… Life with a spinal cord injury and the way I WILL BE DRIVING WITH MY BRAND NEW DRIVERS LICENSE !!!  Yep, that’s right folks by some miracle (or DMV mistake), I was issued a Virginia state drivers license. The DMV has a bad reputation but they put me through lickity split without even requiring a written or road test, even though my license expired some time ago. SHHHHHH.  The next step in getting back behind the wheel is figuring out what type of hand controls and vehicle I need.  Then, the goal is to become proficient with said controls and purchase said vehicle.  Needless to say, now that Mandy has gone back to work fulltime, having my own vehicle will provide me with a level of independence that I haven’t had since August 20, 2005.  So we are all looking forward to that!

Speaking of Mandy’s return to work, it has been as difficult as one could expect given the lengthy recovery from her foot operation and absence from the field of social work over the last year and half while we were in California.  She is adjusting, slowly but steadily and I am sure she will hit her stride just in time for her to go back under the knife for her second foot surgery.  Yep, you read correctly, there is a complication with the screw they used to repair her bone- it is TOO BIG and is poking through the bottom of her bone into the surrounding soft tissue.   We haven’t scheduled the procedure because she does not have any sick leave built up but we hope the issue will be taken care by the end of the summer.  She is able to walk now thankfully, but not without pain which has prevented her from resuming her workout routine which she got so much joy from when we were in California. 
 
My workout routine however if finally beginning to take shape.  I located a physical trainer who will be working with me 2/week out of our home.  In addition to that, I returned to traditional physical therapy this past Tuesday via the local paratransit service (another motivation for getting back behind the wheel) and plan to attend 2/week. Sadly, in the time it has taken me to obtain physical therapy and training, my muscles have atrophied significantly.  I have however, been doing some walking around the house and have even mastered the stairs .  My therapist and trainer have not worked with spinal cord injuries before but both seem excited and ready to learn about the unique complications a SCI presents.

At the risk of jinxing it, we are happy to report that we have an interested buyer for our home in Sparta.  We do not yet have a written contract but we are hopefully to obtain one over the next few days.  The downside is that buyer will be renting the home for 6-8 months prior to closing but the upside is their offer is a solid one and they seem as in love with the house as we were when we first saw it.  We’ve learned in that past that offers/contracts have a way of falling through but we are hopeful that after 18 months we can finally say goodbye to 1 Alpine Terrace.