Probably best to attack this chronologically.
I can't remember as far back as February. My Google calendar mostly shows appointments with doctors and physical therapists, so I think that's when my back was seriously jacked up. I think most of that month was spent in tremendous pain, and I had a hard time getting out of bed.
That wasn't fun, and I was especially appreciative of the ridiculous quantities the Food Fairy continues to pile into my refrigerator. Every time I get another delivery, I just stare at it and giggle. I am thankful when things are going well, but when I could barely move it was unbelievably awesome.
Looks like I got the back pain under control sometime around the end of February. I still don't understand how or why my back gets better or worse, but it has pretty manageable through March, April, and most of May, though the last week has been kinda iffy.
Here's something interesting that happened around the end of February or the beginning of March. We got maybe 2 inches of snow one night, maybe less. A day or two later, my neighbor invited me to the new Mexican restaurant here in my neighborhood (Mi Cancun - it's fantastic - try the carnitas). Since I had a chaperone, it seemed like a good opportunity to see how I would do in the snow.
Right outside the front door of my apartment, there was a little patch of mostly melted snow about 1 inch thick and 8 inches wide. Something you wouldn't even notice while walking. It was on the gentle ramp from the front door down to the main sidewalk, and I was able to use a little momentum to roll over it. I was pretty pleased with that result, so I decided to turn around and see if I get back over it going back uphill. There was no way I could have gotten over just that little patch going uphill. There was just no traction at all, and if I did manage to get up into the middle of it, I'd have been stuck right there until it melted. If I didn't have somebody to push me, I would never have gotten back in my building.
Even on perfectly flat ground, it was impossible to move on any sort of snow or ice which means that if I want to go outside next winter, I'm going to need some sort of snow tires. I have some ideas for that, but the ideal thing to do is probably to throw a bunch of money at another set of wheels with some mountain bike tires.
 |
| Here's one idea I saw |
In March, my Martinsville friends came to visit, and like most Americans, I did my taxes. That was fun and tedious, respectively. As far as my calendar is concerned, that's all that happened that month. I don't remember anything else, so there probably isn't anything else to tell.
In April, my mom came to visit for a week, and to help with whatever I could think of. We got a lot done. I set up as many appointments as I could since I had a ride all week. One major goal was to get to the DMV and do the driving test for hand controls.
The rules for hand controls in North Carolina are weird. In order to purchase the nice controls that mount permanently to the vehicle, you have to have a hand control endorsement on your license. In order to get the endorsement, you have to take a driving test at the DMV on your own hand control operated vehicle. The DMV does not apparently see a paradox here.
I think the way people normally navigate the process is to get driving lessons through vocational rehab, and then they can use the teaching vehicle to take the test. I didn't go through that rehab, and I wasn't about to pay someone to teach me to drive, so I bought what are considered "portable" hand controls, and used them to take the test.
 |
| Basically a couple fireplace pokers attached to the pedals |
I've been using them for months now, and I find them to be pretty intuitive, and not at all difficult, so I felt confident I would ace the test. The day before the test, however, I started wondering how I'd do if they asked me to to parallel park. I had no idea what they would test, so I thought I'd better be safe and practice.
I found some household items to serve as makeshift traffic cones, and I headed out with my mom to practice parallel parking. It was quite the high school flashback. Naturally, I nailed it. I'm amazing.
We got to the DMV 30 minutes before they opened, and there were already 15 people in line. Fortunately, they got to me quickly, and before I knew it, we were on the road. Turns out the test is basically the same road test they give teenagers though I don't think they nit-pick every single turn signal because I missed a few silly ones that they never said anything about. I think they're just making sure you have adequate control of the vehicle. I was almost disappointed they didn't test the parallel parking. She said they don't even test high-schoolers for that anymore. That doesn't seem fair.
I haven't taken a driving test since high school, and taking it again after all this time was pretty surreal. I remember how nervous I was as a teen, and it was a little weird to do it relaxed and calm. The only thing I was worried at all about was that my back might start acting up during the test, but it did fine.
I'm still waiting for some of the paperwork to go through from my doctor, but I should very shortly be legally licensed to drive with hand controls, which I've been doing now for many months. Driving still hurts my back after a short time, so nothing at all has really changed, but at least now it's done.
Another major project my mom helped with was to clean and organize my bedroom closet. This apartment has very little storage, and I had a lot of stuff in my closet that I wasn't using, so we finally went through it with the attitude that if I hadn't used it in the 3 years I've lived here, I didn't need to own it anymore. That project was a complete success, and we ended up taking something like 7 garbage bags of clothes and a box of books to Goodwill.
During that project, we were going through a shelf full of my old shoes. If you've been following this blog, you know how hard it is for me to find shoes that fit me because of the way my feet swell. I don't know if my mom suggested it, or if it was my idea, but I decided to try on one of my favorite old pairs of Sketchers, and they slipped right on. I was flabberghasted. I spent the rest of the day taking them off, and putting them back on and giggling. I absolutely couldn't believe they fit, and fit really well.
 |
| Tee-hee! |
So those are my favorite shoes now, and I wear them all the time. I even bought some elastic shoelaces for them. On my other shoes, I just tie the laces really loose so they can slip on and off without untying because tying shoes is really complicated the way I would have to do it, so they look kinda weird, and they fall off my feet real easy. With the elastic laces, these shoes look normal, and as a bonus, they squeeze my feet like compression socks, and keep them from swelling. It's pretty awesome.
So that was April.
I haven't done a whole lot in May besides celebrating the anniversary of my arrival on this planet. If you spend your free time on Facebook, you may have seen what Gus gave me to commemorate the occasion.
 |
| Next year, I will probably get a shirt with this picture on it |
So that basically catches you up to the present. Pretty exciting, right?
I'm sorry I didn't write for so long. I know you guys get antsy when you don't know what I'm doing for five minutes. This weekend, my college friends, Justin, Bobby, and Adam are coming to visit, so that should be interesting, and maybe I'll write something about that. I have a few other post ideas lined up if I can force myself to write them, so stay tuned.
