Surgery Update

I'm officially two weeks out from surgery and things are going well. To be sure, there's good days and bad days. Half the time I feel like they didn't do anything to me, that I can throw off my crutches and do a jig. Then there's days like the last few, where it's become increasingly apparent that I'm allergic to the adhesive in the steri-strips (little white pieces of tape they put over the incision to protect it). Apparently only 1 out of 200 patients get this reaction and now my leg looks like it was branded by 20 steri-strips. Awesome, I beat the odds. (If you missed what they did to me, head over to this WebMD description of the procedure)

In other news, I ventured out of the house in the wheel chair for the first time yesterday. This led to some valuable realizations:

• Clothing stores represent huge headaches for wheelchairs. The reason is two fold: the racks are placed so close together you can't fit through, and you definitely can't turn around; clothing is often on high racks you can't reach or thumb through without serious neck strain

• Nordstrom (and other upper-scale department stores), however, is the best store ever to shop in when you have a wheelchair. The layout is incredibly spacious allowing for as much turning around as one desires, and hardly any of their clothing is up on high racks. Their staff is also very professional, and don't treat you like you're a starving African child (oh poor you in a wheelchair! let me look at you like your life is so terrible and like you're three!)

• Every door represents a problem. When you don't need walking assistance, you don't even notice the number of doors you go through in a given day. Once you're in a wheelchair (or crutches, for that matter), every door becomes literal -- it's closed to you! And it takes some work to get through.

• There are an unbelievable amount of rude people out there. My mom is struggling to hold open the door and push the wheelchair over the bump, and people just go around us through the other door and don't offer to help at all. That doesn't mean you need to run ahead through doors to open it and always be on the look-out, but pay some freaking attention to your surroundings. A little help is appreciated.

So, in sum: Nordstrom's is awesome, doors suck, and open the door for people with wheelchairs, for God's sake!