mulberryshoots

Ever since I had a bad fall and broke my ankle in February, life changed quickly. For a few halcyon weeks, almost nothing mattered but being helped through surgery and recovery concerns.

Being transported up and down three flights of stairs required a band of brothers to help carry me in a chair like a palanquin, moving down one stair at a time. A heavy cast remained on my leg for weeks on end that made it hard to get a good night’s sleep.

Lying on the couch so that I could elevate my swollen foot higher than my heart was key to keeping edema from getting in the way of natural healing. Last Friday, I was told by my orthopedic surgeon that I could now put 100% of my weight on the injured foot–upped from 25% for the past four weeks. And instead of the heavily padded removeable boot, a slender tie-up splint was wrapped around my foot.

Honestly, I can’t get used to it. I’ve been favoring the injured leg for so long, being so cautious getting in and out of the shower, sitting while washing my hair and finally learning how to maneuver on crutches up and down the stairs instead of being carried to go out to the car to go on appointments or on occasion to go to the grocery store.

Now, there is a “new” normal to getting to really normal. I think it’s mostly psychological in that there seems to be a need for more confidence to enter my head before I go around walking on the favored foot without the benefit of my wheelchair, crutches and walker. You’d be surprised how much I’ve enjoyed wheeling around our place in situ. Now, I’m almost able to skip the crutches (sort of like skipping learning how to crawl for babies) and find my way around with little more than holding on to a walker or backs of chairs in the kitchen.

Today, my granddaughter, A. is coming for lunch! I am surprising her with homemade cinnamon rolls when she arrives, because they are her favorite and she hasn’t been able to be here on Christmas Day–which is when we usually eat them while opening presents. We will also be visiting my local jeweler who has put together a special gift for her graduation, scheduled for ten days from now. We are thrilled that she’ll be a freshman at Johns Hopkins University this Fall.

How times change.

And how a “new normal” can now include things that we never thought of before. I was thinking that we can also decide to exclude old bad habits and “have to’s” from entering a “new normal.”

Hey, maybe there’s no “normal” to worry about at all, come to think of it!