Parting Words

"And tell your husband to hand over those keys!" he said as I left the examining room.

I looked back with a smile, "Oh, I will!"

Today, 9-1/2 weeks after being diagnosed with a hip fracture and being confined to crutches, Dr W cleared me for all kinds of activities. Including driving a stick-shift! I've had my eyes on my husband's new car for the past month, so when he gets back in town with it, I plan to take it for a spin!

So, I'm cleared to drive any kind of car.

I'm also cleared to carry the laundry around.

And I'm cleared to go to the gym! Of course, I'll be doing low-impact activities for a while yet, but that's fine with me -- at least I can do something! And as we were going over which specific gym activities are and are not allowed, Dr W warned against moving toward only the high-impact, high-repetition pursuits (which is how I got into this mess in the first place).

His words of wisdom: "Use all the sections of the gym."

(Of course, I drove straight there to have my membership reinstated posthaste.)

This afternoon, my daughters and I had a casting-off-of-the-crutches celebration. The girls were so enthusiastic while helping me discard them. I knew the real source of their enthusiasm was their hope of confiscating my old sticks. "Mom, now that you're done with them, do we get the crutches?"

I laughed. Sure -- anyone but me!