I had ever intention of making these myself. I had the coconut, I always have the flour, I always have the sweetened condensed milk, and I always have the flavorings. I even got up early to make the macaroons.
But real life intervened. As it so often does.
My husband fell down the steps last year. He did not seek out help from an orthopedist surgeon, despite me telling him to, for several months. Preferring to complain about it to me instead. He was diagnosed with a frozen shoulder in December, after FINALLY seeking care. An MRI on last year’s deductible, thank you, later and surgery was not indicated. Thankful for that. Physical therapy was.
The thing about shoulders is you have to be diligent about stretches, regardless of surgery. Spoiler alert, he was not. He is a grown man and I cannot, will not ‘make’ him do things. He was diligent about going to physical therapy though. But he was unhappy about his progress. Because he did not do his daily stretches. He wanted a quick fix, and there is nothing quick about rehabbing a shoulder. I know, I’ve had shoulder surgery twice, plus a rotator cuff strain from a car accident. There is no shirking your stretches.
Compounding this he fell after making fun of me when I tripped in New Orleans. And he fell hard. And declined x-rays at the hospital that I offered. He finally went back to the orthopedist after three weeks. And was diagnosed with a non-displaced hairline fracture of the proximal ulna. Which is already healing. That’s good.
His physical therapist told him of a new treatment for frozen shoulder. One that involved breaking the scar capsule after local injection, and lubricating the joint with steroid. They do this through a saline injection that will ‘pop’ the frozen shoulder capsule and stretches. All of this is done at the doctor’s office. He was told he could drive home today from his appointment. Traffic being what it is around here this is a 45 minute drive, at minimum. The appointment was carefully made to coincide with his Thursday physical therapy appointment.
I did not think driving himself would be useful or safe. I used my baking time to take him to both appointments.
I was browsing at the grocery store near the office. This is a new one on me, one that I had heard of. I saw they had bite-size coconut macaroons on offer. I grabbed two boxes and bought them.
This kind of goes against the home-made portion of Cookie Thursday is a Thing.
But it allowed me to be present and available for my husband today.
And it afforded me a nap when I got home from these errands because I had dropped off the bought cookies earlier at the hospital. I left them in keeping with my manager.
It will have to do.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 