No more putting it off.

Today, the family and I did something we haven't done in... oh, probably 4 years now. We had an all-out evening at a restaurant. We haven't had the spare $$ to really splurge like this - with 4 of us, even a modest restaurant adds up pretty fast. Actually, it was just The Keg, but for us, that's as high end as we've been able to do for a very long time! *L*

It was a fantastic evening. Especially watching Eldest tackle her King Crab. Talk about working for your meal! LOL My husband just had to have the peppercorn steak. He is, after all, the reason The Keg (in Canada, at least - I don't know about the US) even has it on the menu. A bit of a story, there. ;-) My prime rib dinner was perfection. I just had to ask about the horseradish. It looked and tasted like it had been freshly grated. Turns out, it pretty much was! The waiter was glad to see I recognised it for what it was. He said he'd had patrons who mistook it for coleslaw. !!! Youngest wasn't up to a full entree, so she had the bacon wrapped scallops from the appetizer menu, though she tried some of the crab and is thinking of ordering that whenever we can do this again. We finished off by sharing 3 desserts, all of which were excellent.

There was one thing that happened that completely surprised me, and it hit home for me that I just can't put it off anymore. Although I was told to take the time I needed for my arm to heal, I'm going to have to quit my job. My arm has actually been feeling really good, and I was starting to think I was ready to start working again. I was still hemming and hawing, though. It's great for big stuff, but small stuff, like picking up a cup of tea to drink, still bothers me more than I felt was reasonable for what my job entails.

This evening, however, I reached out to pick up a plate to move it out of the way. I couldn't do it. I literally could not pick up the plate. My elbow simply wouldn't move. Dh had to move the plate for me!

Since, in my job, I would be continuously reaching around people to clear their plates away, this just proved to me that even though my arm is doing much better, it's not enough. I've been doing the exercises and stuff that the physiotherapist had recommended, but it seems to have reached a sort of plateau. The arm is functional, but only to a certain point, and my job goes well beyond that point.

Now, I did think of trying anyways and just using my off arm, but in all seriousness, that just won't work. I'm not *that* ambidextrous, I've discovered. Plus, I know I'd be constantly reaching out with my injured arm before I even think about doing otherwise. I'm already doing it all the time. That and I need both my arms to do my job well.

It's frustrating. I'm starting to think that the arm will never completely heal. In researching this type of injury, it should've responded to my treatment of it before I'd even started physiotherapy - as it was, the only thing that made a difference was changing pain meds. From what I'm reading, lack of response in 6-12 months means moving on to surgery! It's been almost 6 months since it first started bothering me, so I guess it's time to talk to my doctor again. Perhaps there are other options beside physiotherapy to try (which, I've discovered, isn't covered by Dh's insurance after all... ).

Dang it. I don't want to quit my job!