Surviving an Injury (or Illness) with Grace and Humor

 Surviving an Injury (or Illness) with Grace and Humor    Norma Noonan

Whether young or old (and especially as we age), we all experience an injury or illness that can disrupt or change our lives.   I suffered a serious injury in the summer of 2016 in an auto accident.   Besides bruises over much of my body and a giant hematoma on my left thigh, my right leg was fractured in two places: the tibial plateau (which required surgery) and the top of the foot which did not require surgery but needed a long time to heal.  

I was in the hospital and rehab for one month and in a wheelchair at home for another month (unable to put weight on my right leg) and then slowly began to walk again with a walker and later a cane.   Now I walk without assistance.

One learns many lessons including patience during the long recovery period.  I had wonderful care in the hospital and rehab and had to exercise even though I could not put weight on the leg.  I learned how to use a walker (I had previous surgery in which I used a walker without learning how to use it). 

I learned a lot about people’s kindness since I had many visitors in the hospital and at home over the months of my recovery.    There was much to learn about gratitude, both that I had survived the accident and that people (family and friends) were so helpful. 

I went from wondering “why me?” to accepting that we all have a cross to bear, and this would be one of mine since I have a permanent reminder in my leg (in the form of a piece of metal shaped like a flagpole with little banners). 

But, I also learned the grace of good humor.   In the early months I had to repeat the story of the accident countless times, while wishing that I did not have to tell the tale again and again.   But, of course, people are curious, and they were hearing it for the first time whereas I was telling the story for perhaps the 100^th time.  

Eventually, however, some humorous incidents struck me.  In November (3 months after the accident) the young PA who saw me in her office announced that I could drive.   At that time, I was walking slowly with a walker, could get into the passenger side of only lower-slung cars (and then only backwards), and had a painful right ankle and foot swollen two-three times its normal size and unable to respond quickly.   How was I to drive with my recovering right leg?      Clearly a 25 year old does not understand fully the healing process.   It was several months more before I felt the leg was strong enough to drive.

Perhaps even funnier are the questions I get about whether the metal implant in my leg will be removed.   I point it that it is holding my tibia in place under the knee and will never come out.    This is perhaps the funniest of all the questions since implants generally are never removed.    Another friend, confusing my situation with knee replacement surgery, commented that my knee should feel better after the surgery.  I keep telling her that there was nothing wrong with my knee before the accident so how can it feel better afterward when it was fine beforehand and now has an implant.

Another statement (or question) is:  it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?    Well, does a  surgically repaired leg ever feel normal?    If I walk too much or stand too long, it aches at night.  There is almost never a time when it feels normal (that is, as it did before the accident).   It feels strange when I sit, when I stand, and when I move.

I sometimes quip in response to the question:  does it hurt?   Only when I move.

I feel certain that others, who have had major surgery on any part of the body involving permanent implants, get similar questions and have a similar reaction.

For those of us who have endured long illnesses or serious injuries, we have to have the grace to say – well, no, it does hurt a little, but I will live with it.     It takes a little time to see the humor in these well-meaning but peculiar questions, but that is life.