Never let it be said that I shy away from a challenge. In fact, I would say that I thrive on them.

So, living for the next six weeks on crutches is my next challenge. Well, certainly getting up the step onto the landing, last Saturday morning after only three hours sleep, caused me a bit of a problem. Yes, I did have my five minute lesson on how to walk on crutches, but those who have been unfortunate enough to spend some time on the flippin’ things know only too well that walking in straight lines is the easiest bit! Getting up a step is a different kettle of fish. I didn’t get it right and crashed down on the wooden floor on my back.. Ouch! Then, of course you have to  work out how to get up. Not like getting up from a fall when skiing, when you just put your poles behind you and push yourself up…. can’t do that with your crutches, as you only have one foot to put weight on! Ho hum.

I soon learned to use the wall when going up, or down, a step. Just lean against a wall, with your weight bearing leg next to the step, then with one crutch up the step and the other one where you are standing, just push down on your crutches lifting yourself up, but still leaning against the wall. You can then put your good foot down on the next level up. Easy when you know how. There is a technique for everything, it’s just finding how to do it without breaking any more limbs!

Because of nightly trips to the loo (mustn’t get dehydrated, so have to keep liquids topped up during the day!) I felt that the best course of action would be to get a bed down into my dining room so that I wouldn’t have an assault course to negotiate during my nightly perambulations.

Responding quickly to my SOS phone call, my ex arrived immediately and set about turning my dining room into a bedroom, just the job! Thanks Mel.

After he had gone, it  occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to carry a cup of tea into the sitting room, nor a plate of food to the table. Oh dear, was I destined to the kitchen stool on which I would have to drink tea and eat my meals for the next six weeks? After musing on the subject for a while, I realised I needed a bag to carry food, drink, whatever into the other rooms, from the kitchen.

Not having a small rucksack, the only bag I could come up with was the peg bag! An old cotton bag left over from the sixties (hippy days). I can hang this around my neck when going anywhere in the cottage: going upstairs (on my bottom) to get clean clothes; bringing drinks, or food in a plastic box, into the sitting room. Great, that’s settled. I carry my tea in a very old Addis plastic container with a lid and pouring hole, but because that leaked onto the other contents in my bag, I’ve now purchased a super-duper travel mug, with had great Amazon reviews saying that it was leak proof. So I sincerely hope that the reviewers are to be trusted!

My galley kitchen

I’m really lucky because my cottage kitchen is like a galley and I can hop up and down holding onto work surfaces either side without using the crutches. Always good to remember though, to park your crutches against the work surface behind you so that when you hop off to get something you don’t have to negotiate passing them, with the risk that you get tangled up and crash to the floor! Similarly, my bathroom is easy to get around, bidet, bath, loo and wash basin. The latter is in a vanity unit so I can lean against it while carrying out my ablutions!

By Sunday evening my left hip joint, wrists, and, strangely, my stomach muscles, were all aching badly due to the unaccustomed strain on them.So as not to waste valuable energy and put more strain on your body by hopping backwards and forwards from sitting room to kitchen to bathroom, (crutches are rather tiring), it is best to plan in advance where you are going and what you need. It’s no good getting up and hopping to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, only to find that you have left your bag on the floor by your armchair! Take everything you need in your bag to cut down on your journeys and save time and energy.

I was hoping that I would be fitted with a boot, not another plaster caste, when I kept my appointment at the fractures’ clinic on Tuesday which I’m sure would be easier to cope with!