Had another follow up today. He asked how it was doing and I told him “no gunk on the band-aid for a week or so. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.” First thing he said when he got a good look at the hole was “oh yeah, that’s healed.” From there it went pretty well. The hole is healed, and I can finally take a swim this coming weekend.
Most importantly I’m authorized to go back to work. Made sure to let my boss, the foreman, and HR know, and they seem pretty thrilled.
The only complication as of right now is a pressure sore on my left foot by my big toe. Because of the serjury, I couldn’t put much weight on the outside of my foot (go figure), so I was shifting more to the inside. Over the course of almost three months, that’s going to leave a mark. Or in this case, a big, nasty callous. And we all know how big, nasty callouses work out for me. So I get to wear the boot for a while just to try and keep it from getting too bad. Luckily, I work for civilized people so that won’t be an issue.
I also managed to lose 15 pounds over the last month. And that’s with the big, clompy boot on. Not sure what the actual figure is thanks to that boot, but I’ll take it. Over the course of the plague, I’d dropped about 30 thanks to being an essential worker. It helps that when I’m at work I eat about half the calories an adult male is supposed to and come in at or below the bottom end of my carb allowance.
Then going from working in a machine shop all day to literally lying in bed except to get up and stagger to the bathroom for a couple/few weeks, followed by walking around mainly to go to the doctor or a quick trip to the store, managed to put it all back on and bring along another ten for good measure.
It’s too late in the year for the pool to make much difference; we’re probably winterizing it in a few weeks, so I mainly hope to get in there this weekend a few times. But I’ll be going back to work and picking up some activity there. Once I get my shoe inserts, I should be able to hit the trails again too. We also discovered a dietary issue and steps are being taken to fix it.
Still have some things to work on, but there’s plans for pretty much all of them. They may not be clearly-defined Bond villain level Grand Master Plans, but there are plans in place and they’re being worked on. Continuous improvement isn’t a hobby, it’s a way of life, and situations like this are why.
When something like this happens, recovery is a lot easier when it’s a glitch rather than a complete reorganization. If I was the kind of guy who thinks the Good Life™ is a matter of watching TV until I pass out, I doubt I would have recovered to this extent nearly as quickly, and further recovery would be a major life upheaval. As it is, I just had to shuffle some priorities and reshuffle as things changed, all the while making sure I was accomplishing something as I went.
I could barely get out of bed for a few weeks, so I focused on education, reading, and working on projects I could do in bed. Then I could sit up for a while, so I added some projects that required my good computer. Once I could walk short distances on a non-mandatory basis, I started walking around the yard or going to the store. There was never a “how am I going to fix this” issue, just “here’s what I’m allowed to do to get back to normal, what do I reprioritize to make that possible?”
Now I can go back to work so I’ll be back to more or less my normal priorities. It was a weird detour for a few months, but aside from losing a toe and a chunk of money, I’ve managed to get a lot done and will hit the ground running (OK, staggering) tomorrow morning.
So yeah, I’ve had worse days.