Graduation Day

My final visit to the Stafford Healthcare physical therapy gym located next door to my building took place today at 1 p.m.

No Pomp and Circumstance, no cap and gown, just Mike going through the massage and ultra sound on my neck and reviewing the exercise routine I am expected to follow after discharge.

This therapy was ordered by the spine clinic doctors at Harborview Medical Center after my fall in December last year. Seems like it was so long ago when I went to the Port Orchard Christmas tree lighting. I can't remember going to the hospital in Bremerton at all, but I do remember Teri telling me they were taking me by helicopter to Seattle. Also remember hearing something about a "brain-bleed". Then things went blank for awhile.

I remember being wheeled into a room and for the first time seeing myself in a mirror. Stitches. Don't remember a thing about that but the nurse told me I had a shunt implanted to drain the fluid from my brain.

Strange surroundings but my kids were there, one or two at a time throughout my stay. Weird happenings in the emergency room…prisoners in shackles, cops in uniform sitting close by. Shouts and lots of yelling.

I Remember one of the ER nurses saying it was the best job she ever had with a "show every night" .

Then it was time to leave and I was transported in an ambulance on the ferry from Seattle. Seemed like forever to get through Gorst to Port Orchard and my new residence for four weeks at Stafford Healthcare where I learned to walk again (with a walker) and beginning physical and occupational therapy and getting ticked off by one therapist who wanted me to write something. She had heard I worked as a writer and editor. I don't write when it is demanded of me. I write what I want and when I feel like it.

Physical therapy was something else. I was beginning to feel like my old self again. When I was finally discharged and moved back to my apartment I used a walker. The team at Harborview MC thought I would benefit from physical therapy. About the same time my primary doc recommended I have surgery to repair a rotator cuff tear. I couldn't go under so soon after the brain trauma so opted to have the same physical therapist work on strengthening the shoulder to delay or perhaps even eliminating the need for surgery.

After two months of therapy I was sent home with a set of exercises. I think the time was well spent. I am looking forward now to doing the exercises on a regular basis and taking advantage of the equipment in the building's exercise room (treadmill, until the weather gets nicer) and a cardio machine to further strengthen my arms and shoulders. He said to go ahead and use the cane if I felt like it, but I don't really need anything. My balance is just fine.

This is a long blog. As Forrest Gump might say: "That's all I've got to say about that."