Coping

I'm tired of being an invalid. I'm tired of wearing my boot. I'm tired of asking people to take me places. I want to be independent again...but I'm not quite ready.  Yesterday I had a manicure in town. I drove by myself. I discovered I cannot deal with the walker by myself, so I put on "real shoes" and used a cane to drive the 3 miles to the shop.  That's when I discovered I'm not quite stable enough with a cane. Getting out of the car without help was difficult. When I almost fell leaving the shop, the owner of the shop walked me to my car. Today my wonderful neighbor drove us to St. George. It was a beautiful winter day, about 65 degrees...sunny with a few scattered clouds...shirt-sleeve weather. It was the first time in 7 weeks I had left my hometown and I was enjoying the ride and the desert scenery. We went to 3 locations...did what we needed to do...and I tried to hold up my end of the bargain. I exited the vehicle at only 2 locations. Costco has electric carts ...without them I couldn't go shopping. We ended up in a restaurant where we had "linner" (you know, lunch/dinner). It was a good day. But I'm not ready for prime time yet. I'm worried that someone is going to run into me and I'll topple over. I'm worried I might slip on something and topple over. Every day I'm improving, but I'm not quite ready to go out on my own. Soon but not tomorrow.