M ~ Many Adjustments

These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.

Tired of hip stories yet? If you're just arriving, maybe reading H~Hit by a Car and I ~ I Can't BELIEVE I Broke My Hip might help. I left you with me about to leave the hospital.

Accommodating someone who can't bend takes some ingenuity. If I was going to be a part of family meals, a bed needed to be placed in the dining room.

It's hard to eat lying down, but I could only “stand-up” for a little while because it hurt SO much, made me dizzy, and also a bit scared, but I was required a minute or two of vertical time each day. Yes, it reminds me of modern mommying and “tummy time”.

(left to right: Farmor holding Databoy, Farfar, Grandma Vivian, me, that would the body-cast clad girl, Aunt Risky, Swissie, The Swede)

Eating lying down was no fun, but there are some fun things you can do lying down:

doing puzzles with Farfar, using my usual mode of transport, a mechanics creeper, to hold the puzzle not me

goofing around with your sister 

continuing your musical education, though blowing enough air without sitting up is not as easy as you'd think (says the now asthma girl...) 

but sometimes, it was just plain homework...

One of the best was experiences of my four months of cast living was getting to go to The Ice Capades! I was in the handicap section, but they let one parent (taking turns) sit with me, and I could see everything. We were treated like royalty at the event.

I grew up skating on ponds all over our neighborhood, and watching The Swede play hockey at his best friend's house where they'd actually made a make-shift arena and had goals and went hard-core. I was glued. (This is foreshadowing – don't want you to miss it).  Watching the skaters awoke a lot of "I guess I can't do that anymore" in me.

Another favorite memory of cast confinement was taking Farmor and Farfar to the airport after their long visit. Of course this was a sad time, and I couldn't stop crying, but my Dad invented this really distracting game where I held on to the curved end of an umbrella and he RAN down the (mostly deserted international concourse) and would fish-tail me. So I'm lying on that creeper thing I told you about, and moving at light speed all over this stone-covered-in-veneer floor. It was like flying!  Apparently tiring for the puller, all the adults (except Farmor, who couldn't stop crying) took turns pulling me.

I counted the days in my cast. I lived one day at a time. My favorite part of each day was when my big, strong Daddy would pick me up and carry me to my bed, whispering love in my ear, and hugging me tight.