Sunday, October 24, 2010

Weekly Wrap-up for October 24, 2010: My Bum Toe and Motivation.

This has been a craptastic week. I've been dealing with toe drama for over a month and while it is finally being treated properly, it has completely wiped me out. And if you are confused you can go here to read about how it all started.

After being off work last week, I had another appointment Monday at the occupational medicine center, where the doctor wanted to wait another week before sending me to a specialist. I was near tears when I left to go to our Human Resources department to talk to the woman in charge of all this excitement. Thankfully, she agreed with me that enough was enough and helped me get in to see a specialist.

Wednesday afternoon found me in the office of a podiatrist, who listened to my story and the multiple treatments with disdain. He pretty much agreed with me that the doctors I dealt with were idiots. They constantly contradicted each other and switched the treatment on my constantly. In the last month, I have been on three different antibiotics!

He looked at my toe and asked if it was okay if he just went in. I said yes and after numbing my toe, he dug in and said he solved the problem (when I dropped the brick on my toe, it broke off pieces of nail, which were down in the toe and nail-bed). He told me I could go back to work as long as I wear my super-cool medical shoe. He also gave me pain pills, which I have only been taking when absolutely necessary.

So, it has been a long and stressful week, with a lot of hobbling around on my part. I had to stop taking the pain pills today, since they were ripping apart my stomach, but some Motrin has been working to keep the pain to a dull ache.

I go back in another week to make sure its healing, but I am optimistic. Even with the ache, this is the best my toe has felt in over a month!

With all of that, blogging took a back seat this week. I have about 12 posts written in draft, but they need to be edited. I will be taking a look at them tomorrow (I have the day off) and getting them scheduled to go up. I have two more posts for Villette, as well as posts for Lolita, The Waste Land, Brave New World, The Little Prince, and A Separate Peace. I also missed the second post for the Madame Bovary read-along, so I will be posting the second and third part comments in one post on the 28th (Thursday I believe). I am also a mere 50 pages from the end of Bleak House, that other read-along that I have not posted about since the first week. I gave up on trying to catch up, so full thoughts on the whole book will be up on the 27th (Wednesday).

It is probably safe to say that you'll be seeing 2 posts/day a few times this week.

Overall, I feel like I am in a big slump. I fell into it back in September, and seemed to pull out of it during the read-a-thon, but I feel no motivation to carry on with this project. I think its more of a "I need more time" kind of thing as opposed to a feeling of wanting to give up. But a big part of me is frustrated with my seemingly lack of progress recently and I am craving the need to move forward. I'm sure it will pass eventually, but probably not as soon as I would like. After all, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year (my name is aliteraryodyssey over there too-add me as a writing buddy!) and moving during the month of November.

Anyway, how do you pull yourself out of a slump?

10 comments:

  1. I wish I could answer that. If you mean a blogging slump, I have been in one since my last surgery this year... in July. Only in the last couple of weeks have i really started blogging again and then its only been reviews. I think you just have wait till you're not in it anymore. I don't think that you can pull yourself out of it. When you are out of it you will know

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  2. First off, let me just say that I am extremely prone to having shards of my toenails break off and imbed themselves deep down in the skin. I'm sure that's minor compared to what you had, and considering how it makes my toes get all swollen, red, hot, infected, and painful, I can only imagine what you've had to go through. Especially for a month! Normally I'm practically slicing open my own toes to find the little buggers causing the problem...sigh. Apparently there's some procedure they can do to make it so it never happens again, but I've never been in to do it.

    But, turning away from toe problems, which will hopefully soon be gone completely in your case, I'm looking forward to all those drafts! It may seem like a slump, but honestly just hearing the list of all those books you've read is pretty amazing. And you're not at all behind on the Bleak House readalong. The last posts are supposed to go up on the 27th (I just posted mine early, due to the press issues), so you're actually right on schedule!

    It's hard to keep following a list, and I really don't have much advice for you on that front. Sadly, when I make big long lists like this, I'm really good about them for about three months, then I slump and eventually drop the list altogether. I'm a terrible example to you...

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  3. Ouch!! I myself have had some toe dramas with nasty ingrown toenails, but I'll spare you the details. It sucks that you had idiot doctors -- but I'm glad you found a good one and seem to be on the mend, finally.

    And I'm very impressed with the amount of reading you're getting done -- Madam Bovary, Villette, AND Bleak House simultaneously? Wow! I tried reading David Copperfield and An American Tragedy at the same time last summer and I just couldn't do it. I have to alternate a big Victorian with something much smaller so I feel like I'm making progress. I still haven't posted about anything I read during Readathon! Sigh.

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  4. When I'm in a slump I read something fun and frivolous to give myself a bit of a break. Maybe it's worth either giving yourself a free book card to read one book you really want to that's not on the list? I'm a bad influence.

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  5. Ow! I am so sorry to hear about that! I hope you are feeling better soon.

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  6. Allie, I am so glad your toe issue may finally be resolving for you...what a nightmare!

    I think "reading slumps" are just normal. I typically cycle through reading moods. Sometimes I read book after book, night after night for months and then I will go through a few weeks or even much longer where I just don't want to read at all. Take a break if you want, but hang in there for the long run!

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  7. When I'm in a slump I do one of the following (or a combination of all of them)

    1. Read magazines--light and easy! You don't have to commit!
    2. Read childhood classics-- I'll pick up Little House on the Prairie or a fun SVH book! Nancy Drew is good too!
    3. Do something new-- Sometimes I just need to go somewhere new and try to read--a park, a new coffee shop, etc.

    Good luck! And sorry to hear about your whole toe debacle!

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  8. OK, I had an ingrown toe nail when I was a kid that hurt something fierce. I remember my toe turned into this purplish pussy mess and I felt as though it was no longer a part of *my* body, but some alien addition that wanted to cause me pain.

    Your infection and month of pain sounds twelve shade worse. *shudder*

    But like Amanda said, I don't know what you're talking about - slump?! I cannot wait to read your up and coming posts.

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  9. Hi Allie, good to know that your saw someone who really helped. I hope to heard more good news in the coming posts! (You started to work? That’s great! I must have missed that post.)

    About your challenge, I think it's clear that you won't be able to read 186 books until the end of the year, but what a ride, hem? In the wise words of Aerosmith, “’life’s a journey, not a destination” :) So just sit back and enjoy the last books of the year. Maybe you can chose the ones from your initial list that you were really curious about, that might help you getting out of the slump.

    I think you should update your project to a 2-year project… or 3-year. Good luck!

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  10. Hi Allie,
    Glad to hear that your medical problems seem to have turned the corner. There's nothing worse than trying to function optimally when your health is compromised in some way. Keep your chin up - I think your "slump" is coming to an end. :-)
    -Jay

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