This is the view from my front door, out to the street. The photo doesn't quite reflect the bright whiteness of the centre plant (I can't remember the name) and it doesn't allow us to enjoy the sweet scent of freesias and the pink low growing plant nearest the street is hard to pick out.....
Anyways, I have sat on the porch in the sun, taking in the spring air for many hours, on the phone, reading, chatting. It has been lovely. This lockdown/ recovery life has me missing work and church and cafes but I'm also appreciating that I have been given this time with my children who I will probably never get to spend so much time with ever again.
The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago and the flowers have browned, the weeds have grown, the sun is a little too hot to stay outside for too long. Time moves on and though this time is a gift, nobody wants it to last forever.
This week I will celebrate four months since my surgery. The doctor told me the recovery would be painful (mentally speaking) and I assumed the worst would be early in recovery. Those early days were hard because I couldn't do much for myself but they were easy because I had resigned myself to that level of dependence and made peace with it.
These days I'm wearing moon boots and I manage in them very well but I can't drive in them and if I can't drive I can't return to normal life: work, shopping, visiting, medical appointments etc are all impossible for me to do alone.
So, I have to get to wearing shoes. I can't wear slippers like other people would because I need the structure of shoes and braces. The doctor gave me the go ahead to get properly on my feet months ago but there's still too much swelling to get shoes on except for a half hour or so in the morning. (The swelling is normal and I can expect it to continue for up to nine months) When I do put shoes on, they feel different and behave differently to the moon boots so I have to learn to walk in shoes and I cant practice much while I can't wear them for long.
All this, just to say that the painful and frustrating part of this whole recovery seems to be this part. Lockdown has bought me time to recover with less frustration as our movements are severely limited and even if I was capable of returning to normal activities I wouldn't be allowed so that's in my favour but four months out of work and mostly at home is starting to wear thin so I keep putting those shoes on, grabbing my walker and practicing using my new feet because when we are allowed to do things, I want to be ready
Kylie,
ReplyDeleteYou have been lucky to have all this time to adjust. And, you are wise to put getting ready to walk a priority. Have you told your doctor you work and need to be able to drive? He might prescribe a different therapy or shoe.
Hi Linda,
DeleteThe doctor knows all about it but we really just have to wait for time to heal. I already have extra deep prescription type shoes and I have new custom orthotics so it's all ready and waiting for me.
Physiotherapy might help, I'm waiting on the local hospital to get back to me about it but I suspect covid has caused a backlog.
Kylie,
DeleteGood to get things lined up, right? I came back to tell you I love the view of your spring. Things are heading to Fall right now where I am. There are still plenty of flowers and most of the leaves, but we know the hot temps will drop and flowers will go away. Just a matter of time. I am not fond of this time of the year.
Linda, the extra hot and humid end of summer is my least favourite time of year!
DeleteI can so understand your frustration but suspect that each time you put the shoes on - for however brief a period - you benefit.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. And I do hope that your lockdown eases soon.
I love the view from your steps too.
I'm not too frustrated, just trying to contrast this stage with the earlier one.
DeleteI expect lockdown will continue for a long time but that's how it goes.
Spring is a lovely time of year before Summer makes everything too hot and bothersome.
ReplyDeleteI'm positive you'll get there with the shoes - body repairs take time - things get better very slowly, but they do get better.
Sx
Our spring this year is a funny one, we had summer temperatures yesterday and today we are back in winter, with snow in parts.
DeleteUsing the Covid lockdown period for treatment and recovery has been an effective way to treat enforced idleness anyway. You will recover soon enough and hopefully by that time even activity levels will be higher for you to enjoy all the more.
ReplyDeleteI'm expecting thattiming will all work out beautifully!
DeleteLock down has just made a long recovery that much worse. I hope both problems clear up quickly for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Red. I'm thinking the lockdown will extend for some time but we really haven't had an extended one before so we are doing well.
DeleteSpring is a beautiful time of year. Here it is short and gives way to summer quickly, but it is still very beautiful. We are headed into fall which is my favorite season.
ReplyDeleteI hope the shoe wearing happens sooner rather than later but I know the Dr. is familiar enough with the recovery time to have given you an honest assessment of the time it will take. Meanwhile enjoy what time you have with your kiddos!
Time with the kiddos is really lovely and there is a lot of baking happeniing, which is also nice!
DeleteI hope it won't be too long before you can wear normal shoes without any difficulty. A lot of patience required in the meantime!
ReplyDeleteHere of course it isn't spring but autumn, although the trees have shed very few leaves as yet. And it might be a sweltering 19C tomorrow!
I'm getting there, Nick and I can't go back so I have to go forward :)
DeleteBack to 15C today down from 26C but I don't mind, when summer really arrives it's inescapable
I hope you don't dwell too much on lockdown.
ReplyDeleteThis is a time to spend with your children, spring time in the Antipodes.
