Three Weeks Later...

So it's been 3 weeks since my surgeries and the accident. I finally got my leg extensions and wheelchair cushions on Monday and those have been helping a lot. I am able to be in my wheelchair for longer periods of time and attempt to keep my sanity so I'm not staring at the same wall all day. Jeff heads back to Iraq tomorrow, and although I'm grateful he was able to be home for 3 weeks I cringe knowing that things are going to be a lot harder without him here. We will be having different friends and family helping out the next month and it will be an interesting and humbling path for Kailie and I. It already has been. We are so grateful for all the family and friends who have been so supportive so far and all the time and energy they have sacrificed to help us.

I went to my follow up appointment in Springfield on Wednesday with Jeff and it was still a big ordeal trying to get me in and out of the car, however, it was a lot better than my car ride home after I was discharged. I got a lovely hard cast on my left leg in green-- I had to have some fun with it considering the circumstances. All my stitches were taken out and we got to see X-rays of my legs. My legs were broken in a lot more places than Jeff or I realized and it explained some of the additional pain I had been feeling. So I refer to myself as a bionic woman now with all the metal rods, pins and screws I have in my legs. It's crazy to think that I will permanently have metal in my legs, but if it will help me be able to walk again it's craziness I'm willing to accept.

So (drum roll) I was able to get halfway in the shower with the nurse on Friday to have a "real" shower. 3 weeks of sponge baths helped me get by, but definitely don't compete with a nice, hot shower even if it was only for half my body. I'm sure it's quite the picture: me sitting in the shower with my legs sticking out on my wheelchair and a garbage bag covering my cast. Lol. But I am learning to be grateful for the littlest things. My next goal is to transition to the comode being over the toilet so I don't have to keep going through the humbling and a bit degrading experience of relying on others to clean up all the equiptment.

I've tried to pull out my sewing machine a couple of times to get back in my crafting mode, and for my sanity, so hopefully I'll find some projects I'm able to complete. I am thankful for my Bernina with the start/stop button! I'm still getting used to using the feature since I'm so used to the foot pedal, but at least I have the option to use the machine without the use of my feet. We took the door off of the laundry room so I can reach the detergent and washer-- just not the dryer with the way the doors open and because it's such a narrow space. So I still need help with almost everything I do, but I'm trying to do the little things I am still capable of. One of my official chores now is folding laundry because I can do that while I'm elevating my legs in bed :-)

I am looking forward to being able to bear some weight come mid-August, cooking again once I'm out of the wheelchair and can safely do so, being able to put Kailie in and out of her crib and care for her. Despite all the frustration this situation has brought to an independent me, not being able to care for Kailie has been the most heart breaking. She is learning to be flexible and I am excited as I continue to heal that she can learn that she can depend on me again to provide all of her needs.