An Update From Laid-Up Land

I am six days out from my surgery to repair a torn tendon in my right foot. The surgery went very well. It remains to be seen whether I undid the surgery when I took a hard fall in the middle of the night two days later, coming down full force on my poor foot. The medical professionals told me that in 95% of the cases, no damage is done, but I have to wait several weeks until I am in physical therapy for them to assess whether I am in that unlucky 5%.

Other than that, recovery has gone well. Due to my tendency to bruise easily (courtesy of myeloma and lots of treatment), I am covered in bruises, including, to my dismay, several around my left knee where the compression sock that one is advised to wear ends. I get around with a hands-free crutch and a knee caddy (a scooter) which my longtime friend Katrina advised me to get. I don't know if that is the best advice Katrina has ever given me, but it certainly ranks high on the list!

For the first few days post-surgery, my dear sister-in-law Margaret was here to keep me company. That was a godsend in more than one way. She and I are very close and I relish any opportunity to spend time with her. She was also invaluable in that Warren had rehearsals, an educational session, and a concert that were scheduled months before my surgery and could not be scrubbed. Margaret kept me company while Warren took care of those matters; she even took me to the post-fall medical appointment so I could be assessed.

Warren, of course, is doing yeoman's duty taking care of the household, taking care of the Symphony, and taking care of me. I worry about adding to his load, which is never light, but he dismisses my concerns. I will admit: it is very hard to be this constrained.

And there have been visitors to break up the quiet: Tonya, Cindy, Roger. I even hosted Poetry Night on Monday.

So what am I doing in the rest of my leisure time? Reading, of course. Here are the titles I have finished since my last post:
18. Mathilda by Roald Dahl (anarchy at its best. I'm surprised there haven't been more attempts to ban Dahl's book)
19. Grant by Ron Chernow (a masterful biography of Ulysses Grant; I was convinced after finishing it that he is our most underrated president ever)
20. This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jenkins (another entry from the reading list of women of color authors; superb writing guaranteed to make you think not just twice but three or four times)
21. Heart Berries by Teresa Marie Mailhot (a heart wrenching, gut wrenching memoir by an indigenous author who weaves together her tribal history, family history, and personal history into this telling)
22. Feel Free by Zadie Smith (essays by a powerful writer, also one of the titles on the women of color reading list)
23. Ariel/The Restored Edition by Sylvia Plath (thank you again, Frieda Hughes, for rescuing your mother from frozen martyrdom. Hughes's strong, deftly written preface explains the layout of the original British edition of Ariel, the original US edition of Ariel, and the differences thematically and chronologically between those editions (laid out by Ted Hughes) and Ariel as laid out in complete manuscript by Plath)

I am in the middle of a most unlike nonfiction work called The Lost City of the Monkey God.  I kid you not.

Life will change again this Friday when I go into a cast. It will still be non-weight bearing, so I will still be reliant on the crutch and the scooter. Next Tuesday I hope to return to work. I will not be in the schools for several more weeks, but this will at least put me back in the mix.

One step (well, one hop, or one scoot) at a time.