Hospital Happenings #4: Good News / Bad News

(PBP) After the orthopedic surgery where my right leg was reassembled [one plate, 9 screws, 32 staples], by my favorite orthopedic doctor/surgeon [of 20 years], the next step [well, not literally] was placement in a rehab facility. Lucky for me, my volunteering helped me get into the one that I heard was the best. A couple of people went to bat for me, and I may have had an advantage over someone else looking for a room.

So, transfer #12, no way comparable to the eleven before it, was leaving the hospital to begin therapy. I have a wonderful roommate who is 89 and as it turns out, I know her daughter from 10 years ago when I first signed up to volunteer in this very facility that I am vacationing at…for the short term. Isn’t life strange? I was wondering if I am in the same room as the woman suffering from ALS [Lou Gehrig’s Disease] was when I was reading the Reader’s Digest to her [10 years ago]. ALS makes a broken leg look like nothing. Count your blessings. I do.

Anyway, my first night, I was lying in a bed with no guardrails thinking…there’s no way I would possibly fall out of bed and maybe break the other leg…is there?

Guardrails were installed.

And then, at 11 PM when it was ‘lights out’ [no such thing really] for the night, I closed my eyes and thought ‘Thank ya Jesus!’… When what to my wondering eyes should appear… But a maintenance man with his floor waxing gear!!

Whrr-r-rr- and the smell of wax! I couldn’t believe it. Now I do understand that this is a necessary task, and that all patients were tucked into their beds with visions of pleasant dreams dancing in their heads…so it was a good time from the waxer’s perspective…but, come on!!! They told me [the next day] that it gets done once a year and it was on the calendar for that night. That means that out of 365 days in the year, I managed to book the one night featuring ‘the ultimate white noise to aid your sleep needs”. Exactly what are the odds of this happening? Would you stand next to me in a lightening storm? I didn’t think so...

Next up:
“We’re going to put a trapeze above your bed to help you manage better.” [Think there could possibly be another funny story in the making?]

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of, “Mare’s Journey through the Seven Stages of…Am I dreaming this stuff up, or do I sometimes have some really bad luck?

You just have to laugh at life, or it could make you ponder your existence in the world!