099 BREAKTHROUGH

Thursday, I finally made a breakthrough.  I stood up, grabbed my walker and did a full 75 steps to the end of the hall.  There I got weighed in my wheelchair and later they weighed the wheelchair empty.  The result showed I had lost 40 pounds.  However, I have no way of knowing for sure as the last time I weighed myself was in 2015 and then I weighed 290.  I would guess that at the start of this ordeal I was probably 300 pounds or more.

Friday dawned on my next attempt and this time I managed a full 226 steps and made it all the way around the perimeter of the ward.  I had to sit down and rest 4 times doing it, but I managed it.  Later that day I was told that I was on the list to be moved from the medical ward, downstairs to the rehab/physio ward as soon as a bed became available.

I figured it would be another week or so at minimum, but more likely longer than that.  For me to get to the rehab ward, someone in there would have to get out.  My current roommate, “The Complainer” had been in the rehab ward for several weeks but was now back on the medical ward.  That was one of the things that he complained most bitterly about.  The rules on the medical ward were far stricter than they were in rehab.  I also figured I would get ample warning of the transfer.

On Saturday afternoon, I packed up my stuff and moved downstairs to the basement, rehab/physio ward.  Of course, since there are no therapists working on the weekends, I was unable to practice any walking until Monday.  This is a much older part of the hospital and has not been renovated, so it’s a little dingier.  The staffing leaves a lot to be desired as well with three nurses for 39 patients per shift and it’s an 8-hour shift down here, so we get three shift changes per day.  There are also two care aides, but they only work two of the shifts.  There are lots of physio therapists, but they only work day shift during the week.

Late Sunday morning Caitlin and Trevor arrived for a visit and minutes later Karl and Lizeth arrived.  They bundled me into a wheelchair, grabbed my lunch tray and wheeled me down to the cafeteria and into the outside courtyard, where I ate my lunch.  It’s the first time since entering the hospital six weeks ago, that I have been outside, and it feels good.  The kids stuck around, and we had a great visit for two full hours until they had to leave and wheeled me back to my room.

Monday dawns and shortly after breakfast the therapists are in to get me up.  Welcome news for me as I pretty much just laid around all weekend.  They had me walk with the walker down to the nurse’s station, some 200 steps and then wheeled me back.  One therapist walks beside me ready to grab me, the other walks behind with the wheelchair in case I start to fall or get tired.  This was repeated in the afternoon.  That’s the advantage of the ward is that with all the dedicated therapists you get two or three sessions per day.

On Tuesday, I walked all the way to the gym and did the stairs.  It’s only 4 stairs but I went up and down them.  This is in preparation for going home.  I sat down to rest on the huge physio bed and started to feel dizzy.  I broke into a powerful sweat and despite sitting and resting, my heart rate spiked up to 132.  I then passed out and fell back on the bed.  When I woke up, I was feeling better.  The therapists went down to my room and wheeled my bed down to the gym.  They got me in it and wheeled me back to my room.

I missed the afternoon session as I wasn’t feeling too good and a technician came in and did an ECG on me to rule out a heart problem.  They also took blood samples.  Later, the Doctor came in to   Initially tell me that both the ECG and blood tests were negative, revealing nothing had gone wrong with my heart.  It remained a mystery what had happened.

The following day they kept me to a short walk to the nurse’s station in both the morning and afternoon.  I had been told that when I got to the rehab ward that it would be a maximum of two more weeks before I would be sent home.  I was hoping my little pass-out session didn’t delay that outcome.