Someone asked me via text when was a good time to talk in the morning now. This was my (long winded, sarcastic but truthful) response.

Prior to 6/23/2021, my morning routine was (I thought hectic at the time) so different. Woke up at 5am, bathroom, brushed teeth, put on contacts, change into workout clothes. Changed Ollie’s bed sheets and diaper. Go upstairs check work emails, walk to gym room, boxing 30 min, weights 30 min. Come downstairs, feed dogs, give Ollie meds, clean his eyes, laundry, sweep, mop. Shower, breakfast and head upstairs to work. Multitask on phone call at any time, maybe a little stressed but easy peasy and full of happy endorphins. Call me anytime to chat so I can complain about my crazy morning.

Little did I know crazy and how fortunate my life was …

Mornings are a new crazy for me. From the second my eyes open, my body screams I have to pee NOW. I rush to get into my wheelchair right next to my bed and Isaac wheels me to the restroom as I do the “hold the pee dance” in my chair. I hobble a few steps from the bathroom door to the potty and pray to not tinkle on myself as I gingerly try to “walk” as fast as I possibly can and not roll my left ankle. Once I plop on the toilet, it sounds like rain hitting a tin roof, then I grab my phone from my wheelchair and proceed to open my Bible app as I enjoy the morning silence, I pray, I listen to the Verse of the day and I thank Jesus for another day and ask him to heal me. Afterwards I play Wordle. Depending on how long it takes me to solve the wordle of the day, sometimes it takes me 3 tries and other times it takes me the full 6 tries. If it takes me 6 tries, I spend another minute feeling defeated because my poor brain is not “wordle worthy”.
Everything takes me so long and I’m no longer able to hold the phone to my ear while multitasking other things. So as you can see my life has changed a lot in ways many won’t realize. Of course I can put my earpiece in but that requires me to have to it easily accessible and plan beforehand to have it on me because it’s unreachable until I can get my foot brace on — which I have a morning routine where I like to brush my teeth and wash my brace without my brace as I stand still in front of my bathroom sink to give some input to my left leg and foot and give it some freedom before having to strap on the Velcro leg constraint for the next 12 hrs of my day. I’m still blind as a bat so I struggle every morning to open the impossible contact lens contraption of my new daily contacts with my one usable hand and clumsily by the grace of God plop my contact in each eye praying I didn’t flip it inside out or have a piece of lint I can’t remove with just one hand. Or God forbid drop it. Luckily for me that I get to cover my hideousness with a mask at therapy I can skip the makeup and just apply sunscreen and some chapstick. I then finally roll myself over to proceed to put on my Velcro leg constraint and with just enough precision I have to somehow maneuver it just right using the little step by my shower to assist with fitting in on my left foot without jamming my ankle all doing this with only one capable hand. Once that bitch is strapped on, I’m ready! But not really because the AFO is slippery and can’t be worn without shoes. So I proceed to put on my unmatched shoes. Why? Because the lovely people who designed the AFO don’t make them to be practical for people who really need them. They make them larger and they don’t fit into normal size shoes. So I force my AFO into my size 8 crocs on my left foot and slip into my size 6 tennis shoe on my right. Now I can finally stand and walk around. It’s like freedom but really not. If I want to independently walk, I will need to wear my AFO til I go to bed. I will then proceed to my bedroom where I dodge my whining dogs trying desperately to trip me over and shoo them to go to their room so I can feed them. All the while they are expressing their hangryness in loud barks at me to hurry up. Then I can finally proceed to armoring up for my day by spending time with Jesus through reading my devotional books, drink my protein shake and taking my meds as I wait for my prince to wake up and put on my other lovely slipper (sneaker)so we can dash off our merry way to rehab by 9am.
That’s my new 1.5 hr morning routine so mornings can be hard to chat.

I guess responding back – mornings are to chat – would’ve been sufficient but where’s the honesty in that?

In all honesty, looking back at how I had to adapt to my new life this past 12 months, I have been very inconvenienced and for 2 hours of my morning very dependent on needing help. However, I also adapted an intimacy with my Savior. I traded working out my physical body for working out my mental body. I dedicated precious time to my Jesus who has sustained me through all this.