The Walk to Freedom

I was officially a short timer; my tests came back fine and all agreed that I could go home on Friday. I still had a few physical tests to officially pass, but I wasn’t worried about that. Just knowing I was going home soon made me even more determined.

They took me down to the physical therapy room and Michelle started the test. First, I had to climb a short flight of six steps and come back down. I could only use the handrail to turn myself around. I passed that one easily.  Second was getting in and out of the fake car in a certain amount of time without help. Again, easy pass.  Third, was the peddle machine for five minutes at a set speed (slow). I just looked outside at the field and pretended I was riding in the woods; I just focused on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. My oxygen level dipped but I was able to maintain and recovered quickly. Woo, that was harder, but I did my best not to let them know that. Next, she took me to the fake bedroom where I had to get in and out of bed several times; then she had me lay down on the floor, on my back first and roll over and stand up. I rolled over to my belly and got to my hands and knees. I grabbed the corner of the bed and pulled myself up. That was hard, but again I did my best to act like it was easy. She said, “OK, only one left, the full flight of stairs.” She took me to the stairway and said, “You go down the stairs to the next floor down and turn around and I’ll tell you to come back up back. I want you to use the handrail on the way down, but you don’t have to on the way back up.” Walking down was the hardest; I was really focusing on the placement of my feet so I wouldn’t trip. When I got to the bottom I stopped and turned around; I looked up to see Michelle and my mom looking down with big smiles on their faces. Michelle said, “When you’re ready you can start back up.”  I looked up and thought to myself, these stairs are steep and there are a lot of them. I took a deep breath and walked up the stairs as fast as I could. When I got to the top Michelle said. “Wow, I wish I would have timed that, that was the fastest I have seen anyone climb those stairs, good job! You passed!”

She had me sit back in my wheelchair and mom took me back to my room. I was glad for the wheelchair this time, I was pooped. About thirty minutes later a nurse came and got me so they could take my height and weight. As we got a few feet down the hallway I looked up and saw the “big guy”, yep, the eye-rolling, needle-happy, big guy.  I asked the nurse to stop the chair, she did. I stood up out of the chair and walked the rest of the way down the hallway where he stood with his clipboard. I looked him in the eyes, he looked down at his clipboard and said, “We need some measurements,” nodding his head the entire time. I stepped on the scale, 5”10” 187 pounds, he just kept nodding his head. “Everything looks good, that’s all I need,” he said.  I looked at him with a grin; he dropped his head a little then looked me in the eyes and gave me a big smile. As I walked back to my room I thought to myself, he wasn’t that big. I went back to my room and had mom close the door and I collapsed on the bed exhausted and out of breath, but it was worth it. He didn’t know it, but he was a big motivation for me.  When times got tough, I often thought of his huff and his eye roll and how bad I wanted to prove him wrong.

Now that it was official that I was going home on Friday, I could relax a bit and really look around.  A lot of the other patients that I started with were gone, and others that remained were getting better as well. It was cool to watch people coming out of their shells and returning to their real selves. Deb took me outside and we looked around the whole place; it had a wonderful little park that had a walkway with an arched bridge. The bridge was nice but a little run down. Deb and I talked about coming back and volunteering to freshen it up.

