Going home with both feet

by Rex Clothier

“How much do you love me?!”

Not having been asked that by any doctor before, but detecting good news arriving, I responded with “A goodly amount, but I suspect more after today.”

Beaming broadly, she smiled and for the first time in nearly two months became the first person to assure me that I would leave the hospital with both feet, even if one was now smaller than the other.

One the joy of knowing the tide had turned, and the enemy was in retreat had abated somewhat, I began to appreciate what a job my case manager had done in putting my “team” together.

My doctor who took the time to sit down and listen to my concerns and ideas about what I thought would be a good plan of action (as though I had a really good plan to propose), and then offered that champion of all medical opinions, “Well, let’s see how it goes.”

The young and enthusiastic dietitian who made sure that I knew more than I wanted to know about which foods I didn’t like the least would be the best alternatives to those I didn’t like the most. Her favorite advice was always the same — “Protein, more protein!”

The pharmacist who made sure that I understood what each medication was undertaking on my behalf, and that there were those that were necessary and those that were optional and made me a partner in the responsibility for assessing my own body’s functioning.

The floor nurses who listened for that annoying beep that told them it was time to give one of the six shots a day and change or renew the IV administering the antibiotic that was giving my body a chance against the infection that was attempting to take my leg, and my life.

The physical therapist who showed up each morning even before I was able to exit my room for the exercise gym and smiled at my pain and said, “Yeah, isn’t it great to be able to feel that?”

And, most of all, those CNAs that listened to my stale jokes, took all the measurements of a dozen different kinds, helped me overcome the embarrassment of being dependent on them for a variety of things we take for granted we’ll do for ourselves, and were unfailingly optimistic that better days were coming.

What a team! When backed by the loved ones and friends who visited, called, and wrote and broke up some long days with their good wishes, life took on the aura of an adventure, and I looked forward to its continuing. What a world! Thank you God!