A note about my health
As many of you know by now, I’ve had spinal issues for most of my adult life that have intermittently taken me out of action for a day or two here and there. As Donald Trump’s criminal trial was getting underway, I was pleased to find that my back was holding up quite well, thanks to the procedures and physical therapy I’ve undergone, along with the suggestions that some of you have sent in over the years. But as fate would have it, days after the trial started, I suffered a foot injury that’s made it all but impossible for me to walk.
I haven’t talked about it until now, because the trial needed to be the story. My analysis of the trial needed to be what I used my words for. But now that Trump has indeed been convicted, I find myself in a surreal place. I’ve spent this trial generally unable to leave the house except to go to the doctor – and unable to get around the house without a medical scooter. I’ve been functioning as a semi-mobile shut-in while I’ve been covering this trial each day. It’s been strange, and difficult, and also enlightening.
It’s different when you have to decide what you’re doing before you get up from your desk, due to the difficulty of getting to the other side of your home and back. It’s different when you realize that many of the things you’d normally do for yourself are things you’ll have to leave waiting until someone is available to assist you. It’s just different. All of it.
And yet for a whole lot of people, no doubt including some of you reading this, it’s not different at all. Limited mobility is just the reality that some of you deal with on a daily basis. You may be thinking “well now Palmer knows what we’re dealing with.” And you’re right. Due to my longtime back issues I’ve always had a fear of eventually losing my mobility, and now for a different reason, I have indeed (temporarily) lost my mobility.
But I’m very lucky in all of this. My foot injury is temporary. I’m able to get out and get treatment twice a week, and it will heal soon enough. Before too much longer I’ll be back to my normal daily routine, or something close to it. Even once this is over, I imagine I’ll be less inclined to take mobility for granted. Things like this tend to stay with you, I suspect.
I share all of this not for sympathy, not to vent, but simply because it’s how I spent this trial. My surreal month of covering Donald Trump’s criminal trial, and my surreal month of not being able to walk, happened to be the same month. Each of you experienced the trial in your own way, within the context of your own life. And I think that’s why I felt compelled to write about this. We’re all human. And we’re all in this together.
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