About two and a half weeks ago home life had a radical reality shift. My husband was out for his long run in the final build to Ironman Weymouth when he had a completely random and unexpected fall. A fall which two days later saw him being admitted to A&E with a hip fracture and facing emergency surgery.
Immediately after surgery, David messaged this to a friend of ours.
It has been important for us to quickly embrace the new reality, to shift perspectives FAST. It has been hard. Scary. Dramatic. Slowly, our new reality is becoming familiar. Less daunting. Finally, we are relaxing into things. Especially me.
I gave myself two weeks to adjust to the reality shift. Yesterday I started back to the gym. My plan is to get back to pilates on Monday next week, and then to also add in swimming again.
It’s all about finding balance in our new situation. It’s about David resting and recovering, healing his hip fracture – and it is about me figuring out how to be an efficient caregiver, and to be comfortable doing things solo, the things we used to share. I figure it will take time to re-establish routines – and I am okay with letting things slide. If that means skipping swimming in order to walk the dog, I am fine with that. It may take some time to figure out how to get back into routines, time to line up dog walkers so that I can hit the pool again, but that is fine. It’s not about being perfect and having it all figured out from day one – it’s about figuring things out, day by day, and adjusting to this new reality in a way that feels comfortable. For me, that means not feeling rushed or stressed, but able to breathe into the situation, to expand into my new role, and to enjoy it too. And yes, I am enjoying parts of this, especially the cooking!
And it’s about celebrating ALL of the wins. Each day brings new challenges AND new achievements. No matter what the achievement is, especially after such a huge dramatic TRAUMATIC event, it needs celebrating.
This is us, on date night on Saturday. David crutched from our house to Galvin, about 200m or so. And home. A huge achievement.
Celebrate success. And above all else, never forget that #loveheals.