Thursday night rolled around and I was by myself that evening; all my family was home getting the house ready.  So, I decided to go for a little field trip. I rolled myself to the elevator and went down to the main floor and pretended to watch tv for a while and when no one was looking I rolled out the back doors to the park and enjoyed the evening. When I got to the bridge, I started going around it and thought to myself, ‘if you are going to walk out of here tomorrow, you could use some more practice.’ So, I turned my wheelchair around and parked it in front of the arched bridge, stood up grabbed the handrails, and walked over the bridge to the other side. When I got to the other side I turned around, took a deep breath and started back. I got halfway over the bridge when I saw her coming, a very disturbed and unhappy nurse. She said in an intense voice, “What are you doing?” About that time, I had reached my wheelchair and was sitting back down. I said, with a big grin, “I’m just finishing a short walk,” trying to be cute, but she wasn’t having of it. “What would have happened if you would have fallen and hurt yourself; you’re checking out date would have to be pushed back. It’s a good thing I was watching you. How did you get out?” I just smiled and said I was done and was just heading back in. She had her hands on her hips and then crossed them, “Ok, let’s go then,” she said. Still smiling I started rolling back to the main entrance. She was hurrying me back and I was having a little trouble keeping up but I wasn’t going to let her know that. I rolled a wheel off the sidewalk and got stuck and struggled a bit to get out and she just crossed her arms and tapped her foot until I got unstuck. She escorted me back to the elevator and told me I better go straight back to my room. I thanked her and head back to my room hoping she wasn’t going to tell Michelle.

Friday morning finally arrived. I had meetings with each doctor. Dr. Venus was the first one. He was happy and impressed with my improvement, but he warned me that I had a long hard road ahead of me and it wasn’t always going to be this easy. I thought to myself, ‘you call this easy.’ The next doctor was amazed and happy for me and didn’t have much to add other than saying that I should be immune to catching Covid again for a year or so. I liked the sound of that. The last doctor tried to convince me I should get the vaccine; I responded to that by telling him that I’d had two doctors tell me I didn’t need one for at least eight months to a year. “You really think it would be a good idea to give me a shot so soon after covid and while I’m in a weakened state?”

He just looked at and said, “Yes, I’ve given it to lots of patients.”

I changed subjects and asked him if he had any kids and he answered three.

I asked him, “Have you given them the shots?”

He paused for a moment and answered, “No, the research isn’t in yet.”

I spoke. “Good, why would you give perfectly healthy kids the vaccine when they’re not the ones getting Covid bad.”

He just nodded his head and repeated, “Well, the research just isn’t in yet.”

I smiled and said “Ya, that’s what I think about the shot.” He wished me the best and left.

 

I had made my rounds and said goodbye to some of the nurses and therapists. It was nice. I had one little old lady come up to me and said, “You know why you are still here, because God isn’t done with you yet,” she grinned and rolled off. How do you respond to that?

Deb was out finishing paperwork, and I was in my room with the door closed packing my stuff when I heard a faint knot at the door. I walked over and opened it; it was the two little ladies from the church. I smiled and said good morning they both just looked at the door and back at me and said, in mild voice, “We are looking for Casey.”   “Yes, that’s me, how are you two doing today? It nice to see you again” I responded. They looked shocked, kind of like they had just seen a miracle or something. I must say it was cool to see how excited the two ladies became. We prayed and gave thanks. They gave me communion and hugs; as they left the room, I thanked them for all their help.

It was time to leave. My athletic nurse, the one who was speechless when I said my daughter told me I was going to walk out of here and I said I didn’t want to let her down, showed up to my room. She looked a little disappointed when I said I was fine with having them roll me out in the wheelchair. Truthfully after getting yelled at by the other nurse for taking undue risks, I thought to myself that it was a long way to the main exit, so I thought it would be best to take the wheelchair one last time. You could tell she didn’t agree with that at all, but she pushed out of my room, past that nurse’s station where I waved goodbye, down past the workout room, past the cafetiere and into the elevator. When we reached the main floor, Deb exited first to see if Zach was ready. I took a big breath and was getting mentally ready for the walk when I heard a loud huff from my nurse. Then she said in a loud, sarcastic voice, “I thought you were going to walk out of here!”

I thought to myself ‘well, ya, but it’s a long way to the jeep,’ but I knew she was right, so I took one last big breath and stood up and walked out of the elevator, down the hallway and out the main doors.  I looked back, smiled at the nurse, put on my sunglasses, looked at Zach holding the camera and gave a big thumbs up (my best Fonzy impersonation) and carefully walked to the jeep.