l’azile

I have been granted a temporary release from the rehab institute (on the condition that someone help me navigate the 19 steps that lead to my front door) so I am home until Sunday night. It is kind of strange being here after more than a month away but it feels so good to be back among my own things and to sleep in my own bed! The place was a bit of a mess when I arrived last night but Alain helped me organise and clean things. He will be back Sunday night to take me back to the institute. A nurse comes by twice a day to give me my Luvenox shots (an anti-coagulant).

I have about three more weeks of on-site rehab to do and then I should be able to do most of it as an out-patient. I have started walking a bit with my prosthesis, about 30 minutes or so a day, and they have been having me do various simulations, like walking outside, walking up a hill, walking up and down stairs (although there is just no way they will ever be able to simulate the broken-down stairs I have here), etc. The objective is to get me, at the very least, to the same point I was in terms of mobility and autonomy before I broke my hip. We are also working on adjustments to the prosthesis because, by inserting that titanium rod in my femur, the doctor straightened my thigh. This has resulted in my leg being over a half inch longer as well as having a very different alignment.

Finally, I am happy to report I am still smoke-free. It has been 37 days since my last cigarette and I must admit that I am very pleased with myself. Although, to be honest, it was actually very easy. Of course, I have been tempted a few times but the urge was fleeting. I think the radical change in context is what has helped the most.

Anyway, for those who are curious, I have been taking a few photos of my experience (although never with as much zeal as the first time around).

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

I am very tired. To the point that I have had trouble keeping my eyes open these last few days and would I listen to myself, I would just nap all day long. Most evenings, all I feel like doing is calling it a night at 7 PM. People who know me understand that this is completely out of character for me.

I think part of it is obviously the fact that I am still healing, my body is still working on things and it indeed has a lot of stuff to take care of. And of course, I am also dealing with a lot of stress. Not to mention low blood pressure which is something new. The other part of it is, I think, that I have not smoked a cigarette since the accident (which is hardly surprising, what with being unable to move much for the first week or so, let alone get out of bed and go outside to have a smoke). Every time I have tried to quit smoking, it has had a similar effect on me, i.e. being tired and practically stoned, although never quite so intense.

So I have decided to try to stick with it. I do not know if I will succeed because although the physical withdrawal is pretty much over, it really is the psychological withdrawal that is the hardest and the longest to deal with. But I am going to try because I have been hoping to quit smoking for a good while and, ironically, this seems like the perfect opportunity.

Continue reading… déjà vu and yet not so much

You know, I am not even going to bother trying to find a clever title for this post. There is nothing clever about my situation and besides, I am too pissed off.

So yeah, I broke my hip September 24th, as evidenced here. As y’all can imagine, breaking one’s hip is not fun. It is actually quite traumatic not to mention very, very painful. And going through this a second time does not really make it any easier. Well, except maybe for being able to deal more adequately with the amazing amount of bureaucracy one has to contend with despite being in a rather bad way.

Of course, on a personal level, this whole thing has me stressed out because it has, once again, put my life on hold. Besides the inescapable fact that I have a lot of work to do, the truth is things were finally starting to make sense for me. I felt like, four years after breaking my hip the first time, things had finally, for the most part, gotten back on track (because it may not be obvious but breaking a hip is a very disruptive thing). And then BANG!, I break my hip. Again.

Continue reading… I broke my hip again

Yesterday, I attended the annual assembly of FACIL, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of open source in Québec. It was fun as I got to see some people I had not seen in a while and I also got to put some faces on names I have seen go by on the FACIL mailing list or people with whom I had only communicated through e-mail until now.

It was a good meeting and it was refreshing to note what I got the feeling was real interest for an organisation. I mean that, for those of us involved in promoting one cause or another, we all go to annual assemblies in the course of those involvements and it often turns into a chore or, at best, an obligation. But yesterday, I felt that these guys were genuinely into it. And despite there being a rather touchy subject on the agenda (the future status of Linux-Québec) and differing points of view, it was all rather quite friendly and very respectful of each other’s positions.

Continue reading… fork in the road

This expression has always amused me in its conceptual representation and I find it unfortunate that it can not be directly translated into French. I have never been amused however by what it stands for.

It has now been almost a month since I had my hip surgery and while convalescence has been challenging at times, in the last week or so, I think that things have indeed gotten better. The pain is much more manageable and the long incision left from the surgery is for the most part healed. In principle, in a couple of weeks, I should be able to start rehab.

Continue reading… phoning it in