Like my father, I believe in celebrating my birthday for a week, which normally works out beautifully. Yet on Labor Day Monday, I went to a noon time capoeira class and broke my distal fibula while doing a sparring exercise. Ironically, my capoeira teacher had made me switch from the partner I’d wanted to spar with two minutes prior to this exercise, stating that I’d have a “mellow class” if I’d stick with her. Ha! Now I’m not going to have a capoeira class or tango for that matter for at least 6 weeks.
The nurse practitioner tried to convince me that I couldn’t even go to bikram yoga, but I was going to be hard-headed anyway and took my boot with me and do a modified version. I couldn’t believe that an exercise that’s known for minimizing scar tissue can worsen my condition. Plus, I’ve seen other people with injuries train with a chair.
I’d had a chiropractic appointment prior to yoga. Once I hobbled into his treatment room, I was already late for the 5:30 yoga class. When I informed him that he reason I was wearing a dress to make it easier to prepare for yoga class, I informed me that I would not be doing yoga or any other exercise for at least two weeks. I tucked my yoga mat under my arm like Linus with his blanket and took it back into the apartment.
Ever the one to look on the brighter side of things, after I hobbled home from my doctor’s appointments, I came home to put the final touches on my 5th painting, which has joined the gallery of other Adventures of Infinity and Negativa chapter paintings. Not only do I see the progress that I’m making as an artist, I had a revelation with this painting, which will surely be the subject of next week’s blog.
In general, happy people make the best of what they have; so although I could dwell on the things that I cannot do for the next 6 to 8 weeks, I choose to work more on my paintings, reading for research on my book while convalescing. I’m so thankful to have a job where I have insurance and sick leave in order to take care of myself. I’m also thankful that although I’m used to exercising that I have other interesting activities to keep me interested in life. Plus, I’ve made a commitment early in this school year to arrive at school two hours prior to needing to be at school in order to keep up with my work.
On Saturday, I was determined to go out on my 43rd birthday, crutches and all. What a terrifying, but rewarding experience to hobble down 16 stairs one stair at a time, double-crutched on the left side to support my left foot. Then onto my car to attend Brazilian night. Despite the fact that I was dressed up in capoeira performance attire, the woman at the door questioned if I was one of the performers. Then informed me that I should have used the performers’ entrance in the back. The younger woman at the desk just chuckled as she took in my crutches and said, “Well she’s in now.” Then the younger woman asked for my ID. At that point, I saw one of my tango partners, who’d arrived much earlier than I, and asked him to vouch for both my age and the fact that I’m a capoeirista. Beyond that, he was my big hero who got two chairs for both me and my fractured fibula. I even invited him to get a third chair for him to sit beside me.
About 30 minutes later, two other science teachers showed up. These two are first year teachers and had an incredibly stressful start. I invited them to Brazilian night to dance all their stress away. I even invited them to try out a free week of capoeira, which is a wonderful long-term solution to work-related stress management.
Much later in the evening, another friend materialized and chair danced with me. Unfortunately, she’d injured her knee while getting out of the car at some point in the night.
Although the night was filled with good music, including capoeira music where I sang and played pandeiro (tambourine) on stage, I stayed off my left foot. Crutches may be their own brand of inconvenience, but they do the trick as far as keeping weight off a fractured ankle. I didn’t even have to take pain medication during the day since I’m using them, which is wonderful. Nonetheless, I couldn’t sit still in my chair; so I took chair dancing to a brand new level with my boot.
Although it’s challenging to be injured, especially on one’s birthday, I was truly touched by the empathy I received from both friends and total strangers. I had about 6 people comment that they had been in the same position as I and encouraged me to keep going because the situation would be over before I knew it. One woman even told me how bad knees run in her family and that one one of her sisters had not had knee surgery.
All in all, it’s been a memorable birthday, which will hopefully pick up from here.