It’s now been five weeks since I broke my ankle. Five weeks of navigating the world on crutches. Some of the lessons I’ve learned during my temporary disability:- Slow down. I can’t zoom around at my usual frenetic pace or I will fall flat on my face. I have to watch the ground for tripping hazards. I see a lot more when I move more slowly.
- Be patient. There are some things I can’t do well for myself and I have to wait for someone else to be willing and able to do them for me. Everything takes longer – bathing, dressing, fixing lunch. I have to not only be patient with myself and everyone else, I have to plan farther ahead and allow the time.
- Prioritize. I can’t do everything I used to do in a given amount of time, so I have to choose which are the most important and which I can let go.
- Ask for help. Oh, this is a hard one for me!
- Economy of motion. I can’t get up a million times and go back and forth from room to room in the middle of a task. Before I leave a room, I look around and see what I might need to take with me to the next room and pick it up before I even stand up.
- Be creative. I’ve especially had to be creative about moving things from place to place with no hands. Sometimes I carry them in my pockets or in a bag around my neck. I’ve placed various chairs in strategic spots, so I can bunny-hop a plate or a coffee cup from the kitchen counter to the stool to the kitchen table to a chair to the coffee table. (Makes me appreciate my tiny house!)
>Akili fell off his bike two weeks ago and broke his ankle. He had surgery on Wed. because it needed to have screws to hold the bone in place to heal (just one break, a common one, but needed surgery to fix it). I'm going to send him the link to this post! Good observations. I hope you are off crutches and back up and running soon.