Update for Week July 3
Although I have recently added a bike bell to it, I am already over my wheelchair. It is my most over-worn accessory. Last year, amid my geographic re-positionings, I wrote a brief note on my blog UpStreamRose. about the importance of remembering gratitude during difficult times. In this week’s Substack update, I take my own advice by using this countdown to help me keep an eye on the prize. I am focusing my thoughts on a close, yet far goal. The current prize is beckoning me from the other side of my patio. The green field across the way is continuously asking for me to run barefoot on it. I do not entertain such frivolities while I can engage in them. Now that my desk faces that way, that patch of grass looks so inviting and toasty in the sun.
Until then, in this countdown, I recount some of the lucky graces in my current life. The first and biggest grace is that days after my May 15 injury, the various medical staff informed me that I have the potential for a 100% recovery. With a sincere effort and the best healing possible, I should eventually regain full physical mobility in my right leg and hand. In non-medical terms, this bitch will dance again! That is a great prospect. Follow along for a few additional countdown positives.
10. I am only ten days away from my Monday the 17th appointment for the cast on my right leg. The clinic, on the 7th floor of the Correll Pavilion, is just across from Grady Memorial Hospital. I will direct another amigo to the parking garage that morning and then up the ramp to the second floor. On our way to the elevator, a guard will give us a half-assed search us for weapons (or…stolen oxy??). While we wait for the x-ray tech and surgeon, respectively, we will see Atlanta’s iconic Corey Tower from the wall-to-wall south-facing windows.
9. I found a physical therapist who broke his foot, thanks to YouTube University. This PT created a video of nine exercises I can do while wearing my current cast. Fortunately for me, this therapist injured his right foot, so his boot and my cast are doing a little trauma-twinning (again! Who remembers Lola?) Also, Dr. PT has made an advice video on the best footwear post-glittery blue cast.
8. I can count eight nights that I did not sleep at my house since my accident. There were the 4 nights at the hospital. But I find myself most grateful for the other four nights, two nights in Asheville and two other nights of crashing at a friend’s place in town. Incidentally, eight is the number of times I have run over my left toe with my wheelchair. The silver lining is that I have a cast-free left foot with toes on it!
7. I am in week 7 since my injury. Time healing is a slow-moving and, fortunately, progressive path. Thanks to good care, I have no re-injury to my right leg or right arm. That is a real risk and is often the first question that I am asked in my appointments. As of now, I am within the initially reported 6-8 weeks of cast-wearing time. Technically, I have not been misled.
6. I have a follow-up appointment at Emory Ortho for my right wrist in six days. The clinic is close to my home, and I will likely go there with my first Atlanta bike buddy. The Emory clinic has no security guard. All signs suggest that I shall get permission from the fly-fishing surgeon to remove the brace on my hand.
5. I felt the five fingers from my right hand touch my face this morning as I washed. It may not sound like much, but I feel a singular joy as I soap up my face in the morning and cup water in my own two hands to splash at my face. For weeks, I had not felt my own two hands caress my face. Also, earlier today, I used the fingers on my injured right hand to write two pages of a card to a dear friend. While I cannot yet carry my big water bottle (when it is full) with my right hand, I am happy about these five fingers scooping water and writing.
4. In my home right now, there are four different varieties of blooming flowers. I have an orchid, alstroemeria, stargazer lilies, and kalanchoes blooming. Also, four is the average number of books I browse on any given day.
3. I am potentially just three weekends away from doing water activities. With the cast and open wounds, water fun is not a possibility. The odds are pretty good that this activity restriction will change. I definitely want to get splash time in the world’s hottest summer (yet).
2. Earlier this week, I went back upstairs in my two-story townhome for the second time since I was injured. I feel grateful that my home has worked out for my condition. In each flight up, I was looking for books and earrings. I also don’t even mind skipping out on showers to make my house work for me.
1. I have only had to go to the grocery store once since my accident. I went just last week, mainly for joy, to Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market. Even before the accident, this is one of my happy places. I came back from there with flowers, fruits, and sweets.
I do not love driving. Since I have been injured, I have been driven around! I owe many friends and family gratitude for the errands, rides, and adventures this wheelchair has provided. As I wean off pharmaceuticals, I hope to kindly kick this wheelchair to the curb. In the meanwhile, I glance up to hear the call of the green grass. It asks that I run wild and free on a turf of grass which has never been attractive and where dogs run drunkenly as the sun beams down. This verdant patch is tantalizingly domestic and wild as I look up through the sliding glass door past my novel sleeve.
