This year, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in a wheelchair.

Not to raise funds for my favorite disability organization. Not as a show of solidarity with my friends who get around in wheelchairs. Not in memory of my father, who used a wheelchair to get around for 38 years.

No, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in a wheelchair because I’m clumsy.

So clumsy that I fell getting out of the car, thanks to malicious purse straps that wound themselves around my leg, and broke my right foot. Since that day in early October I’ve had surgery, worn a boot while the foot heals, and am using crutches or a wheelchair to get around.

Mostly the wheelchair because crutches are not a safe choice for people who trip getting out of cars.

After the doctor pointed out the break in metatarsal #5 and issued strict non-weight bearing orders for what seemed like (and still seems like) an inordinate number of weeks, I vowed to do as much for myself as possible. As a result of that vow I can now do the following:

• Bump up and down stairs on my behinder
• Housecleaning chores such as sweeping, vacuuming, scouring sinks, scrubbing toilets, and emptying garbage cans in a wheelchair
• Entertain a 2-year-old with wheelchair rides around the house
• Cook meals, bake cookies and muffins, make granola in a wheelchair
• Empty the dishwasher and do dishes at the sink with my trusty wheelchair right ready to catch me if I fall
• Exercise for 30-60 minutes a day to Caroline Jordan’s hurt foot videos
• And of course, cooking Thanksgiving dinner

To read the rest of When Disability Reveals the Depths of My Dependence go to Special Needs Parenting.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page