It's almost a month now since I had my elbow surgery, on January 4, following my parking-lot fall and fracture two days before Christmas.
This was NOT how I had wanted to start 2024.
2022 and 2023 had been two of the happiest years of my life, and both began SPLENDIDLY.
2022 began with my taking myself all alone to Paris for a solo writing retreat and soon after going on Match.com for ONE HOUR and meeting the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
2023 began with having my editor - who had rejected my previous middle-grade novel - reading my submission of The Last Apple Tree, loving it instantly, and offering me a contract a week later.
2024 began with elbow surgery.
Certainly, this was an omen that this would be a completely sucky year. I would spend months in painful recovery, unable to engage in any of my usual sweet life activities, and the whole year would be RUINED. Right?
Wrong!
If you have to break a bone, I heartily recommend breaking your non-dominant elbow. Yes, there was pain at first, and massive inconvenience, but a week after surgery, the doctor took off the bulky, incapacitating splint and sling and ordered me to PT. My sister sent me this bear, from Vermont Teddy Bear, to keep me company through all of it (note that he has a cast on HIS left elbow, too!)
Then the series of miracles began. One by one, day by day, I started to be able to do things I thought I could never do again.
My first and best victory: getting a dab of jam on the index finger of my left hand and being able to LICK IT OFF!
More victories followed.
Taking off my top ALL BY MYSELF without having to have someone else assist by giving one sleeve a little tug!
Shampooing my hair with BOTH HANDS! And being able to get my left arm WET!
Sleeping comfortably on either side (HUGE)! And typing with both hands without discomfort (HUGEST OF ALL!).
At church last Sunday, my first time there since the surgery, when people asked how my recovery was going, I would demonstrate a few of these stunning accomplishments, e.g., reenacting the momentous licking of my index finger. But then to one woman I said, mournfully, "But I fear I have to face the fact that I will never again be able to reach behind my head to gather my hair into a rubber band." I started to dramatize the impossibility of doing this - the left arm just wouldn't GO that far - and suddenly realized that NOW I COULD!
Hooray for the licking of jam at will! Hooray for comfort in typing and sleeping! Hooray for being able to GET YOUR ARM INTO THE SLEEVE OF A COAT! And DRIVE A CAR! And FLOSS YOUR TEETH!
Hooray for learning how many fears are unfounded.
2024 is turning out to be a wonderful year, after all.
Claudia, all these accomplishments are HUGE! I am so proud of you!
ReplyDeleteHooray!
ReplyDeleteI have been hooraying nonstop myself!
DeleteSo glad to hear all this, Claudia! It gives me a bit of hope for my own recovery. I'm only two days out from surgery, so I've got a long way to go!
ReplyDeleteI am cheering you on! I was so glad when the surgery finally took place, because now the REAL healing could begin - and it did!
DeleteHip, hip hooray!! Washing your own hair is great! I remember breaking my shoulder and going to the salon every 5 days and have my hair washed!
ReplyDeleteShoulder injuries are so much worse, I've heard. So any pampering that can help with those daily tasks is more than welcome!
DeleteYea!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHooray for all the so-called "small" accomplishments that are HUGE! A few weeks ago I had neck surgery with the easiest recovery ever and all pain and numbness/tingling in my writing arm gone (after 10+ months of this), and every movement is a delight.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad your neck surgery had an easy recovery, too with every movement now a delight! Even a month past full recovery I still get s surge of joy when I shampoo my hair with BOTH HANDS and floss my teeth!
DeleteI think I subbed my comment (about neck surgery) as anonymous. It was I!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it was you!
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