Been a few very busy days. Twice to Duluth for OT, checking out other possible treatments. Sent the Neuromove back. Still working with the Saeboflex. love it. It brought my hand back to some functionality. Still a work in progress, but getting better. Have been checking out Trigenics, sounds good, but hard to find a provider near me. Same with Active Release. That one sounds really good, may pursue it in the future. The main issue is still range of motion problems in the left shoulder. My OT has been doing myofacia release on the shoulder along with my exercising it has helped.

Goal setting. Next step now that we have the mind cleansed, lets continue to fill it with useful things.

First goal: to set goals. Don't procrastinate, just do it!

Secondly, goals must be realistic and achievable, local within your control, not global and out of your control.

What is a realistic goal? One you can actually achieve in a reasonable length of time.

Some examples of goals we can all relate to are: When I was in rehab I was asked what my goals were. First goal was to drive again. Did that one week after coming home. Limited it to local area, daytime only, five mile max. Dr. agreed to that, and that was all I could do at that time. Now can drive to Duluth one way. I have worked up to it in reasonable steps. Recognize when you have taken on too much. Don't bite off more than you can chew.

Other goals achieved recently or in progress are: walking 800' to mailbox. Took a few weeks, but gradually worked up to it in bits. Snow blow the driveway. Too ambitious when I did it, took two days to recover. Lifted canoe, still too much ice on water to paddle it. Time will tell.

Lesley and I have decided to rethink our camping plans. The reality is we neither can carry what we used to. We are now planning to get smaller backpacks and make more trips across the portages than we did. We have to get realistic in our plans. You must as well.

Part of the goal setting is to be willing to do that which is necessary to achieve your goals. Daily exercise is my new reality to do what I want to do. I don't like it, but must do it. Your goals will be different and suited to your specific situation. They might be to walk again, do more daily ADL's, dress yourself, etc. Some of my goals were quite simple. Example: open a zip lock bag. Done. Another goal: carry cup of coffee with left hand. Still working on that, don't know when that will get better, just keep trying.

We are still cold here, had a foot of snow last week. Yesterday the overnight low was 0. Now ready for spring to spring. Lesley will blog again next week after her night shifts end tonight and she sleeps Monday.