As a non-Vietnamese speaker living in Vietnam, there are a lot of activities that I cannot participate in but there are also plenty that I can. You do kind of have to go out of your way to find them though and being in the expat community that consists of languages from all around the world means that even though there is a group of foreigners doing something somewhere, you may not always fit in because it might be French or Russian or even Spanish language oriented.
When I was healthy and could move all of my body this seemed like a hindrance to truly getting involved in many of the activities but once I injured myself and I was all of a sudden incapable of doing almost anything, it really opened my eyes to how incredibly mundane life without the ability to move can be.
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I have not been subjected to a great deal of serious injury in my life. There was an instance in my early 30's where I broke my ankle and this resulted in me having a cast and crutches for 3 months. I was ineligible for almost anything during that time and my end result was spending a lot of time at home and ordering in pizza. Especially for the first 50 day or so, I rarely left my house. Thankfully at that time in my life I owned a restaurant so I was able to have them deliver me stuff on a regular basis. Otherwise, since I lived alone, I probably would have had pizza delivery for every meal.
Now I have an injury that isn't as limiting as that was, but still, there is very little I can do to pass the time. I spend most of my days looking at screens and well, this was something that I did when I wasn't injured as well, but at a certain point I would take a break and decide to go down to the beach for a walk or a run, or I would meet up with friends to play volleyball (poorly) or pickleball (probably incorrectly) or go swimming or bodyboarding. you know? Just something to mix up the day and not be in a seated position looking at an LED screen all the time.
But now, if I so much as attempt to do anything that could be considered even mild exercise like walking, I end up in pain and regretting my decision to do it at all before I ever get home.
The doctors say that I need to rest but I have to say this: I am not very good at just sitting still. I feel little motivation to get out of bed in the morning, and since I never have been a huge fan of videogames I don't really enjoy that. I have been watching so much TV lately that I am honestly sick of watching TV.
I don't get much enjoyment out of doomscrolling YouTube as well.
I wouldn't say that my group of friends are the most active in the world, but they do something every now and then, but nowadays the only thing I can really participate in is to go to a pub that has comfortable chairs in it and just sit there, talk and drink beer. I guess that is better than being alone on the sofa in my house desperately trying to find something to watch on TV, but only a bit better. Plus the doctors would probably advise to not drink during recovery. Well doc! I need to do something besides just sit here.
During this time of not being able to do almost anything, I have a much greater appreciation for health and moreso, having the ability to move. It has made me think about getting older and how gradually our ability to move is going to decline over time. I saw it happen with my grandparents and I remember that they slept and awful lot and I thought it was strange.
But now, here I am, with nothing really to do throughout the day and often, I will just go and lie down in order to go to sleep and fast-forward time a bit.
I can't really even take Nadi for much of a walk because it's extra hot outside when you are wearing a shoulder brace, and sitting in anything other than cushioned chairs of a specific type, results in my broken ribs starting to bother me rather rapidly.
in that regard, even though the broken ribs do not limit my ability to walk nearly as much as the cast on my leg did when I broke my ankle, it does make it quite impossible for me to enjoy anything outside of my house.
But what do you do once you no longer want to do any of the things in your house anymore?
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I just end up sitting somewhere and looking at memes or other stupid shit on the internet and the next thing I know it is time to take some pills again.
This is not a "feel sorry for me" post. I'm not fishing for sympathy. What this is for me and perhaps for other people is a wake up call to be thankful for the things that we all take for granted. I never really thought about what it would be like to not be able to walk down to the beach, not to be able to ride a bicycle, not to be able to go for a swim, not to be able to do so much as go to a restaurant that is too far away from home and has unknown chairs in it.
I think that once I have recovered, which I hope will be at least well enough at some point in the next 10 days that I can do stuff, that I will have a renewed appreciation for simply being able to go places and just BE THERE.
Nadi has helped me a lot in this period and it also made me think about how much worse this time would have been if she was not here. Once I am healed I am going to make even more of an effort to get out and do stuff and avoid being at home all the time just doing nothing. I've had NO CHOICE but to be at home doing nothing for the past 20 days and it is driving me nuts.
I would expect you have been killing it on the reading front? You should be able to put away a book a day by now! Meanwhile I am still slogging through the same one I started a month ago! My worked in a factory for thirty years and when he retired his opinion was I stood on my feet for 30 years, I am going to sit as much as I want now. I've seen how that has really impaired his mobility as he has gotten older. My goal is to stay active as long as I can so that I can still be moving well when I am older.
as soon as I can do stuff I will do it. I am going to attempt to go on a beach walk today, on even ground, not the sand. baby steps!
Best of luck! I just had some minor surgery done on my foot yesterday evening and I have a feeling it is going to keep me from doing a proper workout the rest of this week. I'm going to at least try to still do upper body weight stuff though.
I know this very well. I've been in your shoes in a way, even worse as I could barely make it to the toilet with a walking stick and even so, I had some unbearable pain. Took me 10 minutes to walk 3m. I wrote a post about it, how I had to plan every step I made, literally, and people thought it's fiction.
Sounds like a cliche, but we do take everything for granted and when we can't do usual things anymore, then we realize what the small things mean to us all.
Fingers crossed that you get well soon and can get your life back.
oh that sounds awful what you are describing. did you get past it? are you ok now? I hope so.
I'm ok now but it's something that comes and goes as it's lower back pain. You have to learn to live with it and know how to handle your moves.
Nothing worse than being forced to do something that you do not want to do. The first few days or a week is ok, but that soon wears thin and then you are royally screwed having watched too much tv already. You could look online and order a model kit you could build and that could be a fun project doing something you would never consider doing.
yeah, i was kind of digging sitting and doing nothing for the first few days and having a wonderful excuse for not doing anything or for going home early. But yeah, i have basically every movie ever made at my fingertips and I scroll through it and just don't want to watch any of it.
I hope you have a swift and full recovery and can get back to all your favorite activities soon 🙏 Your experience is a great reminder that the simplest things like being able to walk or go outside are the most valuable 🙌
Stuck at home with nothing to do? Bored? Have you not heard of internet porn.. a man could occupy enough time to recover from a brain transplant with the slightest bit of effort..
lol. hadn't thought of that :)
I'm here to help.. with ideas anyway
You are not very good on sitting still but you must do it so that you would recover moderately. Have some patience and let your body heal fully before engaging physical activity.
Hoping for your fast recovery.
Just be patient everything will gonna be okay soon.
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