Back home after the surgery

When you come home with crutches and have to move around, it is clear that there are some situations that are difficult to tackle: it's hard to take a plate and carry it out, it's hard to bend down and put things into the dishwasher, it's hard to pull something out of a cupboard.

It's really difficult to get dressed. Fortunately it was summer, so I didn't need to practice putting on socks. It's hard to sit down and put on pyjamas because I've not practised bending down much yet. But you learn how to when you move around at home.

In the beginning, I realised that it was smart to have a small bag with the phone and various other things, so I didn't have to get up quickly to grab them - which I couldn't do, so the phone would have stopped ringing. It was something we learned: how we can make things easier, how we can sit best and where things should be.

So, what should you do when you can't move around the way you used to? I was really lucky that I have a good friend who picked 10 kg apples in her garden almost every day and brought them over. So I could sit and peel apples. That's how I passed time.

I practised with my crutches, went for walks every day. It was really hard and the walks were short, but they got longer and longer, and when I got started with my exercises at the health centre, a whole lot of opportunities opened up.

I found out that there were many things we could do, and we got some homework exercises that I could do at home. I did them every day, several times a day. I could listen to music or watch TV while I was doing many of the exercises. So I did a lot to move forwards. Luckily I did it, and I could get back to work a little earlier than when I had thought.

I started working after 2½ months, at a very reduced rate. I only taught one Danish class. After 14 days, I turned it up and I took the rest of my classes, except for a home economics class, because I wasn't sure I could move fast enough around the kitchen.

I added that to my schedule after January 1st, and then I was back full time. It was great for me that I was allowed to come back at a slow pace. That's been good.