Breathe In, Breathe Out

This is the foliage outside the orthopedics dept. at Kaiser Oakland. My exercise for this day was hopping and slopping along on my crutches from the car to this office for a total of three-and-a-half blocks. I can't report my runs to you, since for the time being I have none, but I can tell you what things are like here in the waiting lane. Mainly, they are slo-o-o-w. My walk to this office took 15 minutes.

What I find odd is that being on the DL is not as terrible as I thought it would be. Slowing down has given me (admittedly by force) the gift of paying more attention to where I am and what I'm doing. My short walk netted me two handsome, burly construction guys who left what they were doing to make sure I made my way safely across a busy street. It also paid off in sights (of people and things) and smells (of spring's burgeoning greenery) that I might not have heeded had I been moving faster.

I'm not trying to say I like being hurt. Fact: I hate it. But as the wise person once said, obstacles are not blocking the path--they are the path. So life as it is right now is life hurt, and on it goes, and it's thankful I am for it.

Once I got inside the doctor's office, he told me that I have a bruised bursa, pulled muscles, and a poltergeist living in my thigh. I made up that last part. Essentially, I have soft tissue injuries that will heal in time. A week from today I'll start physical therapy and hope that it will speed the process. Meanwhile, I'm riding buses rather than walking on my way to work every day and trying to keep a stiff upper lip for as long as it doesn't cause me to spill my soup.

Z, who had an aortic arch replacement and a bypass on April 3, is home and healing as well as we could hope for. He hasn't whined even a little about the appallingly bad timing of my fall. So I feel blessed for his continuing recovery, and also for his tolerance of my well-intended but herky-jerky caregiving.

Me, sitting beneath the blossoms and trying to look patient and wise.