. Yes, they do make them! One of my good friends brought me two (geometrics on regular paper and florals on transparent vellum) that were fun to spend 15-30 minutes at a time on.
If all else fails, you could decorate the dog with whatever non-toxic craft stuff s/he’ll tolerate.
I was through it all over last June thru Oct. The TV was great companion at all hours as a distraction. I couldn’t concentrate on novels, but I did word-searches. They’re less taxing! Also, my wife was a loyal companion during visiting hours (at the hospital). Also, it takes a lot of patience. Maybe keep a pad nearby to write down your thoughts while recovering. Good luck! P.S. I should explain often I could not sleep at night due to pain and/or illness. Sometimes, I’d eventually doze off during the afternoon hrs when sleep would overcome me. (I was also not allowed to eat as I was on a nutrition IV giving me sustenance.)
Colouring book, first pass sounded daft, but on second thoughts that could be a great diversion. I constantly doodle geometric shapes during meetings, might give it a bash putting some more structure behind it.
While in a Lortab fog, I taught my cat to fetch. “Where’s your ball? Bring me your ball! There goes your ball!!” Had I been sober I would have realized the folly in teaching a nocturnal pet that play time starts when I am brought a jingly cat toy. Five years on, she still wants to play at 2 am.
Expert checking in. I had surgery for a torn labrum (shoulder) 3 years ago and knee surgery last fall, both of which kept me out of work for a week. I was sitting here trying to put together a list of all the interesting things I did to keep me occupied during those times and…I can’t remember. Oxycodone IS good stuff. The kids liked to be around when Dad took the pain meds, because apparently I get much more interesting when slightly high.
I’m pretty sure I did something during all that time. Hope that helps.
I’ve had hernia surgery, and dental surgery. I read, mostly non-fiction, mostly biblical studies, because it’s one of the few times I know I can have hours of uninterupted study. Madame Pepperwinkle also brings me puzzle magazines at such times.
On a related note, the best way I found to deal with pain is to occupy your mind. I would play games that required a lot of concentration, like FPSs, and I wouldn’t even notice it once I got into the game.
Years ago i was on bedrest for over a month and a coworker sent me a care package that had a big box of crayons, kids coloring books, word puzzle books, and some other junk i can’t recall. It was a lifesaver! I colored every single page in detail, shading and highlights too. We laughed about it later.
These days, my Xbox saves me. I’ve completed lots of big games and could probably outplay most teenage boys! (so embarrassing!)
Also, I play lots of logic and word games on the iPad. I like Logic Detective, Picture Soduko, HieroglyphCipher, Tiny Tower, Drop7, 7 Little Words, Pocket Frogs… I don’t like to pay for aps so I just play the free stuff.
I crochet, quilt, paint, read, watch lots of Netflix movies.
Key to not getting bored is do something different every day.
I took my narcotic pain killers and muscle relaxers at the same time, on an empty stomach and then watched horror movies. :smack: That was an interesting week.
After I figured out I wasn’t supposed to take the pills at the same time, I read books, watched movies, played Diablo 2 (this was a long time ago) and took a huge number of short walks. After a month of that, I started going to physical therapy 3 times a week but that was the only real change to my entertainment.
Tennis elbow release:
I loafed around feeling sorry for myself (I was pretty sure it was going to cost me my job), watched a lot of movies, read a lot of books, and tried to play WoW with one hand and went to PT 3 times per week. Since it was summer vacation, I also hung out with my nephews. We went to the mall and the park and we went for free family matinees on Wednesday afternoons.
When I was off work for three months, I learned some new crochet techniques (and made some cute crocheted jewelry), learned a few new songs on the ukulele, read all of the “Anne of Green Gables” books (the literary equivalent of comfort food), spent a lot of time on the internet, and got in the habit of talking aloud to my cat.
The only surgery I’ve ever had was eye surgery (on both eyes), which sort of limited my options for the first day or two. I mostly listened to music and daydreamed–given enough imagination, one is never completely bereft of entertainment.
I had my tonsils out a few years ago, which meant 3 full weeks flat on my back (advanced age for the surgery plus a predisposition to bleeding made my doc more cautious). I maintain to this day that it was the best three weeks of my life; book in one hand, TV remote in the other, bottle of drugs on the table. The former Mr Kitty purchased a PS2 for my use, but I didn’t really get into it as it required way more hand-eye coordination than I could muster. Since the surgery was scheduled several weeks in advance, I had plenty of time to select out movies and books that I wanted to get into.
I was off for 6 weeks for an on the job injury. Got on the internet and found a very cheap plane fare to Mexico. It was a charter flight with lots of empty seats. I asked the physical therapist if I could do rehab in Mexico. She said sure, and gave me a bunch of exercises and some elastic things to stretch my shoulder. I couldn’t snorkel, but I could lift a beer. Had a great time and decided to live there. Been here for 7 years and lovin’ it. I am still very amused.
Was laid up for 3 months when I had lymphoma, mostly due to muscle atrophy after an extended hospital stay. Mostly filled the time with video games, reading, movies, TV and that sort of thing. It helped that I’m already a homebody by nature.
Oddly, I watched a ton of ER during those months. ETA: Despite that I’m a total internet junkie, I didn’t have a laptop back then, and couldn’t comfortably sit at the computer desk for more than a few minutes. I probably should have had my dad move the computer next to the recliner where I spent most of my time. If you’re an internet junkie, you already know it’s the best time-killer ever invented.
