Two Steps Forward

I'm bummed today.

One week ago, I met with the doctor and he said I could start walking (with the help of a walker or crutches).  He said I could start putting more and more weight on my right leg and that gradually over the course of the next month I'd be strong enough to walk normally.  Well, waaaaaaaah!  I want to walk NOW!

When I left the doctor's office, I was so thrilled that I secretly decided I'd be walking sooner than a month.  On Saturday morning, my pal Brian and I went down to the Country Music Marathon.  Although I have a temporary handicapped parking placard, we couldn't find anywhere to park close enough to see anything, so I walked more than a mile, with crutches, putting almost full weight down on my right leg.  I found myself walking alongside marathoners on their 16th mile!  I was inspired by the runners, and although my leg was tight, I kept a slow pace alongside the race route.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I loved being outside walking.

I crashed that night, and the next day I was in so much pain I could barely stand.  But it wasn't only my right leg.  It was my left hip, my shoulders, my triceps, my neck, and my back!  Needless to say, I didn't walk much on Sunday.  

In spite of the pain, I've been religiously doing my exercises, practicing shifting weight to the right leg, walking as much as possible, and pedaling at least 20 minutes a day on the stationery bike;  all with the hopes of being fully recovered by nine weeks.  Alas, nine weeks is this Sunday, and I'm not there yet.

My life felt almost back to normal last night.  My friend Nancy picked me up and we met four other friends at the Hillsboro Village Art Crawl.  We had dinner and I walked around the village on my walker, looking at art, seeing friends, and drinking margaritas for Cinco De Mayo.  Today, my entire body is in pain.  Arggggh!!  (I think I may have had too many margaritas...)  

The catchphrase, "two steps forward, one step back", was rolling around in my brain this morning, and I found this quote on a motivational website:  "Two steps forward, one step back" is usually a negative term to describe someone who is having trouble making progress. But switched around, "1 Step Back, 2 Steps Forward" means that instead of grousing or feeling guilty about a misstep, you can still come out ahead if you put your head down and push forward.

I'm still mad as hell, but I just rode the bike for 30 minutes.  Two more days until nine weeks!