Moving Forward

When I do not have a frame wrapped around my leg, one of my normal family duties is feeding the cat, a not-terribly-complex process involving opening the fridge, removing half a can of cat food, mixing that half can of cat food with water, taking water-food mixture up the stairs to the cat and being yowled at while His Hungriness awaits his royal feast. When wearing a frame and dealing with a walker, activities such as opening the fridge and going up stairs are not, shall we say, the easiest. They are also not the most mother-approved of activities, especially considering that when sounds of cabinets opening and closing come from general areas of the house where I happen to be lurking, my mother calls out to make sure I'm okay.

Today I fed the cat. On my own power. Without tripping, falling and dying. I felt quite good about myself.

Approximately two minutes after I returned downstairs, he started yowling again to inform me that he hadn't gotten enough food. Then again, this is a cat who would swell up to a beyond-spherical shape if given the opportunity to eat as much food as he wanted.

Now, moving beyond the fact that I managed to feed the cat, there are a couple of major notes about today and the progress I've been making in the rather recent past. First off, for a variety of reasons (being tired, being sick, doctor's appointment), today was the first full Monday's worth of school I made in the 2013 calendar year. Which was exciting.

Perhaps more exciting: I have abandoned the walker at home. A couple weeks ago the wheelchair was regulated to school use only. Over the weekend I realized that most of my walker usage at home was dragging the thing behind me, at which point I decided that I probably wasn't getting a good deal of use out of the walker. So I just ignored it. I still need to use it as a hallway-clearing device at school so the crowds do not bump against the frame, but still—progress is progress.

Also, partially as a result of my successful cat-feeding and stair navigation, I am now more or less cleared to head on back upstairs to my normal bedroom. I'm not sure when exactly I'd make such a move. All I know is it should be soon. Slowly but surely, I'm returning to normal. Today, my main evening chore returned to me. Within the week, my main living space should return as well.

In another interesting twist, my mother has decided to help me repurpose the time I spend hanging out in the back not stressing out the leg. Years ago I started knitting an afghan with stripes of many colors. At some point I gave up on it. My mother knit a stripe and then stopped. She found it again and handed it back to me. The afghan has now become my official recovery project—perhaps a little bit late, but better late than never.

And in the end, I should have a warm, nice-looking blanket to call my own. Always a plus.