I did it, I survived six weeks in a leg cast. 

“You’re done,” said the specialist. “Go home and throw away the air cast. Enjoy. Any questions?”

“Can I ski?”

“Didn’t you break your leg skiing…? Anyway, no. Anything that could cause an uncontrolled fall should be avoided. 12 weeks minimum. Take the rest of the season off.”

Okay, fine. There’s still plenty of activities to enjoy – yoga, snow shoes, Costco….

I went home and quickly discovered Problem #1: we moved into our new house a few days earlier and some boxes had yet to be brought from the old place. The only shoe I had was the one shoe on my good foot when we moved. So back into the car with my aircast to reunite with my beloved footwear collection. 

What to wear first…? Wait, my choices would be limited by the  snowy conditions. So then, which boots to wear first? Black, definitely the black boots. Maybe the red. Or the tan. 

I burst through the door and tore off the air cast, sitting on the step to pull on my go-to black boots. 

Cue record scratch. Hello, Problem #2. 

My newly freed foot is still so swollen and sore that it wouldn’t go into the boot. Not even maybe. No amount of butter, prayers, or stubbornness could get my Fred Flintsone foot into the lady boot of my choice. I then began working my way through the closet, realizing to my disappointment that the only shoe to fit was a leather high top, the mate to the one shoe I had worn on moving day. Le sigh. 


Furthermore, I now walk like a zombie. My leg is squooshy and the ankle is  tender. It turns out that a lower leg break is generally preceded by a bad sprain – a limb twisted bad enough to snap the bone is going to have a lot of soft tissue damage, which is slower to heal than the bone itself. So yoga and snow shoes and shopping will have to wait. 

I’d looked forward to February 9th as THE day, the cast would come off and rainbows would shine and crowds would part as I sashayed through on two feet, but what I got was….pfffft. 

I’ve spent the past two days drawing analogies between all this and recovery, shaping a blog post to capture the lesson but…more pffft. I’m sick of myself. I’m sick of my thoughts, I’m tired of the voices in my head. I’ve spent way too much time there lately and I just. can’t. even. anymore. 

I’d rather hear what YOU think. What lesson do you see in this moment? What analogy can you draw between this scenario and recovery?

Please comment with your insight, I’d love to hear it. 

Meanwhile I’ll get back to drawing the alphabet in the air with my toes, which is supposed to help bring my leg back to life, pausing only to read your comments and give thanks.