Making Progress #HipInjury #Recuperation #PhysicalTherapy

I experienced a banner day early this month. I met my mini goals and overall goals, and I graduated from physical therapy following hip replacement surgery. Before graduating, I learned to use a cane properly, but I continued to rely on my walker. I couldn’t bring myself to part with it just yet. I felt safer with the walker within reach. Like Linus, I needed a security blanket. It was my back up, minus the thumb sucking, of course.

That was then. Last night as I got ready for bed, I sidled past the walker that was blocking my nightstand and taking up valuable space between my bed and my closet. I realized it had set there unused for days and was gathering dust.  Apparently, I no longer needed my security blanket. Imagine that. I said farewell to the walker and moved it into a spare bedroom until Macho Guy takes it up into the attic—progress.

I use the cane now. I’m doing great walking with it when I’m out somewhere and even without it when I’m indoors. I can go up and down stairs using the cane, which means MG and I can spend time in our family room, and I can gain access to my home office. Progress. W00t!

I’ve made additional progress since graduating from PT. We’re going to return the wheel chair MG borrowed when I first came home from the hospital. I can sit and rise on regular chairs more easily now. That helped because it enabled me to get my hair cut and that made me to feel more like myself. As my next-door neighbor put it, “You look like you again.”

MG’s favorite signs of progress are that I can stand for longer periods of time, which translates into: I’m back in the kitchen cooking, a chore he gladly relinquished. No surprise there. We both have happy tummies now.

Now for my favorite sign of progress.

After six months of relying on MG and others to drive me wherever I needed to go, I’m allowed to drive! I can go where I please when I please. I’m independent again at last!

MG washed Majel [my Ford Edge] so she’d be bright and shiny when I got behind the wheel, and I drove us both to the grocery store. I was as giddy as a teenager who just got her driver’s license. Fortunately, I didn’t drive like one, although I discovered that I needed a brief refresher course in using some of Majel’s computerized features. I love all those gadgets, but it has been a while.

As I wrote this post, the mini goals I set for myself during physical therapy and the progress I made reminded me of the mini goals I set for my writing. Those mini goals keep me from trying to tackle too much at one time and becoming overwhelmed. That’s important for someone who has ADD. In addition, I’m a slow writer. Ice melts faster than I write. I don’t always reach my mini goals, but even when I fall short, I know that I’m still making progress and that is key.