How Am I Doing? A Progress Report

This is a tale of a splinter, a pool, and a hip.  

I decided to swim as my aerobic activity.  Sunscreen applied and soaked in, I wrapped my robe around myself and stepped onto the coir doormat.... and a pricker made itself at home in the sole of my right foot, the one that lives below the bullet holes.

I hobbled over to the pool, descending gently on one and a half legs.  I soaked and poked and prodded and pulled but success eluded me.  So I swam my laps, got my heart racing, cooled down, and hobbled back and found my tweezers.

http://www.kidsyogastories.com/fairy-yoga/

I sat down, crossed my leg, and confronted my lack of flexibility. 

On the steps in the pool, in the water, I could bend enough to examine the situation.  On land, trying to open out into cobbler pose, I was an utter failure.

On a chair, with my ankle resting on my other knee, I tried to look at my wound.  I failed.  I sighed.  

I took a deep breath, entered my Pilates Space, folded my ribs and bent my spine in a gentle curve.  Slowly, steadily, with oppositional energy flowing between my hip and my rib cage, I lifted myself up and over.

And then, there it was.  

The sole of my foot was available for minor self-surgery as my hip groaned and creaked and cracked and made all kinds of unusual noises.  Remembering my RIC physical therapist's admonition to Assess the threat value of the sensation, I recognized that although it was weird and loud and scary, it didn't hurt.  Since she'd reassured me that I was incapable of doing further damage to myself unless I fell off a building, I kept pressing out and down and tried as best I could to ignore the cacophony.

I pressed, I pulled, I tweezed... twoze? ... and I was splinter-free with my hip turned out to a position it hadn't assumed since I was perforated, six and a half years ago.  It's been a long time coming.  I'm very glad it's here.