Almost a Second-Semester Senior

As of 7:50 AM this morning, when I was still asleep, my winter break officially ended and I became a second semester senior. Which is rather strange to think about. For as long as I've lived in Minnesota (just about three years now), the importance of my academic work for getting into college has been emphatically emphasized in no uncertain terms.. And now…that particular importance is gone. I'll still try, of course, if only for myself.

I've never been particularly forgiving of any fault in my academic work (or, more accurately, any separation between my actual execution of assignments and my expectations for the execution of my assignments). Most of that drive is internal. I like to do well in school.

Based on that information, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm not a huge fan of missing school. Missing school means missing information which will need to be learned later in a last-ditch effort not to miss out on potentially valuable concepts. It means falling behind.

Today became the first day I missed school to recover from my bout with the placement of the Taylor Spatial Frame.

Just to be clear, I don't regret having the surgery. When I think that the corrections to straighten my leg and fix my weight-bearing axis are now two-thirds of the way done and that, in less than a week, my leg will be fixed and, in the words of Dr. Sundberg, the deformity will be corrected, I generally break down in happy tears. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this surgery was the right call. The frame itself has been surprisingly easy to deal with and the results…well, the results should hopefully speak for themselves.

At the same time, I woke up this morning, ate a bowl of oatmeal, and proceeded to the couch and slept for a couple of hours. Yesterday I went for an outing with my family. This outing consisted of my getting into the car, our driving to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum about half an hour away, me being wheeled about in the wheelchair for a short period of time, and our coming home. And yet, despite the lack of arduous activity, this outing left me completely drained today.

I try to avoid looking at the frame. Sooner or later, I'll have to get used to the sight of this hardware contraption bolted to my tibia, but for now I'm leaving it safely covered by my sweatpants. However, from what my parents (who do have to look at the frame) have told me, the pin sites are healing well. I barely feel strut adjustments. Aside from a nightly dose of Tylenol and Valium, I'm mostly off pain medications. The pressure sore on my foot is now quite recognizably a blister which should be gone before too long. I'm capable of moving around the house in a walker, can sit up longer, can dangle my leg for longer. And yet…

And yet the hardest part of this whole experience has been fighting off fatigue. For the past few nights I've managed to sleep all the way through the night without waking up before morning. This entails my staying awake through the day, which has proven tricky. Today, for instance, I watched four hours of movies to stay awake.

At some point I'll have the aftereffects of anesthesia thrown off and will be able to return to school and my normal, everyday life. Some point soon.

But for now, I'm still stuck on my couch, trying not to fall asleep.