WHERE I HAVE BEEN (Part 4)

 Hello, friends.  I'm back to finish up my story.  I don't have much power left, so hopefully I can do this.

Every day (except weekends) I went to Physical Therapy.  I worked really hard on everything they gave me because I wanted to get out of there.  In a few days I was walking with a walker even though I was still dizzy.  One day I asked them to give me a cane which the therapist did.  I couldn't do it.  I said I was glad I had tried even though I wasn't ready.  The therapist said he knew I wasn't ready but wanted me to try for myself.  I knew it would be just a few weeks until I would be able to do it.  (It actually took me another 6 weeks, but I can do it now.)  They had me learn to go to the bathroom by myself, brush my teeth, pour myself a cup of water, wash my hands and face by myself, put things into and take things out of a microwave, walk with a walker and finally to climb up and down stairs.  They taught me how to get into and out of a bed, use the bathtub, and get into and out of a car without falling.  As bad as the place was, the therapists were that good.

Finally the day before Easter I was released.  The doctor that came to sign the paperwork said I was very determined and he had never seen anyone work as hard as I had.  He was right.  I was determined.  I had cried myself to sleep every night I was there.

Joe came to get me and a nurse (a nice one that I really liked) wheeled me down to the driveway.  It had been three weeks since I had been outside.  The fresh air felt so good!  I got into the car (a little clumsy I will admit) and Joe started for home.  I was so HAPPY! I will admit that the motion of the car increased my dizziness and I spent a great deal of the ride with my hands over my eyes.

Joe had to use a wheelchair to get me to the house and then I used the stair lift to get to the front door.  It was a bit hard to get into the house, through the enclosed porch and up the step and through the doorway to the living room.  But I did it.  I sat down on the sofa and thought about how good it was to be home.  How blessed I was to have a home to come to.  I thought about Edwina (my roommate) having to live there permanently and never having a chance to have a homecoming.  How truly good God was to me.

Joe took care of me for weeks, cooking all the meals and serving them to me.  Bathing me.  Getting me to the bathroom.  Helping me change my clothes.  He is a gem of a husband.

So that is the story of where I've been.  Hopefully I will soon be giving you better stories.  Thank you all for being my friends.  I cherish each of you.

Kathy

WHERE I HAVE BEEN (PART 3)

 Hello, friends!  Here I am back with part 3 of my story.  I don't know how many parts there will be, but I will keep up with it until you are completely up to date.

When we last left off, I had just entered the rehab facility.  It was around 10 p.m. when I got there.  They moved me off of the stretcher and onto a bed on the second floor.  Then the ambulance staff left.  There were two beds in the room and a lady was in the other one.  She had her TV on so loud you could barely hear anything but that.  It was a Harry Potter movie so it was really loud.

The lady checking me in had me sign all these papers even though I had no idea what I was signing.  She inventoried everything that came with me and had me sign that.  There was a chest of drawers, a chair and a table on my side of the room.  Everything looked dark and dirty.  Then she asked me a bunch of health questions.  Finally she said she had to weigh me.  I said I couldn't stand to get onto a scale and she said she didn't need that.  She got out a sling with a scale attached, had me get into it and lifted me off of the bed with my head hanging.  You don't do that to someone who is very dizzy.  I was screaming.  She told me I was very uncoperative and had me sign some more papers.  (I found out later that she wrote down my weight 50 pounds lighter than I actually was.)

Finally, I was left alone with the lady with the blasting TV in a dirty room and I cried myself to sleep praying that God would get me out of there quickly.

The next morning, I got medicine, then breakfast, and finally met the lady in the bed next to me.  Her name is Edwina and she was very nice.  The TV was so loud because she is very deaf.  She had been in there for five years and never had any visitors.  It turned out that we liked a lot of the same things, were both interested in history (mainly Tudor England), had gone to Community College for the same major at the same time (she went in the day and I went in the evening), and even were both invested into Phi Theta Kappa honor society on the same day.  She was so helpful to me while I was there.  The only thing was she never turned the TV off and it blasted all the time.

