Progressness

It's been rather uncomfortable today.  It wasn't as hot as it had been, but it was humid as the inside of a mouth, making the air thick and nasty.  We turned the AC on, and somehow it just managed to make it cold. When we turned it off, however, suddenly we were back to being inside the Mouth.  Nasty.

Despite this, I had a small victory today. I clean the cats' litter box every afternoon. Said box is in the utility room, which is more or less almost the back of the house. Since we moved here, I would always roll a kitchen chair into the utility room and sit while I changed the litter.

This made it easier on me physically, but it wasn't without issues. Said kitchen chair, which is somewhere between 1000 and 7000 years old, has a wheel that likes to fall off. It doesn't always fall off, but it happens often enough to be annoying. We've tried fixing it like a billion times now, but have managed to only maintain it instead of truly fixing.

A while back, when I decided to start making some small but important changes in my life, I opted to stop rolling the chair to the utility room every day. I still roll it and sit if I have to do a lot of stuff back there, but for just the "clean litter box" part, I opted to walk back there and stand while I scooped.

It hasn't been easy, especially not as it grew hotter. I found a way to pace myself though. I would walk to the kitchen and sit as long as I needed to, gain my strength, and then walk to the utility room. Yes, I realize to many of you, this sounds pathetic. However, keep in mind that I'm coming from a state of being not that mobile.

Today, when I walked out of the bathroom, my roommate was sitting in the kitchen chair working on something. I spoke to him and walked to the utility room without pausing, cleaned the box, and then walked to the kitchen, pausing to pick a couple of things up off the floor.

I didn't really think about it as I was doing it. I just did it. Was I in pain by the time I sat down? Yes. God, yes. However, I still managed to do all of this without rest, I even kept my breathing steady enough to speak as I did it.

This is a major accomplishment for me. A HUGE accomplishment. It shows my strength is building. I'm gaining mobility.  This means I'm gaining more independence and freedom.

And . . . now I'm crying a little bit. That's okay though. It's a good cry. Hopefully I can keep moving forward with this.

Even if it is just a little bit at a time.