It’s really quite salutary to be mildly disabled on a temporary basis. It’s changed my behaviour. For example, I find myself planning my movements. Instead of strolling from the kitchen to the living room with a watering can, dealing with the plants and then wandering back for a cloth to wipe up the spills, I set out armed with the cloth in case I might need it. I think before I open the fridge and then I take out all I might need to cook the dinner, instead of dotting back and forth as things occur to me. When you hobble, crossing the kitchen is an expedition.
At work, people vary in their behaviour to me. On my first day back, several of my workmates offered to make me a cup of tea from the kettle in our office. No, alas, this didn’t last... (It was nice while it did, though.) They do open the (heavy) workroom door for me if they’re in the vicinity and I’m carrying stuff and at least one crutch.
I have two crutches but I can’t carry anything if I’m using them both, so I tend just to use one if I’m plodding to a distant classroom with books and papers. There are various heavy fire doors on the way. Remarkable numbers of students just let these swing in my face – not out of malice but just because they don’t notice me tapping my way along behind them. But an equal number are very helpful and hold them open.
In the street, people are solicitous to those on crutches. They let me go first through narrow gaps, smiling sympathetically. But I went to the ballet on Thursday with my mother and decided that the crutches would be a nuisance, so I took a stick instead. Immediately the sympathy evaporated. This could have been because about fifty percent of the audience were old ladies with sticks, so I just became one of the masses and had to take my chance.
The foot is a lot less swollen now and the bruising is fading, but it’s still quite achey. I’m quite fond of my moonboot (“You should have got a pink one” said a particularly girly student). It’s lovely to take it off last thing at night but on the other hand it gives me a certain security to put in on again in the morning – it definitely supports the ankle. Thank you to whoever invented them – so much better than a plaster that's with you all the time.
I haven’t been for a walk for sixteen days now and am feeling horribly unfit. Can’t drive, can’t walk more than a few hundred yards, take a long time to go up and down stairs. How pleased I shall be when it heals completely. I won’t be taking two working legs for granted, certainly for a while.
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