8-07-01

Things have changed.

I wrecked my knee April 12. Operation on April 18.

I got into my pool on July 4. There was a party going on, and I was surrounded by friends. I left the leg brace at poolside, of course, and crawled out to reach it.

Next day I "hiked". Twenty or thirty minutes of walking with a collaborator and a dog. It wasn't all road; we got to turf I've never seen, though we only circled a handful of houses. Somebody's keeping a dune buggy and a more serious racing vehicle on one of the vacant lots.

I can do a sun salutation: a basic yoga move.  

My leg brace is set for 60 degrees of bend.

I had no sense of how many of my friends, relatives etc, had injured themselves until we had that in common. I've done a lot of listening. My sister-in-law went down the stairs on her ass for her breakfast, at a stage where my choice was to camp out downstairs in the den. Charles Brown was in a wheelchair at Norwescon at the same time I was, and talking the same timescales.

They tell me I'm ahead of the curve of recovery.

If all goes well, Jerry Pournelle and I will be on a research trip at mid August.

Not so long ago--talking about myself to a stranger at a meet-the-neighborhood party--I found myself looking around to be sure he had a means of escape. It felt like I'd backed him against a wall.  I'm not so worried about you; you could just stop reading. I still flinch from talking about myself this much. You're getting this because I told you when I was disabled; I should tell you when I'm getting better.

Larry Niven

Back to Letter Index