Many years ago, after I'd completed a trip to the Bahamas in a single-engine Cessna 172, someone asked me if that model airplane was capable of landing in the water. "Absolutely, " I answered. "Every plane I've ever flown can land in the water - once." I was trying to be funny, of course, but the point is pretty simple: You can do anything you want as long as you don't need to use the equipment again. My plane could certainly touch down on the water - it just wouldn't ever fly again.And so it is that I find myself using the crutches again - despite having walked into the cafeteria one day last week, despite having parked the crutches at my office the next day, and despite having gone on a dog walk without them. The toll on the equipment was much more than I'd anticipated. I landed on the water just fine, but taking off is another matter.
And so it goes. A few minutes or hours without crutches does not a complete recovery make. I still have a ways to go. It's Sunday... back to work tomorrow... probably with my two little friends tucked under my arms, helping me stay upright while my muscles get stronger and my bone knits to the new titanium hip joint.
I'm really not especially disappointed. I do think the crutch-free day-and-a-half helped ratchet the pain up a few notches - and it may have set me back a little in my overall recovery. But I tried; I pushed the limits and the limits pushed back.
And so I'll live to fly another day. That's not such a bad thing.
