Rant #3,331: On the Road Again

If you read yesterday's Rant, you know that I am finally rid of my leg brace.

I don't have to wear it anymore ... and the future at least looks somewhat promising for me now that I have lost that restriction.

Today is another huge day in my rehabilitation from this horrible injury that I suffered six months ago.

Today, without the brace restricting my movement, I am going to try to get in and out of my car.

If I can accomplish this relatively comfortably, I can finally get back to driving again.

As I have said time and time again, this is a major part of my rehab process, mentally, physically and emotionally.

If I can accomplish this, I will finally be free of the shackles that have pretty much chained me to our residence for the past six months.

Yes. I still have many months to go before I am whole, but boy, this would be a major step in the right direction!

I can finally do something to help out my family. And it will unburden my wife from doing all the driving, as she has been doing since day one of this nightmare.

I have been driving since I was 15 years of age, and I received my actual driver's license in November 1974, so this year marks 50 years of driving on my life's resume.

I have driven near and far, just around the corner to 1,200 miles--and back again--to Florida.

I love to drive, certainly inheriting that trait from my father, who was driving since he was 12 years of age--illegally, of course--and drove for more than 50 years as a licensed New York City medallion cab driver in New York City.

He loved to drive; in fact, a month before he passed away, I was in the car with him when he drove his last mile. 

And he drove just fine.

I definitely inherited the love of driving from him, and getting behind the wheel again is a major part of me getting better.

As I have said  numerous times, my goal is to be driving by my birthday on April 28.

If I can accomplish that goal, that will be terrific.

If not, I will do it, sooner than later.

I need to be able to drive again, but if I can't do it now, then I will do it within time.

I might be a bit disappointed if I can't do it right away.  

But it won't take away my determination to get back in the saddle again.

I had a great physical therapy session yesterday, actually making a breakthrough on the stationary bike--one full revolution around--that had the whole place cheering me on.

i did it six or seven times--not consecutively, but I will take what I can get.

I also walked with a cane--rather than crutches or walker for the first time--part if the regimen to get me to learn how to walk correctly once again.

These are all things that are part if my rehab, but even if i can somehow get behind the wheel again, i know i still have quite a way to go before i return to full normalcy.

But again, at this point, i will take what i can get.

Beggars can't be choosers, as the old saying goes.

And if you are wondering what I did with my brace ... I won't discard it.

I will keep it ... just in case something unforeseeable happens--

But more importantly,ai will keep it as a reminder for me of where I was, where I have been, and where I am at the moment I see this thing again, today, tomorrow and into the future.

For six months, this was part of my body.

Just because I don't need to wear it anymore doesn't mean it will ever leave me.

That being said, it is time to look ahead.

I am not going to say "eat my dust" just yet--even though I just said it--but today might just be one of the most important days of my more than 24,000 days of life.

Drive, he said ... I hope.