Life has been more difficult in the last couple of weeks, but in the words of a wise friend, “You’re in the thick of it now, and I am holding the torch to remind you that the corner is nigh.” She’s right. I can bend my ankle a bit more than last week, can put it on the floor (albeit without bearing much weight) and am buoyed by my conviction that the body knows what it is doing and how to heal if I I just get out of my own way.
These days, the brightest star in my sky is Diego, my physical therapist.
It’s been two weeks since I unceremoniously fell on my ass and bruised every inch of my body. It has taken these two weeks for the inflammation to subside sufficiently enough to actually begin treating my actual assessed injuries. Most notable among these are the ligaments in my right ankle.
When I first crutched into Diego’s office, I looked like my foot was stuck inside a volleyball. At the bottom of my leg rested a big round purple blob that could under no circumstance approach touching the floor. Diego’s calm and earnest demeanor was reassuring, and he took extra care in making sure I could rest somewhat comfortably during the assessment.
After three visits and multiple treatments with an electromagnetic field machine - don’t ask me how, but I’m here to say it works - my toes have begun reappearing. No longer a single dark mass on the end of my foot, my toes are now individual purple units, and this is real progress. Toes!
I am still dependent on crutches, although less so than before. I am using them for balance while I practice placing my entire foot on the floor, although still without much weight.
Lying still while the emFieldPro machine worked on my ankle - 15 minutes at a time - I asked Diego about it. “Is it similar to a tens unit?” I asked. He said, “Well, I will tell you this way - a tens unit cost a couple hundred dollars. This cost $25,000. It’s a different thing.” Because my injuries were so widespread, Diego used the machine on various parts of my body. I laid there worrying that the cost of the machine would be passed on to the patient. But at the end of the treatment, I was thrilled to find out that each physical therapy session, no matter what it consists of, cost 25,000 colones - about 50 bucks.
He also has these fancy pressure boots, which are akin to leg-length, zip-up blood pressure cuffs. A pressurized bladder in the boots works excess fluid up and out of my ankle area. Helps a lot.
While his Rx is usually pretty simple - “Ice and whiskey” - this week Diego sent me home with a small, portable under-desk bike pedal exerciser to keep for a week and use for three minutes a day. “I put it in your car for you. Just bring it back next week and we’ll see how it has helped,” he said with a smile. It’s a start, and I am grateful for this approach to treatment and for the steady, albeit slow, progress and healing.
Melanie has, of course, continued to be her usual loving and compassionate self, waiting on me hand and foot without complaint. I am grateful for the care with which she does everything. Do I need an extra pillow for the car ride to Diego? Would it feel better if my foot was slightly higher or lower or to the left or right? “Here, I’ve brought you a piece of that lovely bread you like. Would you like some tea as well?”
While I have been largely bed-bound for a couple of weeks, I have been (am) profoundly grateful that I was not paralyzed or otherwise maimed in my fall. It wasn’t from a great height, but it was violent, onto a tile floor and hitting a concrete wall with my head on the way down. I am so thankful that all I have is a messed-up ankle, a tailbone temporarily impossible to sit on and a pretty good bump on the head. I am also keenly aware that while I am lying here recovering, I can see such beauty outside my window, hear such lovely birdsong, and feel such pleasant mountain coolness coming through the window.
I have graduated to moving outside now for bits at a time, venturing out of the house to the patio to read or write, enjoying the view and beautiful sounds. I am deeply in awe of the body’s ability to take in what it needs to heal, to force rest when it knows it needs it, to function under less-than-ideal circumstances. I am very grateful for my Reiki friends who have sent this amazing energy medicine my way.
Gratitude for our new Costa Rica life:
Even though things are done differently here, I am grateful for every time we learn a new way to do something. We are buying local produce from the most awesome farmer’s market ever. We have learned to give up our desire for the familiar American-made products (food or otherwise) in favor of locally made products that are much cheaper and fresher and for non-food products that clean or treat just as well, just with a different name and Spanish on the label.
I am grateful that we can just walk into a farmacia and explain our needs to the pharmacist, who usually just disappears into the back and returns with an ointment or a sleeve of pills for our issue. The farmaceutica at our favorite farmacia worked extensively with Melanie to locate a suitable alternative for a medication not readily available here. We are still a bit blown away by the ease with which we can contact and communicate with pharmacists and doctors via WhatsApp, phone or email. Melanie’s back and forth with the pharmacist resulted in a reasonable solution; also, during their exchange, I said to Melanie “see if they have a donut pillow” (my tailbone is still a painful issue.) The pharmacist promptly sent back a photo of a donut pillow - so far, that’s the best $20 I have spent here.
Grateful, too, that even though the roofing sounds are sometimes loud and obnoxious - we are racing to ensure that our metal roof is secured for upcoming rainy season - I can also hear the workers’ banter and laughter and singing as they work. Ticos sing right out loud here, walking down the street, in the bank, waiting in lines. I am getting used to that, and I quite love it.
It is also gratifying to see Melanie out in the yard, creating yet another masterpiece garden in an entirely new country. Dirt is her scared space, and watching her create a new garden is very satisfying, even though I wish I could help her with it, but can’t at the moment. Our contractor, Carlos, and his wife Ana have become friends, and Ana & Melanie have a shared love for gardening. Ana & Carlos took Melanie on a field trip to a nearby nursery, where she loaded up on new fruit trees, shrubs and flowers for butterflies, bees and birds. Getting those things in the ground before rainy season was a priority and that goal has been met. I can’t wait to see how green and lush things become throughout the rainy season.
We are still waiting for our shipment of belongings from the US to clear customs and be delivered to us. So for the time being, we are still camping out of our suitcases. But we have become accustomed to this and are making do just fine. We are looking forward to being able to establish house and home, surrounded by things we love in our newly adopted country.
Thanks to you all for taking the ride with us.