knit 1, heal 2

It’s hard to believe that I am coming to the tail end of my short term medical leave from work. I knew I’d come to the end hoping to have done more knitting, reading, movie watching, and writing than I did. And that is totally true. I wish I had done more of all those things. But really I am just grateful to have been able to take care of myself and recover at the pace that my body needed to recover. It’s been okay to just go crawl into bed and rest when I needed to.

Last Thursday I exchanged my big black clunky, heavy, book for a new pair of black hi-top Converse Chucks. I can tell that my ankle fracture and sprain is still healing and things aren’t as close to being “normal’ and they will be some day. My back and neck muscles have been sore from being off balance from the boot. It felt so good to be back into TWO shoes.

I’ve also made progress with the foot drop in my left foot. I’ve learned you just can’t gauge how long it will take nerve damage to heal. But I’ve seen improvements – even if it’s been slow going. Every few days I notice that I can move my big toe and flex my foot more and more. Sometimes I experience some nerve pain my leg and foot that’s unlike the nerve pain I’ve been used to over the years. I just take it as a reminder that the nerve is healing and doing its thing.

I’m continuing to fight migraines. Unfortunately, that’s normal for me. It’s taken me years to identify some of my triggers. I identified a lack of good sleep as one. Last Monday night I didn’t sleep well and only got a few hours of sleep before a doctor’s appointment in Nashville. I know that triggered the migraines I had the next day, Friday, and yesterday. Almost a month ago I began a daily “preventative” migraine medication and follow-up with my doctor this week.

Tomorrow I see the neurosurgeon who did my back surgery, October 30, and should find out when I’ll return to work. So I better get busy. I’ve gone some knitting to do!