On five months in

Well, it is now five months since my life was changed. I “celebrated” by doing five laps of the gym in the walker without taking a sitting down break. At least, I might have. I was doing laps by myself to the point that I decided I’d had enough and went back to the wheelchair. I thought I’d done four laps but my Physio who’d been attending another patient nearby said I’d done five. I would have thought it was hard to lose count for such small numbers but the 50m circuit of the gym takes a fair bit of effort for me to circumnavigate, especially when I try not to be an obstacle to other, faster patients. Also, I’d stopped to ask someone to take a picture of me.

One of the faster patients was Caroline. As I was catching my breath, she got on the treadmill with a physio in attendance telling her to take it easy. I jokingly said: “Plus vite! Plus vite!” then imitated the crack of a whip. An old joke, and one that made her grin.

There followed various exercises on a bed. I was vaguely hindered by the fact I have difficulty counting if I don’t speak out loud. At one point, I commented that “You would expect someone with four post-secondary diplomas to be able to count.” There was one exercise that required me to wait three seconds before returning to the rest position. I began by counting “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi” before patriotism led me to go through the provinces and territories instead. I counted to four for the provinces with shorter names and Labrador was separate from Newfoundland. I made a point of going through the provinces East to West and the Territories by date of establishment. Anything to kill the boredom.

Earlier this week, I was told that the Occupational Therapist had taught me everything deemed necessary at this time, so I was no longer going to have any more session with her except in the event of anything new or if I had questions. On Thursday, I had question session with her which covered a few things, most importantly, the techniques of getting in and out of cars. I right felt that I probably could get in or out of a car. I knew that the IRGLM has part of a car in for just such a purpose. Admittedly, it is not representative of modern cars as it features a bench seat in the front (and only row), however, it was near enough for the OT to teach me the recommended technique as well as some important do’s and don’t’s. 

I took my shower in the late afternoon. Beforehand, I inevitably spend a certain amount of time examining my wounds. Today my attention was drawn to two bits of surgical stitches that hadn’t been removed owing to some oversight or other. They were partially exposed and had been mentally bothering me for some time. I gently tried to budge first the larger one then the smaller one. To my surprise, pressure on the sides of the smaller one caused enough of it to come out that I could easily pull it free. I attempted the technique on the other one and lo, it came out to. I put the pieces on the counter and proceeded with my ablutions. On further examination, I was surprised to see that both pieces of surgical thread were about the same size, roughly 1 cm. It is weird to think that they may have been in me for five months.