Happiness is a Pile of Rock and a Drift of Snow
How soon we forget how far we've come...
I found this quick, sad little drawing when I was searching around in my iPad for something completely different. I scribbled that note to self (in an unhappy mustard-colour) at the end of July, 2024. I had just arrived back at home after having had my second hip replacement surgery and I was feeling sorry for myself. I couldn’t go far and when I did leave the house, it was with a walker or my cane (or, apparently, both). Everything I did was at a snail’s pace, from maneuvering into my socks first thing in the morning to gingerly navigating the stairs to patiently waiting for someone to help me get my walker out onto the sidewalk. (I say patiently, but there was nothing patient about me…)
I kept reminding myself that slow was better than painful.
By the time my scheduled surgery date arrived, I couldn’t take a step without a walking aid AND a lot of pain. So, really, having to use a walker for a bit shouldn’t have been so annoying. But, it was. As was going through the surgery…
I had planned to chronicle the recovery (I was horrified to discover I had a 2.5” leg-length discrepancy and feared the surgeon had inserted the wrong size implant)…
Then, drawing silence. What happened?
The pain was gone! After a very short time - I quickly ditched the walking aids, and I was off to the proverbial races!
Each day I walked farther, faster, and with less of a twisty limp. I wasn’t sitting around long enough to draw!
Now, not quite four months later, the leg length discrepancy has pretty much disappeared.
How can I describe the sheer bliss of being able to walk again - for as long as I like, over uneven terrain, at a reasonable pace (while wearing a backpack!!)? Such euphoria with each footstep!
How long this state of bliss and delight will last, I can’t say, but judging by how quickly I seem to have forgotten my earlier misery, I thought I’d better capture the moment before I forget. It will serve as a good reminder that recovery is possible and that THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS. The good, the bad - the joy, the pain.
Seeing those earlier drawings is also a great note to self that a quick drawing — even if it isn’t particularly good — can capture a moment in a way that’s quite different to the written word.
Right. More sketches!! More sharing of sketches!!
The coming weeks and months are shaping up to be full of adventure - there’s NO REASON not to sketch, sketch, sketch my way forward from here!
I'd like to know how old you were when you did this surgery that sometimes doesn't work--might you share that/
Perfect timing on this one, as I’m looking at a knee replacement soon! Thank you for sharing your journey. 😊