Have you ever felt as if your brain would burst from accumulated words? As a writer and blogger, I’m having that problem now. The last time I remember being in this situation was the day I started my Caring Lessons memoir. Sitting in a NC gazebo with my friend Marianna and a cat crossing our table, I wrote something like my head was full of words about my nursing career, and I had to write them down before I forgot them. Which I did and published that book in 2010.

Fast forward to 10/30/2023. Today. I awoke with my brain feeling caffeinated with words once again and immediately knew the cause. Due to finger problems from my fall on 9/7, I’ve been unable to do more than finger-type on my phone. But my cast is now off from my fractured-wrist left arm, and I’m diligently coaxing the fractured PIP and given-up DIP joints in my right pinky to resume their normal functioning. For now I’m calling DIP lazy and am forcing her to reach and press the right letters on the computer keyboard. Who knew the pinky served such a necessary function?

During my self- and daughter-imposed, days-long sequestration, the fractures in a rib and the bridge of my nose feel mostly healed, the seven stitches over my right eye have been removed (the incisional area looks like a second deep-line-shaped “eyebrow” that may remain permanently), my lower torso has remained untouched but balks at doing any kind of exercise to keep the whole functional, and, as stated before, my brain, apparently, has just been accumulating words.

I imagine it’s tough for all writers, and I’ll throw in talkers, to sequester when their usual parts are challenged. With limited avenues for escape, you may recall that last year when I found myself in a similar home bound/no driving cage after my hip replacement, I remodeled my living room and kitchen from my chair. I could not justify the expense of doing that again so soon, so this time I buried myself online.

Now, if only I’d taken notes–somehow with one cast and another impediment of buddy-taped fingers–I’d have much wisdom to impart to you from others. Especially on aging. Aging folks fall! Imagine that! And most often their immediate response is embarrassment. Since my brain didn’t register my fall until after I was in the ER awhile, I must say I didn’t have the problem of embarrassment. I also read a few depressing books about the life of women in the 1860’s. If you’d like to be similarly enlightened, read The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore, author also of The Radium Girls. Both are absolutely must reads, especially if your young adult daughter thinks life is a mess of male patriarchy. As they say, you’ve not read anything yet.

Seriously, though, both reads are excellent. Historical fiction. Stuff that I think we must know to appreciate how far women have come and encourage us to continue moving forward. Nurses, like me, will especially love/hate these books to see how women were mistreated in those times.

Also, a Chicago friend of mine, Mary Hutchings Reed, recently published another fascinating historical fiction novel. Mary is a retired lawyer who writes books on social issues and donates part of her proceeds to the The Night Ministry in Chicago. Her latest, Free Spirits: A Novel of Free Love, Faith, and Frauds in the 1860s New York introduced me to a practice I’d never heard of: spirit photography. It’s another story about a time when husbands regarded their wives as property. Hard to read, but ever so interesting and necessary to put our current lives in perspective. Read about Mary’s fascinating career and Free Spirits here. I’ve been in long-term writing workshops with Mary and was always amazed how dedicated she was to her writing and making this world better.

So what else can a couched, home bound woman do for weeks on end? As I said, online activity turned out to be a necessary diversion. And shopping, not only for books, but odds and ends. I have everything from new undergarments to turtlenecks to room accessories, to–wait for it–a steel rod in transit to hang my latest oh-so-precious-tear-jerker gift from my daughter-in-law.

Until next time!