<p>You could do tutoring if people could come to your home.</p>
<p>You could work on the Gutenberg project.</p>
<p>You could learn to make something crafty and sell it on the web.</p>
<p>Make phone calls for a cause - just don’t call me!</p>
<p>What about starting an online blog about your journey at home for a year after graduation. Or if your interest is in poly sci, you can start a political blog since we are approaching an election year.<br>
What about a service dog? You may qualify. They are helpful to physically challenged individuals and be therapeutic for you. Also usually if you qualify for home services such as PT or OT, you may be eligible for a HHA( home health aide) to come in For a few hours daily during the week.<br>
Join an online book club.
Arrange for time with friends, get pizza and do some social activities together.</p>
<p>Write a book.</p>
<p>Before you do the surgery, seek a job with which you can work from home. Maybe?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the replies, I really appreciate the help. I’m going to have to look into telecommuting jobs/jobs I could do from my house. I also really like the idea of starting a blog or writing about this…it could be rewarding to document my experience for others going through this.</p>
<p>@milkandsugar, a service dog is actually what I had in mind when I was asking about pets. I’m not sure how a service dog program works, but I’m going to look into it.</p>
<p>A service dog might be a nice long term addition to your life, but I would agree that asking your parents to add a dog to the household next year (is it a nice addition to THEIR life) might not work. </p>
<p>But, at least here we have therapy animals - animals that are vetted to be gentle, disease free and whose owners train them to visit with others. These animals live with their owners and are taken care of by the owners. Then libraries, nursing homes, hospitals and others can arrange to have the volunteers bring the dog for a dose of TLC. This sort of thing - borrowing a dog on a regular basis for love and touch while someone else does the heavy lifting of care feeding, walking, cleaning up after might be the better approach in the short term.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you live but here is one we support <a href=“http://www.therapyanimals.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.therapyanimals.org</a></p>
<p>Our 20 something son had a nasty accident and suddenly found himself in a wheelchair for a few months. He ended up studying for, then taking a national test for a certification that could be added to his previously meager resume. He wouldn’t easily have made time to get this certification had it not been for this unexpected situation. </p>
<p>Once he healed, having this additional certification made all the difference in getting his first real “professional” job, post college, post accident.</p>
<p>All the online study suggestions are great—but what you may want to consider is something that you can complete during your recovery. Our son realizes in retrospect that this was definitely a “making lemonade out of lemons” situation…he didn’t want to be in it, but ended up gaining something valuable as a result of it.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you. I must say I am so impressed with how proactive you are…your commitment to use the time wisely will pay off for you, without a doubt!!</p>