I’m back and sure glad ….
I’m back and sure glad of it. I probably could have coaxed Mark into another week off, but I’m so excited to tell you about one of the jewels of northern Clark County. I just had to tell you about it. As I write this, I’m a guest at the Clark County Rehab and Living Center. It has been called a number of things, like the Clark County Health Care Center, the Clark County Hospital and at one time the Clark County Asylum. Which dates it back some hundred years.
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I haven’t seen what Mark told you last week, so I’ll just have to tell my own version of some special time in my life. If you recall in my last column I may have sounded a little impatient at not knowing what God had in store for me. It hasn’t taken long to figure out maybe it is best I didn’t know and go from there. It all started with the long Memorial Day weekend coming up. I had faithfully followed instructions for the early copy deadline and was getting ready to observe the time myself. It was Saturday morning and like clockwork I went after my mail. After parking and getting my trusty cane out, I started into the post office. Things suddenly weren’t going right, but a guardian angel by the name of Barb Lucht was coming down the street. She sensed something wasn’t right and helped me in the door. Then I went back to C & J Auto and immediately called Jackie. When I came out, another guardian angel was there. It was Dave Esselman, who everyone knows is one of the old EMT’s on the roster. He offered to drive me home, but I thought I could make it. He followed me home and helped me into the house. A few minutes later Jackie and son-in-law Bob Loos showed up and told me they were taking me in to get checked over. That’s when things became a bit complicated. You see it was Saturday and the hospital staff does not do any non-emergency medical work. That would be followed by Sunday, same story. Remember this was Memorial Day weekend. So Monday was another non-work day. So it was Tuesday before the medical staff would get around to placing a pacemaker into my body. What a change. Jackie was watching as they hooked it up and noted my heart went from 30 to 80 beats per minute just like that. Meanwhile I’m laying there hooked up with a zillion tubes going every which way. Then came some trying times. They kept telling me I needed to go for therapy. I just wanted to go home. Sue happened to be there that day and was kind of in the middle of things. I was hoping Jackie and Mark would say to come home and they’d look out for me. Sue kept talking about the place where Florence had gone and it just didn’t fit into my thinking. Finally when Sue got a hold of Jackie and Mark and them taking care of me was ruled out. Things sort of came to me in plain sight just like that. It was on the list, but not one of the five the hospital was recommending. A place called the Clark County Rehab and Living Center. How could I forget? Florence and I sat the last summer she was in the Health Care Center and watched out the window as the new therapy facility was being built. In fact it goes back further than that. I recall making a big pitch one night at a county board meeting about the shock I had had the day we admitted Florence. I had to sign a wavier that I agreed she would be sharing the bathroom with four people, two of which could be males.
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From there it was a piece of cake. The hospital made contact with the rehab unit and the next day I was gone from the hospital. Jackie and Mark came to pick me up and delivered me to the front door. This is where the virus steps in and makes things tough. I was unloaded from Jackie’s car to a wheelchair and off I went to my room. It was really close to the window Florence and I had watched the work going on in the summer of 2018. The problem was because of the virus I was quarantined to my room for two weeks. Then things brightened up. Mark stopped by later and we were able to visit through the window. Well, not exactly as he called on his cell phone and I could listen and talk on the phone in my room.
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How would I describe it? Like something from a dream world. Looking out my window, I see the beautiful Memory Garden where Florence and I had spent many days that summer. Looking a bit further the huge lawn just seems to go on and on. Something you dream of but never think you’d be living there. The therapy has been going good. Just a need to get back in shape and learn how to handle challenges. The only scary exercise involved standing up without holding on to anything and closing my eyes for half a minute. If I even have my sight blocked for half a second at home I’d panic. The food here is beyond description. Every meal makes it hard to think about going home and missing my meals. The aides, nurses and staff are the most kind and caring people I’ve ever met.
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There was an incident one night that was not a part of the plan. I have the grandest bathroom, complete with toilet, sink and a shower with a grand chair to sit in. I’m hoping to find a chair like that for my walk-in shower at home. To save room, it has a sliding door. Not just a little plastic thing, but more like you’d see on the barn or machine shed. Like heavy, real heavy. During the night I got up to use the bathroom. I couldn’t move the door. A quick call to the night aide brought help, but not someone who could open the door. Then it seemed like hours and no one had showed up. Meanwhile my urge to go got really bad. Enough. I called for help and used a bathroom down the hall. Meanwhile two maintenance men arrived and pryed the door open and another came the next morning to make more permanent repairs. All I could think of was, “won’t that make good column material”.
