For the moment I’m sitting in front of my desktop computer.
The whole objective of post-operative care, DIY or otherwise, is returning to as near normal as possible. So we make adjustments for the injuries but try to set our minds on resumption of previous life activities (AKA, the mission). I consider the advice from the doctors, nurses and various technicians, but my heart-mind is the master. The only reason anyone blathers about this is to offer a resource for others. In this case, we reiterate the message in Sister Christine’s recent post: “I could spend a fortune buying imitations of. No batteries required. Nothing is more pure than the twig, the leaf, the light glittering off the river.” This is a marvelous parable for addressing the massive smothering hive-mind of Western consumer health advice.
Don’t be passive; don’t be cerebral — because that means you stand before God already condemned. Not that we suggest any kind of goofy activism, but that you are accountable to God for His Temple, which is your flesh. You are accountable to Him through your heart-mind, not to some self-declared oracle of God that wears the princely robes of mainstream medicine. Maybe God doesn’t require you individually to wander outside and nibble leaves and twigs in your environment, but if you never ask the right questions, you can’t possibly get the right answers as to what God has actually provided for you, nor what God actually requires of you.
In the original plan, the orthopedic surgeons had expected me to return to the VA today and replace that big leg-lock padded brace with a hinged brace with graduated angle of motion settings. Physical Therapy jumped the gun and got the hinged brace on me before I left. So the surgeons canceled today’s appointment, leaving me with instructions about starting today with some limited swing motion in my knee while up and moving. I looked over the brace, corrected the placement of the padding and set the hinges to the limited swing of 30° motion — that’s the minimum option. I put it on and tested things a bit. I had already started wearing my slip-on shoes, so I was able to hobble around and I am near the point of simply ignoring so-called stability aids. This feels okay.
I do get tired, largely in the sense of having an injured leg down where the blood collects and isn’t easily pumped back up because normal muscular action is hindered. So to let the blood pooled around my ankle to recirculate properly, I have to sit down frequently with the leg up. So I found something that feels just about right to rest it on under my computer table and here I am. But the angle isn’t quite right, nor can it be made so with the materials on hand, so I’ll have to move back to the recliner soon enough.
The mission comes first, always. But the mission includes a heart-led consideration of the context. I wrote some time back wondering aloud why I felt such a driving necessity for riding and taking pictures. I’m starting to get some inkling of where that’s going, as you probably noted if you read my open letter to the City of OKC.
