w1 / The rest of the week

Getting to grips with everyday life

(2025.10.23-.26)

Most of the rest of the week / weekend: I spent the last of my sick leave devouring medical studies on the one hand (resources to be added later); on the other hand, I also couldn’t get enough of YouTube videos of personal journeys; my eldest daughter was tickled pink as I told her I had additionally started reading reddit tales of individual experiences (she’s been a ‘Redditor’ for a long time)!

Another task I tackled: getting a second padded liner for the VACOped (XELGO Inlay) so I could finally clean my (literally) stinking injured foot and swap / wash the original liner! Showering, when I was at that point, became a complicated affair – more later.

Perhaps one side note: on Friday 24th, the boss of my boss was visiting us in Germany from the US; as he only comes once or twice a year, I had really wanted to meet up with him again – we’d gone climbing together in the gym many months before at the end of his previous trip and had gotten on well, our mindsets are similar in many ways and I really like him. I was keen to talk to him personally and, amongst other things, explain my situation – this I managed to do, with a journey to and from work via train (getting lifts in a car to and from the stations at each end) proving manageable … beautiful weather helped of course whilst waiting for the train!

Oh yes … I think for the first time I also realised I was actually really glad to be working for a very large, global concern in Germany: the understanding and support I have received (particularly from my small but superb team) has been amazing … flexibility of working hours, working from home, all great; I can only imagine how hard it would be to face this injury AND be worried about losing my job at the same time.

Plus, really glad to have a small kitchen – can reach everything from a swivel stool in the middle … this really helped me get back to cooking at the end of the first week: lemon chicken soup!

(NOTE: I realised a couple of weeks later that sitting on the rotating ‘bar stool’ for any length of time was really not a good idea … this particular occasion resulted in my foot swelling up badly; once I noticed, I headed for the bedroom, put my foot up, loosened up the front straps of the boot and massaged my toes – maaan was that painful! Think I was developing small thromboses, despite injections, which I thankfully caught in time. I think the combination of the legs really hanging down plus the edge of the stool lightly cutting into the back of my legs are just not the thing to combine with the loss of ‘pump’ function of my calf regarding the circulation of all things fluid in my leg).

Last but not least, I am also really grateful that four of my five kids are already adults and willing and able to help; even the fifth and youngest, aged 15, is still a big help (not just making coffee either ^^!) … can’t bear to think about the ‘worst case’ combo of having little kids on top of any and all these other factors like a parent of young children who managed to tear BOTH Achilles tendons at once!!

P.S. Needless to stay, my walking stats were down. However, I’m not the kind of person who ‘hunts’ large numbers and stresses over ‘failure’ to reach these, it’s just that I do most things on foot, so it is more with interest that I note this!