Retirements

This last two weeks have been somewhat of a roller coaster for us.
My husband decided to retire and has had two presentations and I returned to work for the first time in nineteen months to formally receive a retirement presentation.

We had a small gathering to mark the occasion and family came to stay for a week. The house seemed busy again after being largely on my own during the day over the last months. The help that was offered was gratefully received as it gave my husband a welcome break form all his extra chores.

So it was on Week 2 that we first had to learn how to adjust to this new chapter of our lives. My husband had only been used to really seeing me for any length of time at the week-ends and now was the time to discuss what I needed assistance for. To enable my further recovery, l welcomed the extra exercise sessions that we could do - guided by the physio. However, I tried to steer him clear of helping at every opportunity. I would get wound up and say to him that he was not aiding my recovery only inhibiting it.
Ouch - not fair I know and hopefully he will pass comment on this.

The complete reverse of this would  be to let him do everything and get really complacent. That would only be an abuse of all the help and treatment I have been fortunate to receive and then lose everything that we all have acheived together. I need to be able to do stuff and keep focused on my recovery.

I felt selfish when I asked to go to the shops with him and I know only too well that he could do it far quicker on his own, but after such a long time I really wanted to look at supermarket shelves and see products. Occasionally I had done on-line big shops, but there is nothing like seeing products first hand.

Another "wind up" is going into a cafe or such like and see my walking stick being moved for "safety". This is my aid and I know where I want it and where it is safe.

It still frustrates me seeing him do a lot of what I should be doing, but at least now we have the time to discuss and plan.

I am sure that we have both had to bite our lips, but we are copers and that's what we do best.