Trying to fill the unforgiving minute

I HATE crutches. I've never had to use them a lot, but the times I did I hated them. So I borrowed My Sweetie's Mom's wheelchair (she has had occasional foot and back surgeries so doesn't use it on a regular basis). Well as much as I love the mobility - I can go almost everywhere in the house - I didn't realize how dangerous these things were. I have bruises on both outer sides of both knees, I have a humongous knuckle lump from crashing into a door jamb. You know how knuckles have an indention between them? Well the whole area around my right index and middle fingers, extending down to the middle of my hand (larger than a silver dollar in circumference) is one giant blue mound. And I've hit my (good) left foot with the front wheel about a million times.

Well if you read the last blog, I was obviously being overly optimistic about a sprain. I re-broke it. When I took my shower this afternoon and peeled all the protective coverings away from my foot, there were those same bruises that I had forgotten about (well it was more than 5 1/2 years ago!) But as soon as I saw the strange dark bruises at the base of my last three toes, I thought, "Oh yeah, I remember that!" And the whole outside half of my foot is light gray. It's not pretty, but I think my knuckle looks worse.

Taking a shower was quite the adventure. MS came home to bring me lunch and I had him put one of those resin patio chairs in my shower, along with various other things that I thought would help. The part I didn't work out was getting out of the shower. I actually sat back down in the "shower chair" wishing I had a beer and cigarette to keep me company as I pondered my predicament. I did have my cane there and finally realized I was going to have to put SOME weight on my foot to get out. Now I don't freak out about putting a tad bit of weight on it when it's wrapped in sock, ace bandage, and rocker boot, but this was a bare naked foot. I finally figured out a weird maneuver where I put the broken foot out with the cane, held onto the shower door and quickly pulled out the other foot, pivoted and sat on the edge of the tub (the tub is right across from the shower). So then I sat there for a bit pondering my next move. This went on and on until I finally got to the bathroom door where the wheelchair was waiting. Yeah the wheelchair does not fit through either bathroom door. I didn't even know they were smaller.

One of my favorite things about this house is the thick carpet padding. Nice for most things, not so good for wheelchairs. And we even had rugs on top of the carpet in two rooms. They have been rolled up and put aside. We have hardwood floors in the hallways and working around two outside walls of the living room, so I can FLY on those (that's how I busted my knuckles). It's sort of like you have been driving on a gravel road and then you get to a brand new highway. Zoom zoom zoom. Oh and I figured out how to get through doorways easily without my hands on the wheels. YAY!

The good news is I can do a lot of things in this chair that I could not do on crutches: I've cooked dinner once, emptied the dishwasher once and even hand washed my teflon pots. Not to mention move from room to room without feeling like my arms are breaking. (Did I mention how much I hate crutches?) And the guest bathroom is easy. I just wheel up to it, park, grab my cane and use the long counter for one side, the cane for the other. I do miss going outside. If I miss it enough, I'll use the crutches.

The cats are really funny. Jake, the big orange tabby that usually spends his time (when not sleeping) following me all over the house all day long, like a dog, avoids me like the plague. I think he thinks I'm on a riding vacuum cleaner that just hasn't been turned on yet. The shy cat, Lilly, actually came up to me tonight to be petted. Cats are weird.

Well I think I'm going to check the internet to see how long it takes foot bones to knit.