21 July 2012: update

We are getting ready for Michelle’s second full week back at the office. Briefly summarizing the first week:  tiring. She was doing well on the half-days with me taxi-ing her in lunch-ish. Driving herself in on the usual commute schedule requires more preparation time, and additional tasks to complete before departure. It’s a different deal in a lot of ways.

We’re looking forward to the next consult on 10 August, figuring that there will be a better idea on how well she’s progressing. We both keep thinking about how she was told that the most recent x-rays of her right ankle (appearing elsewhere on this blog) don’t show signs of it every having been broken.

The other ankle, with the screws and the plate and the continued discomfort, that’s another story, and will be another story for years, I expect. She now has weather forecasting talents. Accuracy and specificity will improve as familiarity with the various sensations increases.

Earlier today, she went for something of an indoor stroll without using cane or walker, going from the den to the dining room and back, along with a few other places on the first floor. It was a cheerful accomplishment, but tiring. It’s very apparent that her left is not keeping up with her right, but we have to note that the right is wearing the air boot and that there’s some disparity in apparent local foot height from the floor. We’ve talked about other footwear choices that might balance out the disproportion.

Once this deal is behind us, I vote for high-tops. She’s not very keen on the idea. Robbyn suggests work boots, and Michelle is open for that option as long as I wear ‘em too.

It’s looking like a reasonable week for both of us. The dog misses having her around for the first part of the day, but he gets to see me at lunch. Being back on my usual lunch schedule is a big change, but I’m managing. We’ll see how it goes.

For now: Michelle’s getting better, not as quickly as she would like, but there is improvement, and the improvements are more apparent every day.

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So, naturally, 20 minutes after I posted the above part, needing to take Angel for a walk, Michelle joined us, figuring to go as far as she could and turn back when she had gone far enough. As it worked out, what with two stops to tell neighbors about recovery progress, she went a good long way up the hill and most of the way to the speed limit sign that’s been our walk-the-dog destination ever since we started walking the dog.

I shot some video of it on my cellphone, but I’m not data-agile enough to post it just yet. It’s a great example about how well she’s doing.