I saw no medical staff on the weekend except for the nurses and aids who "took care of me."  Every time I rang the bell for them it took 15 to 30 minutes for them to show up, and they complained that they had to help me.  I was not allowed out of bed, or even to sit up, so I was dependent on them for everything.  I was never washed or allowed to brush my teeth which was awful.  The food was actually good, but very small portions.  I found out later that I was classified as "morbidly obese" (even though I'm not) and was to be given very few calories.

Joe, of course, was there every day and without him I think I would have gone insane.  He brought me my Bible and devotional book and my Kindle so that really helped. He also complained about the dirty room and someone actually came and cleaned it.

On Monday I met the doctor taking care of me.  I told him I was going home in two weeks for Easter.  He smiled and said, "We hope so."  But I was determined. 

Also, on Monday they began Physical Therapy with me.  The therapist got me into a wheelchair and wheeled me down the hall to a large room with all kinds of things in it.  I was given things to do like pick up things, do arm and leg exercises, and mental calculations (like things together, etc.).  Everything they gave me I did easily and they were sort of surprised at what I could do.  I told them that I was going home for Easter and I had no time to waste in getting better.

They wheeled me back to my room.  When I was traveling in the wheelchair, I felt as if I were speeding although they were just walking at regular speed.  I was put back to bed and there I stayed until the next day when this was repeated.

My dinner has just come (we ordered out today) and so I will finish next time.  Thanks for coming along with my journey.

Kathy

WHERE I HAVE BEEN (PART 2)

 First of all,  thank you so much for your kind words and especially your prayers.   What great followers I have. Let's continue with the story. 

As I said,  I was at the hospital for 4 days and there was nothing else they could do for me.   So the Social Worker arranged to move me to a nursing home/rehab facility.   We didn't know anything about any of them on this long list she gave us.   I told Joe to decide which one.   He picked one near to our home and arrangements were made for me to go there on Friday evening.   He left around 4p.m. to get dinner.  

While he was gone, the Social Worker came into my room.   She said she couldn't get me into the place I wanted and I had to pick another one.   She handed me a paper that I couldn't read because I didn't have my glasses.   I told her to read it to me.   I didn't know what to do because I was still so dizzy that I couldn't think straight.   Finally I asked what was close to home so that Joe wouldn't need to drive far to come see me.   She named two and I picked Riverside because I liked the name.   Little did I know what I was getting into. 

The ambulance was supposed to pick me up and take me there around 6:30 p.m.  Joe had come back by this time and he was going to go with me.   It got later and later and the ambulance hadn't come.   Finally Joe had to leave and said he would see me in the morning.  

The ambulance showed up around 9:45 p.m.  The guys were so nice.   We had to drive through my neighborhood to get to this place.   I told them to just take me home instead of the Rehab.  And I wasn't really kidding.

When we got to the Rehab Center,  they wheeled me into the building on the stretcher.  I looked around and thought, "Oh, no!  What have I gotten myself into?"  It was horrible and dirty.  A lady met us on the ground floor.  She asked me some questions and then sent us to the second floor.   A lady met us at the elevators and said, "Welcome, Kathy.  We have you now. "

Stay tuned for part 3.

WHERE I'VE BEEN AND WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON

 Hello. friends!  I bet you never thought you would hear from me again.  It's been a long (LONG) time since I've been with you.  But there is a reason.

Towards the end of October I came down with some kind of upper resperatory infection.  No voice.  Coughing.  Nasal congestion.  Headaches.  I was a mess.  Well, everyone gets sick, right?

But this lasted and lasted.  It lasted for 6 weeks until I got mostly back to myself.  I was good for two weeks and even got to church once and then . . .

It all came back.  Same infection as before.  This one lasted about three weeks.  I was sick all through the holiday season and was miserable.

Around the end of February I was finally able to get out and about again.  I was attending church and teaching my Tuesday Bible study again until . . .

