70% recovered

I guess I should not be too surprised but I got a little busy during the semester. I actually felt like I was behind all semester. I think having construction going on at home, teaching a new class, and continuing the rehab process kept me from fully concentrating on "work" although quite a bit got done. The kitchen project is done, my rehab is pretty much done, and the class seemed to work out fine.

There are things that always remind me of the fun I had this summer and how I was generally lucky with my injury. One of my colleagues fell skiing and got to visit the same surgeon to have his ankle repaired. I have heard stories of broken legs leading to infections and eventually amputation and gotten quick glimpses into other people's similar but worse suffering. I saw someone at PT the last time I was there that had walking boots on both legs. Rehabing both legs at the same time or during the icy part of the year, while trying to teach, would be much worse than what I had to deal with. I was lucky to have my rupture during the summer and when Teresa had the flexibility to take care of me almost every day. No worrying about using crutches on ice and snow or having to lecture on crutches or even in a walking boot. And I am getting back to 100% or at least sort of close. I guess it is important to remember that even when things seem bad, there is always someone who has it worse.

As the fall rolled along, I started running. I have been slowly able to increase the frequency of running and pace. I had hoped to use cross-country skiing to complete my rehab, but the ski season has so far been spotty (the reports are that the snow is decent in the mountains but that isn't quite what I am looking for). I cross-country skied a couple of times up Sourdough during the fall semester, but discovered that I was really scared of falling. I am not the most brave skier normally but this was at another level of trepidation. On soft snow descending the slightly steep and wide trail was fine but that was my upper limit. Our in town snow has been poor this year. Once we get skiable snow in town, I will start skiing again.

But for now, I have been going to the gym. I have never liked gyms, but am enjoying what I can do there. I am now running a couple of miles around 10 minute mile pace. Then Teresa and I lift weights and do some stretching. It has been fun so far. In doing that, I have been able to really see my current limits. Past the six month point, I am still struggling to get my weaker leg to catch up with the stronger. After running, I tried to work both sides to exhaustion on a leg press sled with the same number of reps. The difference in weight settings was 50 versus 70. It really isn't a 70% difference because the real weight I was moving was heavier than that. But it is still a difference and the two sides don't look the same. I still have a dimple at the top of the incision. But my achilles is actually coming back to normal in size and shape. So now I just get to keep working.

Back to normal...

It has been 3 weeks since my last post - it has been a busy and productive few weeks. The semester is now in full swing and despite teaching just one class, I am buried in meetings and the occasional opportunity to get some research done. The research I have gotten done has mainly focused on student's research. Post-tenure, this is definitely more of my focus. Its not that I didn't involve students in my work before, but I would drag them along to completion whether they fully understood what we were doing or not at each step of the process. Now I am trying to let them drive the ideas more and especially direct the writing and presenting of material. It is better for them and now that I don't have a deadline looming, I am more than happy to let them take the lead. This led to having two students present their work at the Montana Chapter of the American Statistical Association Fall Meeting. This is actually the first time any of my students presented there and it was really fun to see them do well. I think both are making excellent progress on their projects and heading towards publishable results.

My rehabilitation process has moved from getting normal function to getting full function in my leg. I am walking normally or at least close to normally and have even done some long distance walks. Last Tuesday, I walked close to 4 miles, most of that at the end of the day, and felt great the next day. I am now working on hopping and skipping to start to build up some of the explosive power in injured leg. I have been tempted to do that around campus, but have restricted it to in the house at this point. The rehab is now about getting my leg ready for ski season, which seems to be rapidly approaching as we feel the first chilly nights. I could start jogging now, but am waiting until the hopping and skipping get to be easy before I start asking Teresa to go for a run with me.


We have been remodeling our kitchen recently and that has proved to be a slower process than we had hoped. We have faced a couple of setbacks with a damaged base cabinet and then the counter-top installers are backed up on other projects. We are still a couple of weeks out to getting our kitchen back so the 3-4 week project will be 6-7 weeks, maybe more. So we continue to cook in my work room and do dishes in a laundry sink. Not really that bad, as we have a toaster oven, microwave,  two burner cooktop, and a dorm fridge there. It just lacks a bit in counter space. And now we get to have a family visit without a kitchen. We also get to complete our two large tasks in the project - getting the flooring in and then eventually tiling the backsplash. We've never done either before but hopefully all our years of watching HGTV will pay off.

Starting a neighborhood association

In addition to all my other responsibilities at work, the beginning of a new semester, continuing my rehab, and starting a kitchen remodel, I have taken on trying to organize a neighborhood association (Midtown North Neighborhood Association at http://midtownnorthneighborhoodassociation.blogspot.com/). When I look at it in that context, I wonder what I was thinking. That regularly happens to me when I am at work and I wonder why I promised so much work for my collaborators. The neighborhood association idea has happened because it is always a well received idea with neighbors when it comes up, and then nothing happens. I have entirely more experience organizing and leading meetings than I expected as part of being a faculty member. I am also starting to serve on faculty senate, chairing my departmental awards committee, on the departmental promotion and tenure committee, and then there are all the graduate student committees that I serve on. Service is a part of my job description, but most of us don't get into academia for the committees.

I sometimes think that my midwestern lutheran upbringing was excellent training for being a faculty member - lots of activities, everyone chipping in to make things happen regardless of how important the things might be, and being reliable about attending and eventually organizing those events. I noticed that as a graduate student I was always helping out and it was second nature. And it wasn't second nature for all the students... That desire to be involved got me positions as student representative on various committees. The point of all this is that I am comfortable being the driver of the initial organization of the neighborhood association.

I discovered that I am a little less comfortable going up to neighbors I have never met and discussing this. The moment I did this, I started to feel like a politician. But I think I will get over that soon. I am mainly interested in spreading the word about what I've done to this point so people who are interested can get involved. I have tried to create an electronic footprint for the association, with a FB page and a companion page on my blog. Trying to get noticed by the google search engine has been slower than I expected - they own blogspot so one would think they can access it pretty quickly.

In terms of my rehab, it has possibly been slowed a little by my recent efforts related to our kitchen work. Maybe it is rehab to scrape floors and paint ceilings and walls? I suspect I could have focused my exercises more and gotten a little more benefit. On the plus side, I have gotten noticeably stronger recently. So maybe construction is good rehab... The net result is that at around 12 weeks (odd how it is hard to remember the count now and it used to be so easy) I am finally starting to walk without a limp. My pedaling motion is also getting smoother on the bike. My PT has become more dynamic including lunges and moving from a squat to being on my toes. That last one makes me think about jumping even though I am still a bit from doing that. It was really exciting to able to move the leg press sled with 10 lbs of weight (plus the sled and my body weight) on it with my left calf at the end of my last session.