Carefully...

Disclaimer time! This might be even more random and rambly than normal. I am on a pretty solid painkiller right now and it's like thinking through molasses.

I had a procedure done on my Achilles tendon on Friday. Dry needling. Basically my doctor wanted to irritate the tendon as much as possible to flood the area with new blood and also to drain a pocket of liquid that had formed in the space where the tendon had split. So lots of pokes and prodding with needles into the ankle. Which was as unpleasant as it sounds.

I have to wear a boot for a little over a week because while irritating it to heal it made it really vulnerable to full rupture right now.

And I know this sounds like a metaphor, and it sort of is, but it's also actually what's happening.

So today while Brent was around I needed to make sure I could manage a shower. He and I talked through a few ideas on how to handle it without having to have him literally bathe me like a child. I decided I could use the bench as a resting place for my knee which keeps me from putting weight on the foot while it's not protected by the boot (the big no no right now) and he suggested that I put the boot on, get in the shower, sit on the bench, remove the boot and then shower. Brilliant.

Because that was the part that was really tripping me up. So to speak. How do I get in and out of the shower without putting weight on that bare foot. I might have eventually gotten there, but like I said, thinking through molasses, so it was nice that he worked it out for me. All I could imagine was trying to hop in and out and how disastrous that could be!

I still had him sit in the room just incase I fell over or got stuck. It's good to have backup.

As I was getting dressed after the shower I was realizing how complicated everything is going to be for the next week or so. Lots of extra steps involved in doing just about anything. Yesterday and today Brent has been handling everything in the house because I just can't right now. Learning to manage the boot while on the drugs is taxing enough.

When things are hard we need help and support.

I shouldn't need the drugs for very long. I thought I was going to get away with not taking them today but after being up for a couple of hours I realized that that was not going to happen. But I'm hopeful that at least my head will be working the way it should by Monday. Or the way it normally does anyway.

So to sum up, right now my Achilles is weak and prone to complete rupture but with help and protection I am hopeful to come out of it stronger. It's going to be hard, and painful, and complicated for a stretch but I've got backup and a support system and I'm managing.

There is no guarantee that even with all of this that it will work, but trying something is better than just shrugging my shoulders and voting to enable a wannabe dictator.

Oh wait...metaphor...

Better than not trying anything and just living with the pain.

Stay strong. Find your support system. And be careful.