It is so good to be home. I was in rehab for a little over three weeks. It was not unpleasant. The staff was exceedingly pleasant and helpful. The rehab went well and I liked the therapists. The Lord worked it out that I had a private room and I didn’t have to listen to someone else’s television or clatter. I didn’t really mind it, but by the last few days I was longing for home.
The first few days of homecoming were difficult because I was much more active than I was in the center. There I was up for a couple hours in the morning for rehab activities then I returned to my room where I spent the rest of the day reading, watching tv or playing on the computer. When I came home I had much more space to walk around and do things. I was exhausted the first two days.
The third day I had visits from two of the in home therapy staff. That involved a lot of walking around and evaluation. I was up with Rachael and Michael in the morning. After they left I sat down and fell asleep again. The first therapist woke me up. After her visit I sat down and put my feet up and before I knew it three o’clock rolled around and I woke up the intake nurse ringing the door bell! By the time that interview was finished, I was finished too. I only walked around my room for the rest of the day.
I need to recount one happening that blessed me while I was at rehab. When I arrived I was put in a double room with a very nice lady. I believe they said she was 85, very perky and talkative, even if a bit forgetful (Lord, help ME to be so bright when I’m 85!)
We spent a pleasant afternoon and evening sharing stories of kids and grandkids and homes and ailments. And the next morning about 11:00 she went home with her son! I missed her immediately.
All I could think of was that I would get a crabby room mate who spent the night yelling imprecations as I had already heard a couple people doing the night before. Call it selfish if you will, but I asked the Lord to please leave me in the room alone. Now here is the fantastic part.
Embarrassing as it is to say, with my knee surgery I could not clean myself when I went to the bathroom. But the Lord has a purpose in everything. That same day when I asked for help, the aide discovered a series of blisters on my back around my waist. They didn’t itch or bother me at all they were just there, in a horizontal line about five inches long. A mild panic ensued. She called the nurse, the nurse called the nursing director and the nursing director called the doctor! They all thought it appeared to be shingles! I guess shingles often follows surgery of various kinds. They immediately began asking if the area itched or burnt or hurt in any way. Nope, nothing. They only tickled when my slip slid over them if I stood up.
Okay, fine. The next day I was prescribed some sort of medication to deal with the shingles. I kept telling them I thought it was an allergic reaction to the elastic of my underwear pressing constantly against my waist. I spent most of my day sitting up in bed with continual pressure on my back. So although I’d never had that kind of reaction before I had occasionally had a reaction to rubber against my skin for a short period of time. Never mind. I got meds for shingles.
About three days later the nursing director came and asked to see my waist. The original blisters had dried up but there were more forming above the first line and at the ends. Was I sure they didn’t itch or hurt or burn? No, none of those things.
Now here it the blessing! The nursing director said she was going to move me to a private room so she could utilize both beds in this one! Because I had ‘shingles’ they had to keep me isolated! Wow! A private room! They need my permission to do this?! The aides scrambled all my stuff onto a medical cart, plunked me in a wheel chair and moved me to the other wing of the building! And the room they put me in was beautiful! A big window with nice blinds and pretty drapes, a hutch that held a flat screen TV and had drawers for my things under it, a private bathroom, a nice easy chair, two additional small arm chairs, an occasional table holding a pretty lamp and a bedside stand for personal junk!
In the process of all this happening Rachael arrived; so she was there to organize everything for me. Thank the Lord for kids like mine. They know me so well that I hardly have to verbalize my preferences! They just know. By the time she left my little bedside stand had been moved to the side of my bed with the drawers facing the bed so I could pull them out. My computer was on that stand and the power cord was connected in the wall and run to the computer. One of the smaller chairs was sitting beside the stand and held an extra pillow to prop up my sore leg. All of my things were put away and my extra dresses hung in the closet. It was wonderful.
The ‘shingles’? I don’t know… I continued to have little blisters on my back until about Wednesday of the week I was coming home. Then they began to go away. Now I only have some dry skin flakes that are sloughing off. They never did itch or burn. If I had shingles, it was the first case in history that lasted only two weeks and never bothered me at all. Of course, what ever they were, the Lord put them there to answer my prayer for a room by myself. How great is that!
What a fantastic Father we serve!
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