Something part 3

If I have not bored you to complete tears, I will continue the story.

I did not have to stay too long in the hospital. I had an advantage. I am paralized in my left leg from the knee down. I could not feel it. I did not have to take pain medication. That made it possible for me to go home earlier than most.

The day I left, the other guys in our room cried.

They also wanted my bed. They called it a lucky bed because I did not have to stay long. They wanted my bed so they would get to go home next.

I never saw them, again. They went their way and all. I never saw them, but I have never forgotten them. I have always wondered how they did and how their lives turned out.

I went home. I had a cast that went all the way from my foot up to my hip. I hated it. I had to use crutches. If you have ever used crutches, you will understand how horrid it was. I had to go to school with my cast and crutches.

Once, I was going up the stairs and I fell up the stairs. At least it was up and not down. I got a lot of funny looks. Would you believe that most students just watched me laying there on the floor. What is wrong with people?

By the way, I did have another surgery later. This was only the first surgery. I mentioned my brace. The good thing was knowing that these surgeries would lead to me being able to get rid of the high top shoes with braces and wear normal, low-top shoes.

I saved this until now.

I had to wear the brace attached to high-top shoes from a baby until later in junior high school.

Once a year, I had a "freedom day." I was taken to Birmingham to see my doctor and have the brace fitted to a new pair of shoes. It was only one day a year.

That meant that 364 days out of the year, I had to wear the brace. That one day I was free. I got to go around town without my brace.

That did not mean that I walked around. I got to ride in the car without my shoes. I did not have to have that brace stapped to my leg. I loved it.

For that one day a year, I looked down and the brace was gone. I had one free day! It made me want to cry, but I never talked about it. My mom and dad did not know how I felt inside. They did not know how much I wanted to just be normal. I did not want to be different. I did not want people to stare at me. I did not want children to look and wonder. I most assuridly did not want to wear shorts so that eveyone could see my brace.

Later that evening, we went back to the shoe-repair shop and my dad picked up my shoes. I had to try them on and let the guy see how they fit.

Then, I was stuck with my brace until a year later. This is why I was so excited about the surgeries. If everything went well, I would get to wear regular shoes.

I would get rid of the brace. (I don't know what happened to the brace. I do not know where it was put. If I knew, I would get it and hold it and probably cry.)

Someone asked me once about how I coped with the brace as a child. This might sound funny, but I told myself that I was like the tin man in The Wizard of Oz.

My brace would develop and squeek and I had to carry an oil can with me. if it started to squeek, I had to oil the bolts and connections and it would stop making a noise. I was like the "tin man."

Maybe a part of me lived in my own Land of Oz.

more later.