11-2-07: Perspective...

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I do not affiliate myself with a professional sports team, a political party, an ethnic or nationalistic background, or organized religion. I prefer to keep my perspective open when interacting or trying to understand the relative importance of the world around me. Nevertheless, recent experiences have given (added, changed) me new perspectives I did not have before.

I have been in accidents before, but none that involved broken bones. Hence, I would be up and runnin' around as I've always done since becoming bipedal. Running, walking, jumping, cycling and dancing.. I've always been on the move across a large part of the planet. Take away my legs and it takes away a lifestyle and perspective that has been honed and nurtured since early childhood. Last week, Tess, my physical therapist, had me push from a sitting position with my left hand and right leg to a one-legged standing position with the aid of a walker for the first time.

"How does it feel?" she asked. I looked around the therapy room and focused on a door that led outside and answered, "I feel like running out that door and never stopping."

I have been told that the Vintage Faire Nursing Rehabilitation Center offers the best therapy program in the area. I have nothing to compare it to, but Tess is very intuitive and knows my limits and desire to heal. For two hours a day, she guides me through exercises that have left me sore but are showing results.

"Soon, my dear," she replied, "soon, but let's work on this first."

The Vintage Faire Rehabilitation center is also a residency for older people who can no longer care for themselves. Along with outcare patients and those people in temporary residence, I am at least 15 to 20 years younger than anyone else. I've been here long enough now to have gotten on a first name basis with most. And most are here to try to regain the ability to get up and down from a chair, to get from point A to B using a walker.. to essentially gain the strength needed to reach varying degrees of self-sufficiency. The motivating factor for all, including myself, is earning the right to go home.

A day in the life of a resident. Some get visitors, some not. Those that can maneuver in a wheel chair can be seen most days parked in the hallways dozing or staring vacantly in random directions, as their long-term-care world cruises by with rolling carts of medicine and bland food to make their waning years as comfortable as possible. I've come to admire the RN's and their CNA's (certified nurse assistant) who seem to unselfishly (yeah, they get paid, but I wouldn't want the job) help and accommodate those needs which most take for granted. I have experienced what many of these residents live with every day: catheters, bedpans, diapers.. and having no choice but to let someone whom I hardly know clean me up.

Perspective.