 |
Late last week I wrote a very heart felt post on this phone app I use for the blog, when I don’t have a desktop computer nearby. When I saved it, it vanished. I decided that might be the universe saying “you don’t need to share that”. Hours of editing and writing gone in a moment.
Around March 5 the hospital sent me home. In the past even if I was on a walker that was no big deal as I’d been on my feet fully in a day or two. This time was different. I sat on my couch and found I couldn’t get back up.
I don’t know why the difference except possibly the fact I was walking less the prior two months because I had a wound care nurse wrapping my legs to heal two half dollar size holes on the back of my calves which I couldn’t see much less bandage. I don’t know what caused those but it might have been a spider. The nurse was very skilled and the wounds healed.
As I sat on the couch in my hospital robe, my happy cat slept on me and I just stayed on the couch till morning. The couch is low and I thought I’d have enough strength the next day. My brother had made arrangements with the apartment management to have my cat fed each day.
That afternoon i had enough strength to get on the walker and put my phone in the charger. Then my legs turned to jelly and I was on the floor for the next two hours while the phone got enough charge so that I could knock it off the counter and call EMS. They are just down the street from my apartment so they were there very quickly.
I didn’t break anything or hit my head but EMS was not happy the hospital released me in such a state. So they took me back to the hospital where I stayed slightly bruised but they did me the courtesy of giving me a Tylenol codeine so I could sleep. Grateful for that. I was bruised a bit on my left side.
I was put into a rehab center for physical therapy not far from the hospital, 3/4 of this center is resident old people, 1/4 temporary PT patients, where I am for the moment. The PT guys are good and have been most helpful. One guy works my core in the morning, another works my legs in the afternoon.
I can use a walker up to 30 feet but it’s very much like the rehab i had in 2009. You do as much as you physically can and the next day you do more. There is no PT on weekends which is unfortunate. Much more work to do.
I don’t know how much longer the insurance company who administers the Medicare advantage plan will allot me but they did give an initial 20 days. They might extend it. I cannot afford the alternative at $820 copay per day nor would I ask anyone for that. The Trump hotel is cheaper and has better food. In any case I don’t know what will happen. A solution will present its self or I’ll have a rapid turn around.
There are moments I am overwhelmed by it all, but in these situations will power heart and vision of the outcome must remain positive.
The frustrating thing is I think I have a solution to the leg problem, if my cardiologist is correct, but that is now postponed.
Why these things happen when the world gets a little crazy I don’t know. There’s something energetic there I need to think about.
