One Step Forward, No Steps Back

Last night, I had a silly thought. Why can’t Lion view his sling as a form of bondage? Of course that’s very silly since there’s nothing sexual about the sling that’s holding his arm in place while he heals. But, technically, it is a form of bondage. OK. Serious up.

I decided we should do our errands early so I can get the laundry done early and Lion can pack and then relax for the rest of the day. He didn’t sleep well last night. His shoulder hurts today. It seems like the perfect time to test out his cryotherapy machine. The laundry is in and he’s getting things all charged up for his trip.

Lion’s rules are suspended so I didn’t really notice if he put on his training collar before we went out. I do try to sneak a peek at his dresser to see if he remembered, or I try to connect to it with my phone. But, as I said, the rules are suspended. However, he was lagging a little behind me when I got in the truck and he said he had to circle back because he forgot something. I asked if it was the training collar. It was. He’s still trying to follow the rules. He’s afraid we’ll let everything go once he has his surgery and we’ll be back to square one.

Obviously, he’s not going to want sex for a while. He’ll be in pain and in no mood for love. Enforced chastity will just become plain, old chastity. But even though the rules are suspended, he can still try to follow them. We decided that, assuming he’s not loopy from drugs, I should point out when he breaks a rule. He won’t get punished, but at least we both know he’s trying to obey and I’m watching him. I’m not enforcing the rules, but I am still paying attention. That way it won’t be as difficult to jump back in once the rules are back in force.

In addition to that, we’ll decide when each rule comes back based on his recovery. It doesn’t make any sense for me to catch him interrupting me when he’s babbling on drugs. But, let’s say in a month, when he’s mostly off the pain meds, he’s coherent enough to understand that he’s interrupting, that rule may come back. If he’s able to eat without spilling everything all over the place, maybe in a few weeks, that rule can come back. If we’re going out and he remembers the training collar but can’t put it on by himself, he can ask me to put it on him. Then maybe that rule comes back.

There’s no magic formula to when the rules come back. It will depend on his progress and recovery. Maybe a rule comes back and has to be suspended again. That’s fine. We’ll just deal with it as it comes. The main thing is to maintain some semblance of FLR and, more importantly, communication.