Ending on a Positive Note!

It’s a good day!  I had my last physical therapy session this morning for rehab following my left knee replacement. The final measurements were most encouraging — 5 more degrees of flexion and 3 more degrees of extension. This brought me a huge lift of spirits!  For those of you who have never had to pay much attention to the range of motion in your knees, these numbers may not sound like much, but to me they are huge.  I had been at a plateau for several weeks and now I finally, finally showed some positive change.

I’m starting to take walks around the neighborhood again. My appetite and energy level are coming back.  I’m more often getting a good night’s sleep.  Now, as I go about my everyday life, I’m finding that I’m not always conscious of my left knee as my new knee.   It’s becoming more and more just my left knee in the same way that my other knee is just my right knee.  I am definitely starting to feel more and more like my “normal” self.

For the past three months, my world has been one of physical disability.  I think, really, for the first time I have realized the meaning of the accommodations provided in our communities for people with disabilities.

The “disabled parking” badge that I was issued is good until October of this year. For the past three months, I have gratefully looked for the familiar universal disability symbol in many, many parking lots — at grocery stores, at restaurants, at granddaughters’ school events, at concerts, at church.  Somehow, on finding and then pulling into a disabled parking spot, I get a feeling that someone cares about people like me and that accommodations have been made to ensure that we can still go about our daily routines and activities.  And, on a more personal level, I know that there is still a place for me, here in this everyday world.