Q1 2025 has been filled with turmoil of varying kinds. Aside from the wrecking crew that is dismantling our federal government by the day, I have been recovering from a medical procedure.
Bone-on-Bone
Thirty-three years ago, I broke my ankle in a household accident. Last year, it decided to start acting up. It grew a bone spur and then the joint was bone-on-bone. Every step became increasingly painful. I denied it for a while, but then decided I had to do something about it or I would be on crutches for the rest of my life.
At that point, I was eager to fix the ankle for two reasons: (1) I could no longer walk, only hobble; (2) we still have Medicare.
Ankle Fusion at MGH
The White Building at MGH
After tests and consulting with an orthopedist and a surgeon, I opted for an ankle fusion procedure. It took place on March 6 at Massachusetts General Hospital—one of the best hospitals in the country. I amused myself prior to the surgery by slipping into tour-guide mode and telling the anesthesia team things they didn’t know about MGH’s history. Fortunately, they had been in the Etherdome. Everything went well and I was home the next day.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the recovery time is long, cumbersome, and limiting. I will spare you the photos and X-ray images.
A Large Cat on My Foot
For the first month I had a bulky splint on that leg. It went from the toes to just below the knee. I could not put any weight on it and it had to be kept dry. After a month, the splint was replaced with a full cast. I had hoped this would be smaller and lighter but no such luck. It’s just harder and rougher. Also, no weight bearing and keep it dry.
For those with no experience in this, it is like hopping around with a large cat clinging to your foot that you can’t let touch the ground. And you cover it with a plastic bag to shower.
Sitting and Fuming
My days since March 7 have involved sitting in a recliner with my foot in the air. I am normally a very active person who keeps busy with a variety of projects. So this feels like being in prison.
A Normal Year’s Activities
Normally, at this time of year I would spend a week setting up and working the Women’s Alliance rummage sale at the First Parish of Sudbury. This year, no participation. I had to stop singing in the choir and won’t be part of the annual music Sunday.
Our community’s March pot-luck dinner went on without me. And today I will have to cancel attending a friend’s birthday party because it’s a destination event and I’m not up for that. And our neighbor passed away but I couldn’t attend his funeral service.
I know these are inconveniences and interruptions to my normal schedule, a ripple on the pond of my life. By June I will be walking again. Our vacation will go on as planned. And I will be guiding tours again in August. I also know it’s important to keep this return to normal life in mind, especially on those days when I feel like life will never be normal again.
Roundup of Q1 2025 Posts
As my ankle improves, I am doing as much as I can while sitting in a chair, and that includes writing blog posts. As I mentioned previously, I stopped my no-politics rule because politics strikes me as the only thing worth writing about right now. So here is a quarterly roundup of Q1 2025 blog posts. For obvious reasons having to do with what’s on the news, they fall mostly into two categories.
Boston and History
Business
- Building Catastrophe-Resistant Houses
- “Severance” as Corporate Metaphor
- From X to BlueSky and Beyond
- The Movie Theater Experience
- Learning from Government Layoffs
Friends and Family
Government
- Buyer’s Remorse: Part 3
- My Question for Pete Hogseth
- The Democrats’ Messaging Problem
- Project 2025 Comes to Life
- Tapping the Voters’ Outrage
- Denial is Powerful, but Deceptive
- Attack of the Face-Eating Leopards
- Normality is the Wrong Filter
- Democratic Party: Stop the Fundraising
- Trump’s First Reveal of Classified Information
Health and Safety
Language and Writing
Counting the Days
Although I don’t normally count the days before an event, I’m doing that now: 28 days since the surgery; 19 days until the cast comes off. One number goes up and the other comes down. As long as I stay up, though, all is good.
