the hero's journey of my injury

[Prince of Spires]

You know the meme "you know you're a ... when ..."? This night I had mine: You know you're a writer when you plot your physical injury onto the hero's journey.

Back in October I injured my Achilles heel. Doing sports with my 5 year old, I tried to jump to the top of a wall. As I pushed off it felt like my foot 'sank' into the ground. An innocent Virgin birth ( no women involved here...)

I refused this first call, thinking it would disappear by itself.

Then, about two weeks later, my foot got stuck and I tripped. This hurt enough to make me call a physiotherapist. Answering call number two.

Things got progressively worse from there. They made an ultrasound and determined it wasn't ruptured. I just needed a brace to keep my foot locked in place. This had to be prescribed by a surgeon.

The surgeon thought it might be worse than that and gave me an MRI. Turns out I ruptured my Achilles tendon in half and in such a way that I needed surgery to sow the pieces back together.

The surgery turned out more difficult than expected. They fixed the thing, but because of the size of the cut they blocked my nerves so I couldn't feel a thing. they also have me a cast that forces my toes to point down at a 45 degree angle. That was last night.

The anesthesia wore off in the middle of the night. Which brought me to my low point, my decent into the underworld. It hurt, though morfine helped. But the pressure of the cast against the wound made sleeping impossible. I couldn't find a position which was comfortable and, since it was 4 in morning I felt miserable.

At which point I started plotting my journey on the hero's journey. It was a way to keep my mind off things and it helped a bit.

I'm waypoint plotting the rest of the journey. In two weeks my foot gets readjusted. and again two weeks after that. at some point I'll het cast in which I can walk.

I'll emerge from the experience at home, but changed. Both physically and mentally, as fits with the journey.

And that's it.

For those looking for a point to this post, there isn't one. Except that sometimes you have to write down your experiences and thoughts. Apologies for the wall of text if you've read this far.

 

[CupofJoe]

Thank you for that [and yes I read it all]
I have to say I love a morphine drip! I had stomach surgery a few years ago and was on morphine for 36 hours. They were nice and cosy... The 24 hours after that are the worst I can remember.
I wish you well over the next few weeks. But at least you have a good excuse for not getting involved with the Xmas Craziness, but as you have a 5yo, the Craziness is going to be there just the same I expect!

 

[Chasejxyz]

Everything you experience can be used for writing. A few years back I got a really bad rib injury and all I could do was sit at my desk at work and then go home and lay in bed and be depressed; this went on for 3 or 4 months, it sucked! You don't realize how much you use your abdomen to sit up in bed or adjust your position in your chair until doing so really, really hurts. Convalescing takes a lot of energy, both physical and emotional. All of that helped when I was writing my MC recovering from an almost-fatal injury (and characters being injured in general).

Journaling/memoiring? can help working through stuff like this. It can also help you put your experiences to words for future stuff. I hope your recovery is swift and easy.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I always enjoy a good hero’s journey!

My tale is far less dramatic. While writing Trail of Pyres I went to put on a pair of boots, had my right index finger in the strap, and I just kind of jerked the boot while dropping my foot like normal, only my finger stuck in it. It hurt, and I didn’t think much of it. It swelled up, I’m like “meh, no biggie. It moves.” A week or two later I can finally bend it all the way in, but it won’t straighten. Huh, me thinks to myself. But I shrugged my shoulders and said, “what the hell, it doesn’t hurt.” So now a couple years later my finger still won’t straighten out... thus, a character in Trail of Pyres injures a finger and refuses to have it healed because it just don’t matter much, heh heh. So in this case, the character and myself didn’t learn a lesson at all.

Not totally true, I learned to be more careful when putting on boots. Never once did I expect it to be so dangerous.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Thanks for the supporting words and sharing of stories So far, the hero's journey is looking better than it was a few days ago.

I've still got another day of morphine happiness to look forward to. I'm curious to see what sunday will be like...

And yes, I'm letting part of the holiday craziness pass me by this year. Though, in part that's also because here in the Netherlands we're pretty locked down, limiting the amount of crazy to begin with. Still, the 5 and 3 year old are keeping things interesting. Though they're also very cute and trying to help their father. On wednesday I spend the day in bed. During the day, my 3 year old came to visit me several times to bring me cookies and have a little chat. And at some point she brought over a bunch of stuffed animals to play with them together with me. Which definitely warms a father's heart.

I agree that our experiences inform our writing and make it better. Which is one of the reasons my writing now is way better than what it was when I was a teenager. It's also how I interpret the "write what you know" writing advice. I disagree with the advice on many points, but I do agree that it makes for strong writing when you can draw from your own experiences and emotions and have an idea of what the character is going through.