It’s been ten days since my cast was removed and I was told to get to walking.  In those ten days I’ve progressed from barely being able to put weight on the leg in the cam boot, to being able to walk without crutches and only somewhat of a limp.  I still cannot walk far without the boot, but that’s okay.  The foot and ankle are still swollen, and movement of the ankle is still difficult, stiff, and painful, and that’s okay too.

Because I’m walking.  On two feet.  I’m driving, even in snow, and going shopping and meeting my friends in the coffee shop and working every day.  I climb the stairs to my second-floor bedroom, and take showers standing up in my own shower.  I go down the steps to the basement to my office and to do laundry.  I can stand on two feet to cook a meal or iron a shirt or run a vacuum.

Those first few days were rough and by the time I went to bed at night I was exhausted and discouraged.  I’m usually discouraged by the time I go to bed, but mostly that is because I’m tired and have probably pushed a bit too hard.  But then again, the pushing I do does mean I’m recovering, healing up, getting back to a normal life.

My knees are screaming at me, which doesn’t surprise me.  The knee scooter really put pressure on my right knee, and it is also the leg that has been holding up the cast all these weeks, and now has to lift a heavy foot covered in a cam boot too.  It has a right to be angry.  The left knee?  Mad because it’s had to do everything these last 8 weeks or so.  I know that once I get back on my bike, the knees will be happy.  A few weeks of biking and the knees won’t remember anything was wrong.  I have to think that the ankle may feel the same way.

I have less than three weeks of cam boot left, then I go into regular shoes.  I’m up to six exercises from my little physical therapy pamphlet from the doctor.  Soon, I’ll add three or four more.  I need a little more movement in my ankle first, but that’s coming, slowly but surely.

We’re headed into our second snow storm in a week, this one worse than the last.  Anywhere else, this would be a frightening prospect.  But being Colorado snow, it melts off the pavement fairly quickly, so I can get out and about.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  Tomorrow will be spent with a warm fire, a good book, and a pile of yarn, I think.  A well-deserved rest for two days of errand-running.

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