Here's hoping physio isn't too far away, and that you can move on from moon boots.
Now at last we can see the view from your window: Oz suburbs fascinate me.
Images of Sydney I have had to assemble from movies, TV drama and YouTube.
Paul Theroux went in search of Jenny Agutter's apartment home in Walkabout.
I remember Prisoner of Cell Block H when cruel Joan returned to her childhood home, a humble house with a porch and flaking paint, and for a moment felt almost sad for her.
If I went to Sydney I would want to walk past the homes of Alan Marshall and Patrick White.
Yet I have never visited the Abbotsford home of Walter Scott in Melrose in the Scottish Borders or the childhood home of Robert Louis Stevenson in 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh.
Jack Haggerty
Hi Jack, I'm happy in myself, just trying to explain where I'm up to.
DeleteA quick google search didn't reveal anything about Alan Marshall's house but I did find Patrick White's.
Have you looked it up? he lived at Centennial Park, which is a suburb named after a park. It's an old and expensive part of Sydney, with some beautiful architecture. Not far from the city, the eastern beaches, the cricket ground and racecourse.
In the distant past I did some blog posts showing photos of my area, I must do another. There is a huge variation in Sydney's suburbs. I'm guessing other large cities are just as diverse but I don't actually know :)
I did not know there was a huge variation in Sydney suburbs: I am fascinated with domestic architecture, trees, hidden streets, shops, cafes, rivers, church spires, office blocks, parks, derelict factories and yards, and even look at my own city with a stranger's eyes.
DeletePatrick White's biographer described the campaign to save Centennial Park from destruction by the city council, and White's commitment to the campaign.
Alan Marshall I imagine in a friendly neighbourhood with a traditional pub: I can't think of any writer I would want to meet more than Alan Marshall.
I have a pictorial biography of the New Zealand poet James K Baxter with evocative street scenes of Dunedin and Wellington. There is an online photo of Baxter at a party with the young Maurice Gee.
One of my regrets is not contacting the Australian novelist Randolph Stow, who lived alone for many years in a village in Norfolk, England.
Stow abandoned literature after writing such masterpieces as Visitants, Tourmaline and To the Islands. He turned into himself, a kind of quiet death.
Another regret is not contacting the outgoing James Aldridge, author of *My Brother Tom*, who was living in south London in the late 1980s.
I even went so far as to look up his name in the London telephone directory, a long way from his home in Bendigo, Australia (according to Wikipedia).
I have most of Aldridge's novels including *A Sporting Proposition* filmed by Disney under another name.
It would have been great to have spoken to the Serbian-Australian writer B. Wonga even though I only have his brilliant 1980 story collection published by Picador, *The Track to Bralgu* which I read one glorious summer in Stirling.
Last year I found the book again in Oxfam, try to get a copy yourself.
I am reading Kate Grenville's disturbing, witty and creepy novel *Dark Places* and I want to reread Elizabeth Jolley (as good as Stevie Smith), Glenda Adams, Janet Turner Hospital, Sumner Locke Elliott, Frank Hardy and Thomas Keneally to name just a few.
I have still to order Helen Garner's *Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume One 1978-1988*.
She said she wanted to ask Patrick White how he could wear that cross round his neck and treat people in such a vile way.
Jack
I saw Thomas Kenneally at the airport once! I came home and told everyone and was met with blank stares 🤣
DeleteHe's very short
Can the swelling be helped by putting your feet above your heart for some time each day? I expect your doctor would have told you if that's the case, but I am just curious. My feet and ankles have started swelling but for a different reason and that was the primary advice I was given. I haven't been able to figure out how to do it on work days. Or busy days. The best I can do is to make sure I get as much horizontal time at night as possible.
ReplyDeleteYou are wise to enjoy the time with your kids. As you said, this is probably the last prolonged interaction you'll have with them. So often kids just make it to the adult stage - a nice stage - and leave home for good!
Hi Jenny, I have been told to put my feet up but an hour or two doesn't achieve much so I just don't worry about it.
DeleteMy oldest was here and freakishly busy and I couldn't wait for him to finish his studies so I'd get to see him but he moved out two weeks before exams. I thinkI'm still disappointed :)
Kylie--check your meds and look for side affects. I had that same problem and it was caused by Gabapentin (nerve pain). Once I stopped taking it problem resolved itself.
DeleteNo doctor told me this I discovered it when I was looking for something else,
Mark, it's so lovely to have you back here after so long! thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.
DeleteMust be really frustrating Kylie. I hope when you get your mobility and your life back this time will dull in your memory. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteGetting there! I knew it would be long and difficult, it's been easier than I expected to I'm happy with that :)
DeleteIt must be really hard, I hope your mobility improves.
ReplyDeleteYes I'm trying enjoy the time with my older daughter in the house as she's already looking for a place of her own. She's 27 so it's right and she's ready, but boy I'm going to miss her.