I let it be known

I am glad to see that "scooch" has made it into Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English both as verb ("to move or push a short distance") and noun ("a small amount or distance"). The occasion for my finding this out came when the surgeon’s resident intern shifted me on to an examining table and asked if I could "scooch down just a scooch." It came to me that I had frequently been hearing the word for days from the several physical and occupational therapists assigned to instruct me in ways to pivot on my remaining leg from one butt rest – the wheel chair or bed, for the most part – on to another – a car seat, back on to the bed, a chair at table; whatever. The first thing to remember toward a successful pivot is to scooch toward the edge of the launching pad. The resident and I agreed that no other word would serve as well, that "scooch", served, without fuss or ambiguity, a genuine need. (I became known at the rehab center for the swift elegance of my "scooch and pivot." It gave the thought to one therapist of, as she put it, "Boris Karloff doing a trapeze act.") The surgeon has signed off. I am eager to see how scooch comes into play starting next week when I begin work, considerably ahead of schedule, toward fitting a new limb. And so it goes, scooch by scooch by scooch.

This is how I told anyone who might care that I had lost, to diabetes, the part of my right leg below the knee. This blog tell about the operation and what happened afterwords.