kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

I got back to Seattle today, and other than the garbage cans on my curb that have not been picked up in three weeks, the snow storms of a couple weeks ago have been all but forgotten. Well, except for everyone pressuring the city to buy more snowplows, and the battles between everyone and the environmentalists about road salt, but those are stories for another day. Or not...

For now, let me back up a little. Amidst the blur of a week that ended last quarter and consisted of lots of Christmas shopping and packing, I had a follow-up appointment with my ankle doc. I was glad to have a chance to talk to him about the slow rate of progress I'd been experiencing. I wanted to ask him if this recovery rate was normal, and if I should be more aggressive with my transition from the aircast to shoes. The last time I'd seen him, he said I would probably be wearing regular shoes and driving within three or four weeks from that appointment. I figured it would be even quicker than that since I tend to push myself when it comes to recovery. My recent appointment was about seven weeks after the last appointment, and I was still wearing my boot most of the time. I'm still not driving. The doc reminded me that this was a big surgery, and I have other stuff going on in my ankle (like arthritis) that makes it difficult for me to recover quickly. In response to my question of whether or not I should be more aggressive, his answer was simply, "Not at all." He said that if I'm too aggressive, I run the risk of preventing my ankle from recovering fully from the surgery.

While I was there, I asked him whether he thought I should have my knee looked at by my knee doc. It's been giving me a lot of problems lately. It's painful, but the biggest issue is an increased feeling of instability. Also, my knee makes some new sounds when I bend it and straighten it. It's pretty loud when I'm going up and down stairs. It pops sometimes while I'm walking, which isn't usually painful, but it's uncomfortable. My doc took a look at it and said I should definitely follow up with my knee doc. I have an appointment to see the knee doc on the 7th. You know, in my spare time.

I think I'm starting to recover a little more quickly since that appointment (which was only a couple of weeks ago). I must have been at a plateau, and now I think I'm moving past that. It's a little more comfortable to walk with shoes, though I'm still walking really slowly and I've got a limp. It still hurts and I'm still taking pain meds regularly. My doc had said that it's probably going to hurt for a while yet, and I should listen to what my ankle's telling me. It still hurts more than it did before the surgery, but I'm finding that the pain is much more predictable than before. It's much easier to manage the pain when I know the routine - in the morning, I can't wear regular shoes until after my first pain med has kicked in. If I'm on my feet a lot, my ankle is going to hurt more. If my ankle hurts more than usual, it needs rest. etc.

Now that I'm making more progress as far as walking in shoes, I'm hoping I can start driving again soon. At this point, I've been unable to drive for longer than I was after the accident. I was on the road again four months after the accident, which is kind of incredible when I think about it. Now I'm four months out from the last surgery, and still waiting. If I were living in WI still I might be more eager to jump behind the wheel again. It's tricky here because traffic is so heavy, and if my ankle starts to cramp up while I'm stuck in traffic, my options for dealing with it are kind of limited. It helps that it's so easy to get around here by bus (as long as there's no snow in the forecast). I'm not so antsy to start driving again because I can already get pretty much everywhere I need to go. It will be nice, though, to be able to drive to physical therapy and back. I spend so much time busing there - from the time I leave my house for an appointment to the time I get home, it's usually about four hours. This quarter's schedule is going to be pretty busy, so it's going to be hard to squeeze in eight hours of PT and travel time per week.

Speaking of next quarter, it starts on Monday. That's too early. I wish I had another week of break so I can shake off the jet lag and get ready for teaching. I'm a little nervous about teaching, since this is my first quarter as a TA. I'll be teaching everyone's favorite class - sight-singing & dictation (or aural theory, if you're used to the UWEC lexicon, like me). It's exciting, but I also feel like I haven't had a lot of training or prep or anything. It's strange for a TA to begin teaching in the winter quarter, as opposed to the fall. I think everyone sort of assumes all the TAs know the drill already. There are some workshops and orientation sessions for new TAs in the beginning of the year that everyone conveniently forgot to tell me about. I seem to have fallen through the cracks since I'm starting in the winter. Oh well, I'm sure I'll catch on after the first week or so.

Anyway, break was nice. It was a little quiet, but I suppose that's a good respite from school. I went down to Illinois for the weekend to see the family, have jam sessions, and eat food (mmm, Chicago-style pizza). When I got back to WI, I spent the rest of the time hanging out at home and seeing people whenever I could. It was fun.

I guess that's about all. I got a Wii for Christmas, which is really awesome, so I'll probably get in touch with you other Wii users when I figure out the whole online thing. :)