…is to not have it for a while. Like showers. God, I appreciated showers so much yesterday afternoon. (I initially wrote “this afternoon”, but I keep forgetting that 12:45am is technically Thursday.)
Perhaps I should clarify a little bit. It hadn’t been that long since I’d taken a shower. It’s not like you could see a layer of crust forming on the surface of my skin yet, but it was getting to the point where I could scratch various parts of me and end up with dead skin cells under my fingernails. Icky.
I don’t have to take a shower every day to avoid such catastrophes, but when I do take a shower, I use a scrub brush. (No, it’s not a toilet brush, though that would probably serve the same purpose and there’d be no shame in using it on my butt.) Using the brush helps get rid of the dead skin cells, leaving my skin bright and shiny. That may be why I spend so much time in the basement—I don’t want to go outside and blind people with my bright and shininess. Just doin’ y’all a favor.
The last shower I took at home was Thursday afternoon before my Managerial Finance exam. I took another at the hotel in Chicago on Saturday morning, but all they had was a bar of soap. When that happens, an old Zest commercial usually pops into my head. “Most soaps leave a sticky film on you that won’t rinse away…” That’s about what it felt like: clean, but sticky. Which sounds really gross when you think about it.
Didn’t take one at the hotel Sunday morning, spent the day driving home (technically riding home, so thanks to Marie and Porter for the ride and for letting me sleep in the back seat—I was uber exhausted), woke up early Monday morning and subsequently lost permission to take a shower for two days. My leg was wrapped up in a long elastic bandage that stretched from my ankle up to my lower thigh. In the middle of that, my knee was huge. Thankfully, almost none of it was swelling—I took the dressing off before getting into the shower and it was in two layers that each looked as thick as a baby diaper, which is why I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to squeeze it into a pair of jeans.
Anyway, I was supposed to wait for two days after surgery before taking a shower (taking a bath or going swimming will be a lot longer, but all I needed was to rinse off at that point). It was Wednesday afternoon—two days later—when I went into the bathroom, unwrapped my leg, removed the baby diapers and saw my knee. It doesn’t look too bad.
There are two spots at the top of the kneecap, one on either side, which is where the scopes went in. Below that… I think Dr. Lewis basically extended the scar that was already there as opposed to opening up the same spot or making a cut next to the first one. He must have done something since those little holes above my kneecap aren’t big enough for pulling out a screw, but it’s hard to tell exactly what because of the little white Steri-strips covering it.
I’d say I jumped into the shower next, but big movements like that are still a delicate operation. I can walk up and down the stairs one step at a time as opposed to using both feet on each step, but trying to do it quickly would be asking for an express trip down to the lower level. I’m making good progress, so why push it?
And now I’ve got class tomorrow… today. (6:00pm, so in about 16 1/2 hours.) During that time, I’ll take my car for a short test drive and decide if I can get to school myself or if I’ll need a ride. Once I get to school, I’ll have to decide whether I want to try to look normal (or at least as normal as I’m capable of looking) or play up my injury and try to get some pity points. If I go with the latter and no one cares, hey, at least when I get home, I’ll be able to curl up in the shower for a good cry.
