Coming Home

My legs beyond the skirt

You can see Huntsville in the window. September 23 I waited for the doctor to enter, hoping he would say,

Carol, you can take the right boot off and drive! 

Instead when Dr. Franklin entered,  he said the X-rays were great and

You may take both boots off!

I was thrilled! I had to wait a few days for the pain opiate to get out of my system to drive, and I switched to Tylenol Eight Hour for pain. I used my families' bins to pack up my car. My brother drove behind me and unloaded the car since I use a walker now. 

I had seen dog Ziggy twice since the accident. Once Sandra (who graciously kept him over 45 days) brought him to the nursing home, and another time I saw him in a doggie park. 

After several days getting settled--things like figuring out how to take a shower safely, getting the handicapped permit for my car, getting groceries, starting vigorous physical therapy at home to unfreeze and mobilize my feet, I missed Ziggy.

I called Sandra and invited her to bring Ziggy back and have dinner with me. Now I cheated! I bought dinner in because I don't stand to cook too much yet. Sandra is such a great new friend from my new church here. Imagine doing that for someone--keeping their dog! Apparently Ziggy was fun for them and they had recently lost a dog. 

Ziggy and I love being together. He wants to walk farther than I am capable of walking, and he needs to adjust to short trips.

Today a Facebook friend suggested I just take him to a doggy park. Will do. I can sit and he can roam! 

I live in a nursing home for almost three weeks!

Huntsville Health and Rehabilitation 

Never had to put my late husband who had mixed dementia in a nursing home. Had the privilege of having him in our Plant City home all his days. However two years later I have recently had the nursing home experience--not in Plant City, Florida, but in Huntsville, Alabama where I moved a year after he died.

Prayer. Breaking both ankles will send you to ER and then in my case to Huntsville Health and Rehab right across the Parkway from my apartment. The LORD has such a sense of humor 'cause this is the very facility that my Huntsville church has a prayer meeting in! So now I have been to prayer meetings there and expanded my prayer opportunity for my church and for the residents and staff I have met.

Residents. I have been able to identify dementia patients there. The first night I sat in someone's spot in the dining room. She said, I have sat here all my life! Of course she hadn't, but I got up and moved. No use arguing with a dementia patient!

I met lonely residents, parked here with little interaction and no visitors. When I can walk and drive (when my two legs are healed), I will come back to visit them. These three weeks have changed me. 

Nursing Staff. My mother was a nurse. She advised,  Carol, become a teacher. I see why after living in this nursing home. The tasks and responsibilities are endless. Maybe thankless. The staff is expected to counteract the realities of old age and disability. Teaching is easier, but just maybe nursing is more rewarding than teaching. They were great, and when I complained they heard me. The administrator even gave me her personal cell number and let a new friend give me a new hairdo in the home beauty salon!

Therapists. I had Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists. I thought I would have time to polish my dissertation and read--not so. Therapists would find me and the sessions would begin. I was very glad I had been using the gym at my apartment house because it gave me a "leg up" (pun intended). Sessions included hopping on the better leg for use with a walker. I was happy about my upper arm muscles being toned because of my old lady wings. Occupational therapists prepared me for when I would leave the facility and would have to dress and cook.

Now the speech therapist sessions were optional for me, but I elected to take the training. I had haunting thoughts about my own memory from all I have been studying. It turns out the memory enhancing skills I learned help with normal aging and some studies (such as The Nun Study) suggest that mentally, socially and physically active seniors are less likely to get Alzheimer's. The cognitive therapy that I was given is very interesting and useful to me.

I am now staying with my family and having home health care several days a week after Labor Day. They put in this railing so I can get in the house from their garage and have been most hospitable; the nursing home physical therapists trained me how to walk up steps with the aid of my brother and a gait belt. You put your best foot up first on the way up; on the way down you put your worst foot down first.

But there are a group of residents that are my new friends. I had many visitors in my 19 days in this nursing home, and I can never repay them, not to mention Sandra and Richard who are taking care of dog Ziggy. I am going to "pay it forward" by visiting my new friends.