This too shall pass...

How I’m waiting for February to end...!

After reading my trip blog, you’d imagine it was a fun 4 weeks for me this month. In reality, I’ve had a rather difficult time this month with my health.

It began with having to endure walking with skin tears next to my wound/site of amputation on my weight bearing area. during the early part of my trip in the first week of February. I powered through with most of my plans because I’ve had an unsaid rule since my childhood. Never say never. The minute I decide to give up on doing what I want to because I’m in pain, I’ll be over. The first time I may give up and decide to take rest indoors for something very painfful or serious. The next time it may be something I can put up with and I may end up feeling why should I when I can avoid it. This will then become a way of life because hey! As an amputee you're never really expecting a time when you’re devoid of problems entirely.. 

So that’s my golden rule. Don’t let anything stop you. I must’ve walked for 4 km a day. My husband was almost inconsolable when he got to know after day one. But regardless of how stupid he thinks my decision to prod on is, he stands by me and let’s me have my way.

Before this had healed, I realised one morning that I had a boil on another part of my weight bearing area!! So days 3-4 were about managing both this things together. Lo and behold, thanks to the strain of changing my gait to avoid pressure on the side of the boil, I ended up with an entirely sore middle area. So there.. now there was no left, right or centre left to put my 54kg of weight on. After a short walk (at 3km it probably wasn’t so short after all :P) I got back to the room and stayed there for the rest of the day slathering liberal amounts of ointments and creams I had, one for each of the issues. Y took N to the fun fair that day so she had fun. I tried to walk a little less for the next few days so that the pain would be under control. Thankfully by the end of the trip I was okay.

This trip was by far the most challenging for me in terms of managing my prosthesis and walking with it.

After that I developed multiple issues that stopped me from using my prosthesis and had to stay grounded for many many days this month. In the meanwhile, I’ve had to take some extremely tough decisions regarding work because of the kind of health issues I’ve been facing lately.

There have been several disturbing things happening around me and in my part of the world which I would not want to talk about. And almost 7 ladies in an amputee support group I am part of have been facing similar challenges of their own in the past few weeks.

I’m currently grappling with a huge boil (next to my wound) ... and I'm pretty much grounded yet again. So I'm hoping that March will turn tides and make things better for everyone. 

All of us will keep having issues to tackle every single day. Some times little issues happen together and the stress of it all invariably adds up. When you feel low or when things are not going your way, remember that.. 'This too shall pass.'

Because after every dark night, comes a new dawn..