When the doctor told me that Nyel’s surgery had not gone well — that they had “closed him up in a hurry” because he was “in trouble on the table” — I didn’t cry.  When I asked if he’d ever walk again and that same doctor said, “Maybe a few steps, but it will take him a year or so to get to that point” — I didn’t cry.

But yesterday afternoon when Nyel called and told me that he had just “walked down the hall — 50 feet according to the occupational therapist” the tears came ‘unbidden’ as they say.  I had been in Seaside with him at lunchtime and I knew that he had already been to the little gym down the hall that morning.  He said that at that time he had walked back and forth between parallel grab bars and that it had gone pretty well.  If I could have done a cartwheel I would have!  Little did I know that there would be more to come that very day.  I had barely gotten home when my phone rang…

“Of course, it took three of us and my walker,” he reported.  “It was a regular parade.  The nurse walked beside me carrying the wound vac pump and the therapist was behind me pushing the wheelchair in case I got tired.  She said I walked fifty (five-oh!) feet!”  OMG!  Never mind that “walking” means swinging his left leg forward, placing his foot on the ground and transferring his weight carefully so he can take a step with his ‘good’ leg..  And never mind that he can’t yet control exactly where that left foot is landing.  And never mind that he is walker dependent.  Never mind any of it except that HE IS WALKING!

Sydney and Nyel, 2006

“I told the therapist that my goal is to walk with a cane by the time I’m out of here,” he told me.  I could all but hear him smiling over the phone.  “But that’s probably less than three weeks from now,” I said.  “I know,” he said.

As for me?  More tears, of course!