Ever wanted to be a costumed hero with super powers?
Think of all the ones you could choose from. Some might want invincibility. Others might opt for super-strength or super-speed. I have already tried out invisibility. I am a wheelchair user in a nursing home.
It is truly astonishing to me how many employees around here either temporarily forget that there are a multitude of wheelchair users or just disregard them entirely. Employees will stand around in doorways carrying on conversations, completely ignoring the large number of wheelchairs beginning to gather around them. Large objects are placed in the middle of hallways, the better to make it difficult for wheelchair users to navigate around them.
Heck, if you are a wheelchair user around this place your even invisible to other wheelchair users and people using walkers. Tonight at dinner I was jostled no less than a dozen times by residents making their exit. The only thought that sustained me was, "At least they are not out on the roads this way."
That is why I am excited that tomorrow will mark the beginning of the end of my stay at this facility. Tomorrow I am getting fitted for the Stump Shrinker to which a prosthetic will eventually be fitted.
This comes after a doctor’s appointment on Monday which saw the removal of the staples installed after the lower part of my left leg was amputated. I was going through a blood-sugar crash and so I wasn’t completely aware of what was going on, but I am told the doctor described what’s left of my leg as a "good-looking stump." I am also told that, because of my sugar crash, he couldn’t wait to get me out of there.
I might have skipped that doctor’s appointment all together if I had taken my dad up on his offer to remove the staples using a rusty pair of Craftsman pliers from the trunk of his car. Somehow, that kind offer didn’t appeal to me.
In the meantime I have been strengthening my remaining leg in physical therapy. I managed to get into a two-wheeled, aluminum-framed walker and make whatever forward progress I can. To date my best efforts have taken me about nine feet with a gate that would draw snickers from an arthritic kangaroo.
The therapists are all very nice about it, of course. One of them reminded me today that it takes twice as much energy to move on one leg as it does on two. The effort still seems greater than it should be.
Postscript: The poor conditions I’ve uncovered during my stay seem to be only a tip of the iceberg. A more extensive story on nursing-home conditions can be found in the December issue of Reader’s Digest.