Rosanne

Limited mobility | Unlimited stories: How my recovery days look like

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Yesterday evening I came home from my trip to London - I had such a blast, and I'm getting better at making things easier for myself, like taking an Uber instead of getting lost 'underground' on day 1, having a chill day on the couch with @redrica on day 2... But on day 3 I went for a walk with @adetorrent (my choice, I wanted to see a bit of London of course!), and on day 4 I did some more solo exploring before hopping on a long train ride home. The total steps of these two days:

I came home at night, took off my shoes. I've been through this before and I already knew the process: as long as I was still walking the pain would get worse with every step over the course of these days, but, it is always after I give my (left) foot a rest it is the start of a 'locking of the joint' in a way that makes it unable to use. It is very very painful, and after a while the joint gets so stiff that I can't even wiggle it anymore.

I walk on orthopaedic shoes and in a way they 'force' me to use my foot in the right way: I can't move my joint too much in these shoes which is their purpose. That also means that if I take off my shoes they start to slowly get back in their natural position which is when the scraped/bruised/busted bone starts to really fire up in the pain department.

(Ah, and before you ask: no, without these shoes I can't walk at all, so yeah, this is the least of two evils.) (Oh, and before I post this, I want to say I hope I'll ever be able to explain more clearly how these after effects really work, but I'm still looking for words at times.)

Anyway, after three hours of chilling on my couch I had to go upstairs, in order to get into bed. I was prepared and had my cane next to me on the couch. But I wanted to take some stuff from my backpack (toothbrush and such) with me as well. Needing a cane means having one supporting hand less - holding some stuff in the other meant I couldn't use that hand to support myself either - which I knew was much needed.

I ended up hanging the small bag with 'the stuff' around my neck, stood up from the couch, only to fall back on the couch again. I tried again, and was able to move after slowly touching my foot on the ground, pulling it back, touching the ground again... And again... And again... Only after a few minutes of trying I was able to touch the ground for longer than a few seconds without flashes of pain entering the foot. Leaning heavily on the cane, quickly moving my weight on the healthier (this one is not fully functional either) foot. Breathing in, breathing out, and again.

With about 5 pauses and a lot of cursing and moaning I had finally reached the most dreaded part of the trip towards my bedroom: the stairs. I gave up beforehand, learning from previous experiences: I sat down on the first step, and moved my way up sitting, pushing my body up the stairs 30 centimeters at a time.

People always tell me "Just go up the stairs sitting!", thinking that's the solution, and yes, it is the best solution, but I challenge everyone reading this to get up the stairs on your ass and not using one foot/leg to support that process. Also: keep a cane in one of your hands and use that to support the 'lack of leg' (I use it to help push my body up). Yeah, basically I have to climb the stairs with one foot and one arm. Also being scared that the cane that I use to compensate for my lack of leg slips from under my body and that I end up down the stairs.

I will skip the frustrating part of getting undressed, brushing teeth, going to the toilet and actually getting into bed and skip to this morning. Waking up and knowing I needed to use the bathroom but instead of that I decided the relative pain of a full blather would be better than having to get up for the walk to the bathroom. Finally giving up and leaning heavily on my boyfriend plus cane to get to the bathroom, to get to the dreaded stairs again, trying to get down while sitting and not using one leg, standing up, cursing all the way to the couch, and finally sighing from relief because I'm sitting again.

After that it was a matter of getting through the day: not drinking too much so I don't need to go to the bathroom. Making sure I have my laptop, phone and some charging tools. Netflix. Texting my boyfriend for every little need. Taking pain killers because my head explodes (should have been drinking more water :D).

And that's where I am now. I made it till dinner with only one trip to the bathroom. My boyfriend is a hero and has prepared awesome and healthy foods for us. Tonight I'm going upstairs again in the same way I did yesterday evening. And hopefully tomorrow I can come down the stairs alone, because I won't have anyone to help me. Most of the times this takes two days, and after a few more days I'm back to 'normal' again (except my 'normal' is never 'average').

I don't know how it is for my followers to read this. I'm not writing this to complain. I tried to more or less 'report' on my recurring recovery days since I mention them in other posts from time to time. This way I can just link to this post as recovery day since they're pretty much all the same. They're very much part of my 'Limited Mobility | Unlimited Stories' series as well. So at some point it had to be written - and now I did.

Oh, and yes, this is the reason why I'm looking for a house without stairs. 150$ STEEM and I could buy a house that would support these days better :-) Or maybe I should turn it around: where in the world can I buy/rent cheap flats with a lift and fast internet and everything like cinema and restaurants and museums within 20 minutes from my home so I can also enjoy the good things in life when I'm not that physically fit?

Rosanne

Limited mobility | Unlimited stories: How my recovery days look like

More stories in the 'Limited Mobility | Unlimited Stories' series