The Clock

I was woken up by my lady in purple, her face was just inches from mine talking to me in an urgent voice, “You have knocked out your oxygen, you need to put it back in now!”

“I can’t,” I answered

 “Yes, you can; it’s easy, just push the nose piece back in your nostrils with your hand,” she said motioning to my left hand. As I tried, I could hear the dull buzz of my oxygen monitor going off. I kept trying with no success, I would get one side in but not the other and when I tried to get the other side in, I would knock it back out. In frustration I said” Well damn it, help me.” She said, “No you must do it, use both hands”. She directed me how and I felt a gentle nudge. The nose piece popped back in place. As she returned to her corner another nurse came rushing in and came over to look at me. I said I knocked out my nose piece, but we got it back in. She looked at me funny and then looked around the room. She looked back at me and said, “Well everything is good now, so if you need anything else you just push your button”. She turned and left the room; the lady in purple just smiled. I sat there for a few minutes watching the monitor; my oxygen level rose to 95, the highest number I had seen for a while. I looked up to tell my lady in purple the good news, but she had left room. Feeling good, I fell back to sleep quickly. That would turn out to be the last time I got to see the lady in purple.

I woke up early and could not go back to sleep, so I just sat there looking at my wall. I noticed it was only 4:25 am and thought man it’s early, I need to go back to sleep so I closed my eyes, when I opened my eyes again it was only 4:30. I closed my eyes yet again and this time when I opened them up it was 4:45. What only 15 minutes, damn it’s early. Then it hit me. I could read the clock!  And understand it. Wow! What a moment. I got very excited and chuckled to myself. I was excited and wanted to tell someone, I looked around hoping to see the lady in purple, but she was not there so I had to wait. At five when the nurses started making their rounds, I saw one peek in, so I waved at her. She came in with a smile and said, “You’re up early today.” “Yep,” I answered, “5am. I can read the clock!” She said good, “We might as well start with you then.”  That became my morning routine.  

My occupational therapist showed up first and started having me try to dress myself. Boy, who knew you could get a workout just putting on a shirt and don’t forget about the socks. It took a long time to get my socks on they just kept circling around my feet. I finally asked, “Ok, you got any pointers?”  He smiled and assured me that socks could be tricky. He showed me how to hook my big toe and spread the opening with my thumbs and pull; it worked, that was cool! I was out of breath and feeling a little sweaty, I looked at him and said maybe next time he should start with that technique first, he just laughed. He said, “Hey, it looks like you are going to speech therapy first I’ll take you there,” Begrudgingly I agreed. I hated speech therapy.

When I got to the speech room, I looked at the therapist and said, “I think you guys have it all wrong. My wife has been working with me after hours with painting and games and things are starting to wake up a little bit. This morning, I could read the clock on the wall, and it made sense. Maybe we could do some painting or something instead of math.” She just looked at me with disapproval. “Read the clock, hum, well let’s see,” she said as she reached behind her and grabbed a big 4” binder full of pages, put it in front of me and opened it up. There was nothing but clock faces, big and small. Clocks with big hands, small hands, thick hands, thin hands. Nothing but reading clocks for a blasted hour! She took a rare moment of success and punished me for it. Lord, I disliked that lady!

When I finished my speech therapy (clock reading) they took me back to my room. I told Deb about it, I was hot. Shortly after a nurse came in and took us to the exercise room, we were met by an eye doctor. He said since I couldn’t go to him, he came to me. He gave me a very thorough, but rudimentary eye exam and told me my peripheral vision was great, and my overall vision was good although I needed cheaters for reading things, probably a 1.5 -2 magnification.  He was very nice. I thanked him and he responded that he was glad to be able to give me good news, “It doesn’t sound like you’ve had much of that lately.” It was a good visit.

He left and Michelle took over. We started with the parallel bar but that was much easier, so we switched to a walker. Same harness she explained how to use it and told me she was right behind me. We started with four steps then moved up to 8 steps. Just like the parallel bars when I was done with my steps I would set down and recover. My oxygen would tank to the 60’s but with deep breathing they would come back to the low 90’s. We would turn around and do it again. I walked with the help of the walker well, but my left foot would drag, I had a drop toe. When my hour was up, we went back to my room I was exhausted.

I was getting ready to sneak in a nap when the phone rang and Deb answered it. She handed me the phone with a smile; it was an old student and athlete of mine. “Hey coach, It’s Jordan. I needed to call I was told you got covid bad, but I didn’t believe it, not Dressler, you’re an ox. I know if anyone can beat this you will, you’re tough as nails man. You keep fighting this.”

“I answered I don’t think I’m all that tough anymore, I’ve gotten old; this thing has kicked my ass, but I’m working on it.” “I know,” he replied, “I just seen a post of your sons, with you walking with a walker; you looked great, one step at a time, buddy.” The tables had been turned; I had spent years trying to encourage my young athletes to work hard through adversity and now I had an athlete I hadn’t talked to for at least ten years cheering me on.  This was one of the most gratifying conversations I have ever had, it did me wonders. I greatly appreciated it and needed it.

Boy, this was the day for good vibes. Shortly after Jordan’s call I got another from the shop teacher and head wrestling coach at Douglass calling to check in to let me know my classes were going fine and he was taking care of them, but he was ready to have me back anytime I was ready. He wished me a fast recovery. Then I got a phone call from my dad that was always needed. He was happy to hear me sounding somewhat normal again.  He said, “That last conversation we had, you had me worried.” I just laughed and replied, “You were worried? You should have seen my kids, I thought I was in Montana.” It was a great visit.

Even though I missed my nap that afternoon the phone calls made me feel rejuvenated. My occupational therapist took me back for some quick exercises. On our way back we were talking about my walking with a walker. I said I have a drop toe and was wondering if he had a bucket that we could put water and ice in. I had treated many ankle injuries with that, because of the cold and resistance of the water; it seemed to heel them faster. He said we have something better than that, we have a swimming pool. I’ll talk to your doctor about it; he likes water therapy so it will probably be a go.

After dinner Deb and I went outside to have our nightly session on water coloring. The evening went quickly and it was time for bed. The nurse came in to give me my meds, but this time I didn’t feel any anxiety. I was tired and getting used to the routine, I gave Deb a kiss goodnight and got ready for bed. The lady in purple never came back in.