Saturday, November 12, 2011

Reviewing the Situation

A Disability Is an Interesting Thing

Nothing like an injury to remind you of how hard it is to face the world with a disability.

Getting around on one "sort of good" leg is not easy. Actually, it's proof positive that doing both knees at the same time was wise as neither one of my natural knees could ever have done the job my new right knee is doing now while my left leg is essentially non-functional.

I can put some weight on the left leg, but as soon as I try to move with the weight on it, it hurts like h---l.
But I can bend it just fine and there is minimal swelling, whatever that means. If I don't see significant improvement tomorrow, I will probably call the doctor again, just to see if I might need to have it looked at.  Since I don't quite completely understand what tendons, muscles, or bones might have been traumatized, it's hard to tell what might be wrong.

Meantime, I have eased my getting around the house a little by using a wheeled office chair for transport. A Small wheelchair would be perfect about now, but I don't have one. The elbow crutches work much better than the under the arm ones, so I use them to navigate the narrow way into the bathroom. For the kitchen, my office chair works great.  All I've been doing it traveling from couch to kitchen to bathroom to computer and hardly anywhere else.

The biggest challenge of the day was when I went out to the kitchen, still on the crutches, to find the floor covered in water. A bucket I'd left by the door during the power outage---leave it to me not to empty it out--was spilled all over the floor. (Kitty adventure, I presume.)  Trouble was, my crutches slipped like crazy on the wet floor. Fortunately, I discovered that potential disaster way before I fell into it.

The water sort of mopped up with a dishtowel and some paper towels, but not dry enough to make the crutches safe, so there I was, banned from the kitchen until it dried. That was what inspired the office chair.

Hopefully, it will only be a few more days before I can actually get around with enough weight on the left leg to move at a pace even a snail would consider slow.

Heck, I can even type faster than that!

5 comments:

  1. We went to a "go-cart" race years ago where teams made their own vehicles and then raced down a long sloping road. There were serious entries designed for low wind resistance etc. but there was also an office desk, complete with lamp, phone and wheely chair. By the time they went by us, the whole thing was moving sideways and the guy, whose behind was in the chair, was clinging to the desk for dear life. Not to give you any ideas, of course.

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  2. The chair sounds like a good idea to keep the weight off the knee until it heals. Glad you saw the water in the kitchen before you wound up with a wet butt!:) If it doesn't seem like it's getting better please consider giving the doctor a call and having him look at it just to be on the safe side. Feel better.

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  3. Anonymous7:31 PM

    Hope the bad knee feels better soon - and be careful!

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  4. That reminds me - when our boys were in high school, they motorized a stuffed arm chair for a physics project. We have the parts in the basement if you want it:-) Keep us informed of how you are doing.

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  5. It is definately stimulating to think when you have a disability!!

    I hope you get to your doctor ASAP! And that he fixes that knee.

    Big hugs and support from Italy! Ask your kitties to help ^-^

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