Last Thursday marked 500 days since I broke my ankle. I'm still not quite sure how I did that but I know that since then, things have gotten steadily better and I can now walk semi-okay, though not for great or even medium-great distances, plus I have some trouble with stairs. I will still need some wheelchairing at Comic-Con in San Diego next month but not as much as I did last year. (I'm currently scheduled to moderate or appear on 17 panels, plus I'll be doing three signings. Some of you may think of 17 panels and three signings in four days as insanity. To me, it's twenty opportunities to sit down.)
I have been in my home (95% of the time on the second floor) since I checked out of a Rehab Center at the end of February, 2024. I go downstairs — cautiously — when I go to doctor-type appointments and I've also left here to go to last year's Comic-Con in San Diego, this year's WonderCon in Anaheim, a Jay Ward Film Festival, the memorial for my friend Mike Schlesinger, the opening of the Jack Kirby exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center and then last Friday, I went to the Magic Castle for the first time in over two years.
In earlier posts here, I said "It hasn't been that bad." I still feel that way. Yeah, I've missed out on some things I might have liked to do but in their stead, I got a lot of work done. I put an awful lot of those bonus hours into the forthcoming book on Charles Schulz and Peanuts and some other things I hope you (or someone) will like.
Here is some probably-obvious advice to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation: Plan. Think about how to modify your life to fit your new limitations even if they're temporary. If your body and what you can do with it has changed, maybe your living and working environment need to, as well.
While in the Rehab Center, I had my fantastic plumber (have I mentioned I have a fantastic plumber?) convert the shower in the master bathroom into something like those A.D.A. showers in select hotel rooms and install some grab bars and handrails there and elsewhere. I bought a microwave oven and a small refrigerator for upstairs since it's been tough for me to go downstairs. Another very handy thing was to have a couple of these around…
Also very helpful are all the things that I've installed — some because of the accident, some before it — that enable me to control lights and door locks and my garage door and my water heater, etc. via my iPhone. As I mentioned in my first post about the broken ankle, the app which allowed me to lock and unlock my front door remotely was one of those "What would I have done without it?" blessings.
You may never become a patient in your own home — for your sake, I hope you never do — but it isn't a bad idea to look around and consider what you'd do if it happened. You may even think of some things that could prevent it from happening.