On Tuesday, March 17th I was getting ready to go to church to teach.  I was even wearing green for St. Patrick's Day and planning what I was going to have for dinner that night.  I didn't know if I would have enough time to make Irish soda bread.   I finished studying my lesson and headed for the powder room before getting in the car to go.  When suddenly . . .

I started feeling dizzy as I went into the kitchen (the powder room is behind the kitchen).  The dizziness got worse and worse.  I had to grab onto the countertop to get through the room.  I thought if I sat down on the toilet I would start to feel better.  Thought it was my blood pressure.  But . . .

When I got to the powder room everything began spinning rapidly.  The entire room was one big swirl, as if I were spiraling down a funnel.  Faster and faster.  All I could see was white and black swirls and I started throwing up.  I grabbed onto the sink and was able to sit on the edge of the closed toilet.  I began screaming Joe's name.  He was upstairs asleep.  "JOE!!!  HELP ME!!!  CALL 911!!!"

Fortunately he heard me and came running downstairs.  He tried to help me, but immediately saw it was not something he could handle.  I heard him calling 911.

It was just a very few minutes until they pulled up at the door.  The medics took one look at me and said they had to take me to the hospital.  And what a time getting me out of the house and into the ambulance.  We have a stair lift on the front steps, so they had to strap me into a chair and then when we got to the pavement get me onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.  The hospital is very close to our house so it was less than 5 minutes until we were pulling up to it.

I spent almost the whole day in the Emergency Room.  All kinds of tests being done.  I had two CT scans of my brain and the ladies doing the test were so kind to me.  I felt badly that they had to lift me back and forth from the stretcher to the test table but every time I moved everything spun and I vomited.

At the end of the day they told me I was staying and got a room for me.  Poor Joe stayed with me the entire time and never left my side.  By this time they had stabilized me and I was feeling better.  There were several neurologists looking at me.

I really don't remember much of being in the hospital.  I was told I was there for four days but I remember just snippets here and there.  The conclusion seemed to be that the viruses that I had in October and January had settled in my brain and damaged it.  And it was going to be a long time to heal.  Months if ever.

And now my computer is about to run out of power so I have to end.  I PROMISE I will continue this tomorrow and tell you more.

Until later,

Kathy

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

 Hello, everyone!  Happy 2026 to you.  I am going to give this yet another try.  I think my posts will be short and that should help me get you all caught up.

I hope things are going well with all of you.  We have been having a time here with sickness.  On October 22 Joe and I went down the shore to church.  Our pastor friend was celebrating 10 years of being at his church.  I wasn't feeling all that great, but went anyway.  Here are a few pictures from that time.

They gave us a great meal.  Everyone brought something.  We brought artisan breads because we had to drive so far and didn't want to bring a main dish.  There was so much food and everyone went home with left overs.

But the next day I felt even worse.  By Wednesday I was coughing like I'd never stop, couldn't breathe, didn't have a voice, and had a fever.  Was it the flu?  Was it pneumonia?  I went to Urgent Care and the only thing they could tell me was that it was viral.

I tried to sit outside on Halloween to hand out candy.  And I did for a little while.  But then I started choking and had to blow my nose all the time so I went inside.

For the next 12 weeks (yes 12!) I was sick.  Very sick.  So sick I thought I was going to die.  And worst of all no one could give me anything except decongestant and cough medicine because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.  I even had x-rays but nothing showed up.  I truly thought I was going to die.

So the entire fall, my favorite time of year, was spent being sick.  It has only been about 10 days since I started feeling entirely well again.  You don't appreciate your health until you don't have it.

Thanksgiving was very low key.  We spent it alone.  I got a turkey breast for free by spending enough money at the supermarket (with the help of my sister).  We had that with all the fixings.  And I did decorate the house a little bit.  Let me show you a few pictures.

As you can see I did make a pumpkin pie from my great-grandmother's recipe.  In fact, it was so good that later when I felt better I made two more.

I didn't get much done for Christmas with either gifts or decor.  I didn't even get a card sent.  But I did get to spend the day with my sister.  Still blowing my nose, though.

But I will save that story for another day.

Have a wonderful day everyone and I will hopefully see you soon.

Kathy