My Story 2: Rehab

This is the continuation of my experiences during my hospitalization this last year. If you haven't already, read My Story 1: The Beginning below before you read this entry...Here goes...

Dodd Hall is a wonderful place. All the people were excellent. They even have their own full-service café for meals. Breakfast was served in the room. I went down for most lunches, and I ventured down several times for dinner.

Throughout the whole thing, I don't know what I would have done without my computer. I got on Facebook a lot and reconnected with some old friends. Jessica Cicak was the first to visit. Found out she is engaged to Mom's old co-worker Rourke Adams! He couldn't make it because his Dad was dying. She brought pizza and her two kids. Bart Day and Rachel Stimer (now Hoffman) visited, too. Rachel brought her son (Alex) and her Mom. Her Mom is great and I think I talked more to her than to Rachel!

Dan Sulka was my physical therapist. Oh...the first weekend, they found a hairline fracture in my right ulna from a case of seltzer I had dropped on it in October. They put a splint on that. It's really hard to do physical therapy with a splint on your arm and a no pressure order! After four weeks, insurance didn't want to pay so much for me to get better anymore, so I was ousted. I requested another week, but to no avail. I left Dodd Hall on the 20^th of December. I really didn't want to go! It didn't help that I was headed back to the Manor at Whitehall. Not much had changed except the meals were just a little better.

While I was there, I finally got my splint taken off...let me backtrack for just a moment (did you know that a moment is actually a minute and a half? Of course you didn't). One exciting thing that did happen while I was at Dodd...I got my staples and sutures taken out. I had an appointment for an unknown doctor for an unknown reason. I'm glad they did that. If I had known what was ahead, I would have been on edge beforehand.

Back to the Manor...I went through 3 roommates. First was Norman. He was always cold (I'm always hot) and was diabetic. Eventually, he was taken to the hospital for something or other, and never returned. Next was Reggie. He was a single amputee (also diabetic) below the knee. He was hardly ever in the room. He liked to roam around in his wheelchair. He was about my age, and when he was in the room, he was quiet, usually sleeping. He went home a couple of weeks before me. I heard that on the day he was to leave, he went to the hospital for pneumonia. Then there was Alex. Huge annoying guy. I think during his whole stay, the TV was off twice, and only because I turned it off while he was at therapy for an hour. And I mean 24 hours of sports and God-fearing religious people. No more watching stuff with Mom when she visited. He was not a nice person. He just ordered the aides around. He said he was there to lose weight, but I would hear him on the phone with his family telling them to bring snacks, Don't forget the sausage and make sure you get double this and double that. And I need more Bugles. That's the way to lose weight in 30 days!

Finally, I got my day of release...let me backtrack once again. One thing that was neat about physical therapy (which was considerably easier than at Dodd) was that I got to play bowling on the Nintendo Wii. Although I badly bruised my wrist by hitting it on my wheelchair when I threw the ball. I also got to help in the kitchen a few times. Although I did not exactly relish shredding cheese and chopping onions. It was fun anyway.

Lindsay and Mandy were wonderful therapists, and I hated to see them go when I left, as I did the rest who did not have me as a patient.

Even my release got screwed up. I was told (and I have written proof) that my release date was to be March 28. Well, it turns out, as I found out on March 27, that my stay was up on the 28^th, and that I wouldn't actually leave until the 29^th! On top of that, the wheelchair that was supposed to be delivered so I could get home never arrived! The Manor had been talking to the wrong company! I ended up taking a wheelchair from the Manor just so I could get home! To cut to the chase, I finally did get out of there and came home with about 12 prescriptions.

But the story doesn't stop there. I did get settled in with my hospital bed set up in the living room.

This is a good place to stop round 2 of the tale. I'm to the point where the hospital stories are exhausted, and I am back home. There will be one more entry on this subject, then I will have some more movie reviews and maybe some more of the type of blog posts I was doing before. Who knows what's ahead. Maybe a book deal?!

Thanks for Visiting!!!