After the excitement of Friday (leg straightened! into college! Jurassic Park!), yesterday was fairly quiet—probably a good thing, seeing as today included another outing, for a college interview (which went well), as well as a shower (getting clean has become the highlight of my existence) and then hopefully a successful return to school tomorrow.
All in all, it was a pretty relaxed week. I finished reading The Dead Zone by Stephen King after a couple weeks of reading—I started the book in the hospital waiting room the morning of my surgery. All in all, an enjoyable read, filled with references to other King books and a very good companion piece to his much later 11/22/63. Not a difficult read, but sometimes that's what you need after a bout with anesthesia: something simple and entertaining.
Beyond that, there was my previously-discussed trip to the hospital, full days without my needing to seek the aid of Tylenol or Valium (my pain medicine-free streak ended yesterday after the frame required a little bit of extra help to calm down after a fairly intense final day of corrections), and, of course, time on the couch. Dr. Sundberg has prescribed the next step of my recovery as starting to leave the couch. The result: shorter distances covered in the wheelchair compared to the walker, even though the walker takes a lot more out of me, and slow progress towards greater normalcy in my life. For example, yesterday morning marked the first breakfast I've eaten in a normal chair, instead of a wheelchair of hospital bed, since having the frame placed. This morning marked the second time I ate breakfast in a normal chair.
And, in an even more note-worthy and ambitious moment, I transitioned from my couch into a normal chair. I can't really state just how wonderful it feels, leaving the couch. Don't get me wrong—it's a plenty nice couch (just ask Sunny the previously-mentioned golden retriever). But at this point, the couch has become so linked to my inability to get out of the house and move that transitioning away from it… Well, it's a step in the right direction.
Speaking of steps, this week I started trying to walk again. Well, more faux-walking than real-walking, but still. While the leg is completely 100% stable, I'm still not weight-bearing (just because you can walk on a leg doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt). So what I do is hobble around on the walker, touching the foot to the ground in some imitation of the tempo of actual walking. It completely sucks the energy out of me, but I figure the sooner I get back to normal life, well, the better. Recovery life, as evidenced by the rather repetitive nature of some of my previous posts (couch, couch, frame, couch, couch, frame), can get old kind of quickly.
Which is why I've been enjoying every little "first" that has come my way since the surgery. First time getting out of the hospital bed post-op. First strut adjustments. First time post-op seeing the snow and the outside world beyond the realm of my hospital room. First time claiming my couch. First time eating breakfast in a normal chair. First time leaving my couch.
And tomorrow, hopefully, first time returning to school.
My college interview today was at a Panera Bread. I was sitting in my wheelchair with a cup of hot chocolate and my interviewer and an elderly man came up to me, pointed at the rather obvious device hiding beneath my sweatpants, and commented that the frame looked like it hurts. And, yes, it looks frightening. But it also looks like this recovery is actually progressing.
Which is definitely a good thing.
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