So, a couple of months ago, I had an Achilles tendon rupture. A couple of weeks ago, the great surgeons at Mayo Clinic, put me back together again, without the aid of all the King’s horses and all the King’s men. I am detailing most of that at a new blog on Achilles tendon injuries, but here I would like to detail what the digital usage side of the injury and recovery is. After the surgery, where they had to harvest the big toe tendon to lace up the gap between the two ends of the Achilles (apologies to Dr Turner for any misconceptions, he was very clear and concise in his explanations, any misinterpretations are my fault, not his) they cast up my right leg below the knee to the toes and told me quite sternly not to put any weight on it. I am spending the non-weight bearing period of the recovery in Rochester, MN, to be near the Mayo, as they need to see me back every 3 weeks or so. I have a very nice house rented from Serenity House Network, a charity that does this sort of medical rental. The house came fully furnished, and with a very good internet connection (15Mbs), so that made life easier.

So, currently, I am getting around longer distances with a knee roller, which looks a bit like a scooter, but has a place to lay your lower leg. Shorter distances (a couple of feet), I am doing with a walker and hopping. Oddly enough, crutches have not been a major mode of propulsion, although I have them here if needed. Probably, if I was getting outside more, the crutches would be of better use.

Consequently, there is very little ability to carry devices with you. Most of my time is spent in a robe, so phones can ride in the pockets, but I have 3 computers scattered around the house (bedroom, living room and breakfast nook), with additional screens on the one in the nook and the living room. As they would prefer the leg to be elevated at all times, finding proper typing positions to work in has been a trick. Thus, I find myself using phones more often, with voice recognition software to do more of my work than in the past. Phones can do much of my work, but for some things, like doing quotes, there is no substitute for an actual computer. My best option at the moment is the breakfast nook, with a Surface Pro 4 in a dock, with an external keyboard (Filco Ninja in bright red for the keyboard snobs among you) held on my lap, with the cast leg up on my knee roller. It is an odd position at best, but I am becoming more limber (at least on one side).

I have found the SP’s ( I have a 3 and 4 here) to be very nearly totally unsuitable for work with the folding keyboard. Also unsuitable, has been the Thinkpad X1 Yoga, which is quite a disappointment. The problem is not in the computers, but in the working positions required. I am still experimenting, finding a good stand for working in bed was a multi-try experiment, and I am still not entirely happy with it.

The iPhone is still my primary phone to get things done with, although all of my calls are going to my Project Fi Nexus. The AT&T signal in the area is poor enough I have had some complaints about the call quality. Therefore, the calls are being forwarded to the Nexus and the iPhone gets the non-call work. That is probably just my familiarity with the iPhone, everything I have taken the time to figure out on the Nexus has worked smashingly. One of the things that I am glad I took the time for is getting the full size keyboard set up, without it much that I am doing (including this blog post) would be terribly hard, if not impossible.

Oddly enough, my Apple watch has been a great help in this time, being able to check on messages and email without going through pulling the phone out of my robe pocket is a lot better that it would seem on the surface. I have learned much more of the ins and outs on it.

At three weeks, I am still learning some of the workarounds, but am getting full days of actual work in. That’s good, because the help here costs money.<G>