My Story: The Tragedy (Part 6)

The final week of my inpatient therapy finally came and went.  My therapy team as well as staff members from the hospital came by my room to say goodbye.  There are so many of them that were so good to me and we became close, there is no way I could name them all or say thanks enough.  My final morning came and a nurse came in to help me get dressed and in the wheelchair before the sun came up.  I packed up my belongings then sat and waited for Christy to arrive to take me home.  My friend Tasha came by to help me get packed and to say goodbye.  Christy got there and we had to wait on some of my gear such as a wheelchair to arrive at the hospital.  My case manager came in and said my stuff had arrived so they went and loaded it in Christy’s car.  This was the first of October 2021.  I had gone from wearing shorts to wearing sweatpants at rehab as the weather was changing.

As I said, having friends nearby was key.  I truly believe it was an answered prayer that I did not know to ask for but God took care of it.  Each afternoon at the rehab I would have visitors during visiting hours.  Each day after therapy was finished I would take a nap in my hospital bed then call a nurse to help me get out of the bed and into my wheelchair (when this was allowed).  I would sit up in my chair waiting for my visitor of the day.  Many times I would not know who would walk through the door for that day.  As part of the COVID restriction visitors were limited to one or two a day and they had to check in at the lobby before being allowed in.  My friends Caleb and Blake both lived and worked nearby and visited multiple times.  My pastor and friend Rob came to visit multiple times and we even did a Zoom Video call with Pauline one time on a Wednesday night.  I’ll never forget during this call seeing Christy walk into the sanctuary, Rob preached via the Zoom call then Pauline members came by the monitor with camera in the church sanctuary to say hello and give their well wishes plus offer their prayers and support via the video call, it was so good to see them all and once again be a part of a church service.

As I said I am an emotional mess these days.  I have never been so emotional.  Each week when Christy would come to visit I would cry a lot when it came time for her to head back home.  I cried a lot when I got to see the kids and did when we did the Zoom call with Pauline.  There were days in therapy I would cry uncontrollably for no apparent reason.  Many times my therapists would take me back to my room and offer words of encouragement and support – often I would just need their friendship and support plus just to talk as friends and not be in “therapy”.   In addition to crying I also laugh today much more than I did.  I joke that I have the emotions of a teenager.  When I get sad I cry a lot and when things are funny to me I sometimes laugh uncontrollably.  

In October when I left St. Vincent rehab as an inpatient rehab patient I was sent to Drew Memorial Hospital here at home to do outpatient therapy.  I really did not have high expectations as Drew Memorial is our local hospital.  After coming home I got an appointment at Drew Memorial to begin outpatient therapy.  At this first meeting I was pleasantly surprised by the program.  The facilities there were top notch and the people were more than special and good to me.  I either had a previous connection with my therapy team or quickly developed one.  I started this time going to therapy at Drew Memorial three days a week.  Christy would take me to therapy in the morning and friends would pick me up when she was unable to give me a ride after therapy was completed for the day.  At the end of a number of sessions the therapist would evaluate my progress.  Each time they did these evaluations progress was shown.  Again I was in physical, occupational, and speech therapy as an outpatient at the hospital.  I remember one day at the end of therapy I went down to the hospital gift shop to buy a Christmas gift for Christy.  I could not get my debit card to work so when Christy came to pick me up I had to call her in, there goes that surprise.

At Drew Memorial my speech therapist had concerns about my throat.  She sent me to an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor in Little Rock to be checked out.  The ENT numbed my throat and did a camera assessment of my throat muscles.  They found that one side of my vocal fold worked normal while the other side was slow to open and close.  This was part of the cause of my voice problems.  The ENT said it could be five or six years for this to improve and I would just have to keep working at it and it would slowly happen.  I am thankful that today my voice has shown some improvement.  It is not where it needs to be but is slowly improving.  The speech therapist told me that a lot of times speech is the last thing to come back.  Good thing I have always talked like a southern redneck I guess!

After my appointment I came to the end of my prescribed speech therapy sessions.  A few weeks later was the end of my physical therapy appointments.  Being down to two sessions of therapy was difficult enough since I was not driving.  There were many times that I finished my appointments for the day then just walked around the hospital for exercise as I waited for my ride.  Since I was completed with PT and only had a few more OT sessions we decided to end a little early due to the challenges of having to wait on a ride.  Since it was an appointment or two we all agreed it would be ok.

This closed out this section of my story.  I had gone from having intense pain to being diagnosed with a brain tumor to having a stroke after multiple brain surgeries then having several rounds of rehab.  All these areas allowed me to make new friends that I would not meet and that we will always share a connection.  During all this back and forth time I know God was at work. I can see it in all the answered prayers of this time.  As I see it an answered prayer was that I would survive all this and did that, even though it was labeled as TRAGEDY I have been brought out of the tragic story and one to victory.  I am thankful for this victory and believe it is a gift from my holy heavenly father.  I had so many prayers that I would survive and here I am today even though doctors did not expect me to make it the Lord decided he was not done with me here and for that I am thankful for the opportunity to live another day.

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