1. Grad school is not life. I had begun to completely forget that. Turns out that perhaps not every waking hour must be spent on it, although it’s inevitable that most of them probably will be. Your people and your places and the things that really move you are the important things.
2. I’ve long guilty of brain-on-a-stick syndrome, and constantly have to remind myself that I am a body as well as a brain. I learned to live largely in my head as a sickly kid, and have never changed much. My back reminds me often of its presence, but the rest of my body ... not so much. This, from The Skinny Daily Post, says it best:

   You know how people can be in denial about certain things in their lives, like their spouse cheating, or parents dying, or a layoff coming? Well, imagine that you were in denial that you had a body, and that you were taken by surprise whenever it hurt or needed attention. If you got a cold, you ended up with bronchitis because you didn't take care of yourself. For whatever reason, probably because of the surgery, I have had to focus on this poor old body, at first to figure out when it was telling me that I needed pain pills! Later, it told me in no uncertain terms that I needed some protein [I was about to pass out]. And then that it was tired. Or needed water. Gradually, as I walked and felt more energy, my body and mind began to work together.

   I hope that I can maintain the connections that have sprouted. Because right now my body wants to move, and later, when it’s really able to, I need to be mindful of Lesson #1 and remember to make time to get out and walk or whatever else it decides it wants to do.
3. One really can’t underestimate the importance of connections with others. Plus, I never really understood all those studies that say people in stable relationships live longer, but now I know exactly why that might well be so.

Other observations:

1. I find that I am curiously tall now that I can stand again. I had gotten so used to seeing everything from a wheelchair view or from my hunched crutching position that I forgot what 5’8“ looks like.


2. The sight of my un-casted leg is oddly depressing. I am used to being rather robust, and two months of atrophy have withered my left leg. Where the calf used to curve out, it is beginning to curve in. Wonder how long it will take that to return to normal?


3. I’m fine with the idea of most of my surgery scars fading, but there’s one that I’m quite taken with and am contemplating preserving. Photos and meanderings to come on that.


4. The Darth Vader boot is platformed with a rolling, ski-like bottom that makes me quite a bit taller on that side. I experimented with wearing a hiking boot on the other side to even things out, but now I wonder if I shouldn’t break out my Kiss boots and see how that works. A Vader boot, a Kiss boot and pajama pants will make a striking ensemble for the office, yes?


5. Speaking of pajamas, one of the great benefits of this sort of injury is that you can get away with wearing pajama bottoms everywhere.


6. Also, when you go out in public in a wheelchair and manage to remain chipper, people are very nice to you.