The Work's Not Done

The Work’s Not Done

When we checked out of the rehab center, they made me make appointments to see my personal doctor, a neurologist, another rehab center to get checked out by their speech therapist, physical therapist and occupational therapist, and a psychologist. They gave me a week or two before I had to go, so I wanted to get into as good shape as possible.

For me, finishing recovery was all about making a new routine. It started with waking up by seven thirty and taking a shower, coughing up black luggie’s, getting a cup of coffee and setting down to catch my breath. Then I would start my exercises; I would stand up at the kitchen counter grab the counter for support and do 12 deep knee bends, then one-legged, straight leg side hip raises, set of 12 each leg. The I did 12 calf raises and 12 high knees with both legs; by then I needed to sit and let my oxygen catch up. Setting in the chair, I put my feet on the ground and pulled them to the chair for resistance, again a set of 12 with both legs. After resting I would start over. I did a total of three sets, three times a day morning, noon, and sometime in the evening.

My mom would come over every morning and bring me iced coffee and snacks. After our coffee and snacks, we would go to the front yard and take the dogs for a walk. Our yard is not a normal front yard; it’s a park, a good acre or more.  When I started, I had to use a cane. I was in such bad shape I could only go a short distance before my oxygen would drop to the 70’s, but with a little rest it would come back up to the high 80’s to low 90’s. The first time we tried it I had to lean against mom for support as I rested, we didn’t make it far before turning around. The next time mom brought a stool, and by the third day mom had Zach bring three big, wooden, wire spools over, that were perfect to set on. They placed the spools in triangle from my big tree to each corner of the mowed yard. It was roughly 35 yards from my step of my front door to the first spool, and roughly 35-40 yards between each resting point.

I started by walking to the first spool by the tree and resting for at least a minute sometimes longer, or until my oxygen level would get close to 93, and then I would start to the next spool trying not to rest in between.  Again, I would repeat this process until I would make it back to the big tree. For the first days, I would only make one lap before going to my lazy boy for a nap.  I would try to repeat this three times a day. My family always went with me, and my dogs Red and Whitey were always close. They were the real pushers of my walks; they would start getting my attention about every three hours to urge me to walk; even the old guy in the bunch “Bear” would get in on the action. They are the secret to my success, without them pestering me and then enjoying the walks so much, I doubt very much I would have worked this hard.

During my down time during the day, I would nap and mom would clean the house. We would listen to music. I would work in the coloring books and play games like Connect-Four. I think everyone liked Connect-Four because they would all beat me.  I would try my nemesis “Legos”. Talk about frustrating; I used to love playing with Legos when I was a kid, but now it was tough, they were so small and hard to snap together and trying to follow the picture directions was almost impossible at first, but I kept trying for about an hour every day.

This was mostly my routine for the first few weeks; we went out a little, but not much; being around a lot of people made me nervous. We did go back to the ER. Deb had cookies made to take to the break room to say thank you.  I got to walk in and say thank you in person. Even though not all the nurses I was hoping to see were there, it was nice to say hi, thank them, and listen to their stories. It was cool!

On my first outing to Walmart to get my meds, I seen a couple in their early thirties. They were shopping together using electric carts taking up the entire aisle. They were overweight, but I saw no other visual reason for them using the carts, maybe they were just screwing around. It took all I had not to tell them they should be walking. After fighting so hard for the privilege to walk, it offended me to see them waste theirs, but I kept my mouth shut. As I was limping around on my cane, a young wana-be biker kept bumping into me and pushed around me. It happened several times, I wanted to yell a little, but again I kept my mouth shut. I just thought to myself he wouldn’t have been acting like this towards me a month ago. He just saw some helpless old guy. I can see why old guys get into trouble for hitting people with their canes. The thought crossed my mind. As we were leaving and heading out the main doors to go outside, that young biker cut in front of me again, this time he stopped in the middle of the doors to talk on his phone, bringing traffic to a stop. People started to crowd us. The old me would have puffed up and taken care of it, but I just looked at Debbie frustrated and she just smiled. So, again I said nothing. This was a very infuriating and humbling experience. Everything I did showed me how different things were going to be, at least for a while. A short while, if I had anything to do with it.