Actually Returning

I meant to write this post yesterday, but after a successful partial return to school I was completely drained of energy to the point where writing a blog post was really beyond me. All I really had the energy to do was sit in my chair and watch television, trying not to fall asleep. I even made the grave mistake of letting my younger brother choose whatever movie he wanted to choose to watch. Two hours of Thor later (actions scenes so poorly lit it's impossible to tell what's going on, shot after shot where the camera's at a thirty or forty-five degree angle for no apparent reason, general action movie predictableness), I was still awake. Barely.

But I'm alive and functioning at the moment and therefore able to write this post, after surviving yet another action movie I didn't want to watch this afternoon (and a nap, which has left me feeling much better, though I suspect that leaving my chair to trundle around in the walker briefly helped, too).

As evidenced by the first paragraph, I have, in fact, managed to return to school. This isn't a full return. I'm only able to stay for a few classes each day and even that manages to drain me of all energy. But at the same time…it is a decisive escape from the house, from the chair, from the Recovery Couch.

I've also started discussions with my teachers as far as what I should do about the material I missed. In most cases, we're just letting it slide. Given my current state, trying to make up all the work seems like it could be counter-intuitive (good: work made up, bad: not enough energy to function), though there is some stuff I will need to complete, mostly classes such as Chinese where the material really is cumulative. All my teachers have been quite understanding so far, which is great.

Another bright spot is the fact that, in practice, my school is decently handicap accessible. I haven't tried the tricky bit yet (the math wing/cafeteria), but the elevator…works, even if it is slow as death and twice as scary, and the classrooms are fairly easy to maneuver about in, even in the world's largest, most cumbersome wheelchair.

The final bright spot I'm going to note here is that people really truly have been very accommodating, very welcoming and (it seems) pleased that I've returned. When you're worn out and spending most of the day in a losing battle to try and keep your ankle incision covered up by your sweatpants, it means a lot to have people smiling and saying "hi" and holding the doors open. So that's been really wonderful.

As far as some very brief, bullet-point progress notes, though I should have mentioned it earlier, my incisions are officially healed—ten to fifteen days post-op is when they're said to be healed. That said, the bandages they stuck on the incisions have not left yet and show no signs of wanting to leave. Additionally, I have moved out of the wheelchair at home. I still need it at school since the crowds are much greater and the distances much longer, but at home I'm completely walker-dependent, which is a definite strong progress note. The closer I get to normal life…

And equally of note:

One of my recovery objectives: defeat a game of Minesweeper (seen here: 20 by 30 gameboard with 100 mines). As you can tell, mission accomplished! I'm feeling much triumph at the moment…

My recovery is actually happening now, in other words.

Very much a good thing.