Four years ago, I broke my ankle really badly. Possibly relatedly, though no one has been able to confirm, almost a year ago my spine started degrading. I was incapable of leaving my bed to go much further than the bathroom - and even that was iffy. As a result, my wife has been doing most of the physical stuff required to take care of the house and our kid. And me. I am very grateful to her - the demands made of her were unreasonable but she handled all of them.

After I spent eleven days almost unable to move, my oldest friend traveled 350 miles to attend my kid’s birthday and basically bullied me into agreeing to see a doctor. The next day I trembled and whimpered my way down my stairs and into my car and my wonderfully accommodating wife drove me to a walk-in ortho. They prescribed me gabapentin and suddenly I was able to do things like take a shower. It was nice not to smell my own armpits every time I shifted.

For the next … Fairly significant time period, I was still limited, but semimobile. I underwent a whole battery of tests and let me tell you, MRIs and X-rays SUCK. They all want you to get in a position that hurts and then stay still.

Finally, almost exactly a month ago, I had a surgery on my spine. There was a noteworthy recovery period and I have some scars that might mess up my back tattoo, but yesterday I was able to take my trash and recycling out. If I had tried that any time in the last year I probably would have collapsed in the middle of my driveway.

I’m lazy, but in all sincerity, being able to contribute to my household in even a fairly minor way was so rewarding.