Warning: Over use of CAP LOCKS and a full-on rant inside….

Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (extra points if you know that book!)….well, I may be a little melodramatic, but my day sucked the life out of me.  It started with about 2.5 hours of sleep.  I had to use my crutches a lot yesterday while traveling home from my holiday getaway.  We were stuck in a traffic jam, so I stopped at a rest stop to grab food and walk Georgia.  Walking a dog while on crutches is not easy.  I made it home and had to unload my car (with the help of my neighbor).  Now having autoimmune arthritis while trying to travel and pack/unpack is difficult enough. Add in the broken non-weight bearing foot and subsequent boot AND it’s extra-specially difficult.  I was exhausted, but was unable to sleep because I hurt. ALL. OVER.  The kind of hurt that made it impossible to sleep.  When my alarm went off, I was surprisingly not too exhausted.  A giant cup of coffee and I was on my way.

Work flew by and then it was time for a doctor appointment.  I scooted myself out of the building and into the POURING rain. ***For those of you who have’t had the chance to experience it, knee scooters and pouring rain do not a good combination make (but I digress.)  I stood in the pouring rain trying to fit the scooter into my car, then hopped on one foot to my driver’s seat.  The parking lot floods, so my good foot was soaked.  After a 40 minute long commute, I reached my destination….and then the fun really started.

It was still pouring rain when I arrived at my handicapped accessible doctor’s office. I didn’t think I would have trouble getting myself in and out of the building, but I was wrong.   I can honestly say that my experience using a mobility device has been eye opening.

If you have ever pushed a wheelchair, you’ll already know that they get caught on curbs, floor-based door frames, elevator frames, and carpets/ weather runners.  Scooters are just as bad, except you have the added potential of being tossed over the handlebars if you hit the brakes too hard or something slams to you a stop (like a curb).  So imagine scooting along in the pouring rain then slamming to a sudden halt because the scooter can’t make it over the flat legos of death (really known as truncated domes that are ADA required to alert visually impaired people they are coming to the cross walk)

at the end of the handicapped accessible ramp.  While these truncated domes (honestly, don’t you prefer them to be called flat legos of death??  Just me?  I digress again.)  Being relatively new to this mobility game, I hit this portion of the sidewalk (in the pouring rain) and almost broke my neck.  Not only did the bumps slam me to a sudden, yet shaky halt, the rain soaked square was slippery.  I was SO unprepared for this “safety” sidewalk feature.
By the time I got back to my car, I was physically and mentally drained. (All this after having another suspicious mole removed by my dermatologist!!)  Seriously, everything is just THAT much more difficult when you can’t walk!!!  It’s exhausting and it makes me want to toilet paper every car that dares to park in a handicapped accessible parking spot.  The general public has NO understanding of how difficult it is to maneuver when disabled.  I thought I knew, but today proved, to me, that I had NO idea. Three more weeks until I can hopefully walk again or better yet, lose the boot!  My temporary use of a mobility device will be short lived and for that I am both humbled and grateful.

When I finally arrived at home, I walked in to a flood (more like a pee puddle, but again, melodrama is my middle name today) caused by my diabetic dog who just couldn’t hold it until I got home from work/doctor’s appointment.  She is normally very good, but I’m sure her first day with me following our 5 day break had her off schedule.  Cleaning up a river a pee with a non-weight bearing broken foot is truly not delightful. I don’t recommend it at all. I still haven’t carried the trash bags outside because I just can’t move any more this evening.

Thanks for tolerating my ranty-rant, my digressions, and my overuse of ALL CAPS in this blog.  I am now on my couch watching Elf (because I really need some Buddy in my life after my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day).

Georgia keeps pulling the laptop back to get my attention, so I guess it’s snuggle time, too.   I’m done being angsty and miserable.  Time to move on.  I’m going to hang out with Buddy and get some happy back in my life before going to bed.  Wish me luck that I achieve sweet dreams and not end up a cotton-headed ninny muggins tomorrow.

Be well friends.