A Life of Words

So … I’m going to Denver on Wednesday. More specifically, I’m going to a wedding Thursday. My great-niece Sydney James, the amazing granddaughter of my big brother Crys, the oldest of my 3 birth family siblings, is marrying her longtime beau Jacob. And my getup in this photo is what I’ll be wearing to the celebration, which has a “steampunk” theme.

We’ve known about the date for quite some time, and I decided within the last month or so that I’d try to get off work to make the trip from Arlington. But I haven’t known about the theme all that long.

When I found out from Crys by text that it was something called steampunk, I texted him, his daughter Lew (Sydney’s mom) and our sister Terry and said, “Um…what?” Crys, who is 81, responded, “Think New Victorian” and sent me a screenshot with these definitions:

“A genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology” and “A style of design and fashion that combines historical elements with anachronistic technological features inspired by science fiction.”

Oh.

Some people suggested I could scrounge up my steampunk attire by going to thrift stores. In addition to Victorian clothing, there need to be gears, I was told. Kay suggested I check online and places like Spirit Halloween. I went on the Spirit site and found several possibilities. Not wanting to spend too much, I settled on what you see me wearing here. It was marked at $49.99 and came with the shirt/vest combo, tie, hat, and the gear-covered accessory you see on my left arm.

The hat doesn’t come close to fitting, so I have to pull it down over my big head snugly. Oh, and I also could’ve bought a skull-topped staff/cane separately, but that would’ve been an extra $25 so I decided against it.

But considering the left leg injury I’ve been dealing with for almost three weeks, a cane might’ve been appropriate. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Remember me posting during the summer about getting back out on the basketball court at the senior rec senior I joined? Well … on a recent Saturday morning, I finished about 40 minutes on the elliptical and went downstairs to the gym to shoot around. I jumped up for my fourth shot (or was it my third?) and felt a sharp pain shoot through my left calf and knew I had badly strained – i.e., tore – a muscle.

One of the reasons I knew what I’d done is because exactly four weeks earlier, I’d done the exact same thing to the same muscle, but it healed in a few days. This time, the injury was much worse and to compound the problem, I also developed a hematoma, a pooling of blood where the injury occurred. Since I’m on blood thinners permanently because of the two blood clots I’ve had in the past five years, those prevented the blood from clotting.

When I got home, I already what Kay called a golf ball-sized swelling at the site of the muscle injury/hematoma, so I spent the next couple of days icing and elevating it. Four days in and struggling mightily to walk, I asked Kay to go up into the attic and get my old pair of crutches from two right ankle surgeries in 1991-92 – a result of way too many sprained ankles from playing – yep, basketball.

I finally went to see my PCP late that week and he said – confirming what I’d been reading online – that it would probably take a couple of months for this combo injury (a likely Grade 2 muscle tear AND the hematoma) to heal. He also sent me for an ultrasound that confirmed the intramuscular hematoma.

At that point, still struggling (or being overly cautious) to put much weight on the leg, I was pretty convinced I wouldn’t be able to make the wedding trip. But last Wednesday, I went to see my orthopedic surgeon – the one who gifted me the rod and screws in my right leg after I fractured my femur April 26, 2024. I asked him about physical therapy and he said I absolutely should do it because, “The worst thing you can do is nothing.” He also said I *should* go on the trip.

So the great news is that I started PT last Friday, and after two sessions including this morning’s, the reduction in pain and improvement in my ability to walk with limited limping has been significant. That’s not to say I’m not still having pain, especially when I try to walk after sitting/lying down. But I feel confident that with another couple of weeks of in-person therapy and doing the exercises on my own, I’ll be well on my way to a healed left calf.

And of course, the best news of all is that I plan to make the wedding trip (just me, not Kay and the kids). Seeing my brother and sister and other birth family relatives in the Denver area is always an immense blessing.

So, Colorado, here I come – sung to the tune of “California, Here I Come,” originated by Al Jolson. Just look it up – the song and him – all you young folks!! 😊