As a precautionary measure, we kept the bedside table lamp on in the initial nights for light in case my husband chose to move around. I drifted into disturbed sleep to be shaken alert now and then with the auto alarm system buzzing inside me. Seeing the wrapped up arm was a ghastly sight.
A few months down the road, I got stuck in a long heavy leg plaster cast. I slipped from a staircase and broke my leg. It was amazing how simply the thick bone had twisted leading to a serious tibia spiral fracture. I got crutches and a wheelchair with a leg support extension to accommodate my altered figure.
Distances that I would have otherwise not had even thought about now seem long journeys. Each step needs to be calculated and carefully crossed. Unnecessary walking expeditions are avoided to reduce risks of adversely affecting the plastered leg.
Self-immobility makes inanimate objects placed beyond one's proximity unreachable. One wishes to earn Superman's powers to fetch things by exercising concentration gaze. Or more practically get hold of a long rod with a hook at its end to air-lift desired objects.
Shoe shopping has become a far-fetched dream. No need for new pairs of shoes for a while at least. They don't sell single shoes in this part of the world anyway. Sadly, a favourite pastime is bound to grow dormant. No wonder I have been buying shoes in my dreams lately.
After my husband's scary accident, I had realized how tricky an injury is in comparison to natural ailments. Sure illnesses are dreary and draining. But the terror attached to an injury and a forced physical abnormality is horrifying. The world seems so different with an injury.
Doesn't it just Sarah! Is that when you first started writing a blog? Having been incarcerated in a leg cast for nearly 9 weeks now I found that writing a blog kept me floating a little above the sanity/ insanity watermark as it helps to empty your thoughts into a vessel of some description, to give a bit of shape to what's happened to you....way, way beyond your control
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"I had realized how tricky an injury is in comparison to natural ailments. Sure illnesses are dreary and draining. But the terror attached to an injury and a forced physical abnormality is horrifying. The world seems so different with an injury."
ReplyDeleteThen imagine what I am facing. I have an illness that is killing off the nerves in my body. Contrary to what one might think, this is extremely painful. Also, once the nerves die, those portions of the body cease to work. The feet and legs will go first, then hands and arms, followed by the remainder. The process also causes injuries along the way from falling, bumping, etc.
I know that it certainly isn't fun to have a broken leg, but maybe after looking at it from my point a view, it won't seem so bad.