A Big Week
The bed sore was healed enough for pool therapy.
A Big Week
The first thing is to backtrack a bit; I don’t think I
mentioned earlier about the wheelchair. The first day or so I asked Deb if they
had a wheelchair for me and she said, yes, it’s the bathroom. She went in and
rolled it out for me to see. It was not what I was expecting in my mind. I
thought it was going to be the light, hot-rod style, but this thing was huge. I
described it earlier as a long-backed model, but it was a paraplegic wheelchair
with straps and all. My first response was, “Why did they get that one?” Deb
answered in a shaky voice,” They said it was the best”. My answer was short,
“Well, not for long.”
Late in the second week, I graduated to a smaller model, it
was still not the hot-rod I wanted but it was much better for me. It fit me and
I could roll it myself for short distances.
They made kind of a big deal about it in therapy, clapped and
everything. That was a big moment for me. It made me feel like I could adapt to
this change in my life; it gave me confidence and I met a private goal. Michelle looked at me and said, “This is
better, you’ll be able to move yourself around some.” I looked at her and said,
“Yes.” I continued, “This will probably sound stupid, but my daughter told me I
was going to walk out of here and I am trying hard to do that for her.” There
was a young, athletically built nurse behind Michelle, waiting to take me back
to my room. I heard her take a deep breath like she wanted to say something,
but she hesitated. Michelle jumped in without any hesitation and said, “That’s
not stupid; of course you’re walking out of here.” The way she said it was so assuring and confident
that it gave me strength and hope; it did not feel like an impossibility.
I had a respiratory therapist who was trying to decrease my
oxygen need from the bottles. He was slowly reducing my oxygen pressures at the
tank regulators. One morning I woke up with the nose piece off and under my
chin. My nurse looked at me and said, “I think we can stop giving you oxygen at
night, you don’t need it anymore.” Her opinion, but that was big.
My principal from my school came and visited me; it was nice
and meant a lot. We had a nice visit. He had ridden his motorbike there and it
made me a little envious (future goal get back on my bike).
My bed sore healed so
I was ready for the pool. I think it was Tuesday at physical therapy when they
got me ready for the pool downstairs. I was very surprised at the facility; the
pool area was nice, it had windows facing out to the park, but the sun coming
through made it very hot in there, it must have been in the high 90’s. My mom
come down with me, and I was worried that it would be too hot for her, but she
was a trooper she stayed for the whole session. I was a little curious about how this was going
to work. It was simple they just put a belt around my waist and had me grab the
handrail and walked me into the pool. I had a different therapist this time; he
was a young man in his late 20’s. He had been a football player as well, so
this felt a lot like a practice to me. He worked me; we started by me just squatting
in the water with him holding my belt. Soon I was standing on my own. They put large,
webbed gloves on me and had me exercise with them on for resistance. After that
he had me doing high knees and side steps. IT WAS AWESOME! It felt like I had
never been paralyzed, soon he became so confident that he was sitting on the
side of the pool barking drills. I didn’t know you could sweat under water, but
boy I was. He had me working hard and I was loving it. I would glance over at
my mom, and she had the biggest smile on her face. It was a special moment. I’ve
been so fortunate that my parents had always supported me through life and this
was no different. It was like I was a little kid again playing a sport and my
mom was cheering me on. Like I said, it was a special moment.
When we were done, I felt like I could just walk right out of
the pool, but no, once I started stepping out of the pool, I was weak again and
could not stand on my own. It didn’t phase me though as everyone was excited and
I was happy. They covered me with warm heavy towels and dried me off quickly. I
can tell you I slept well that night.
