109 CHRISTMAS FREEZE

Just before Christmas, the cold weather moved in.  We had a brief spell of it in November, when it snowed on November 1, but not much until mid-December.  I still can’t find any boots to fit and so far, it’s cold and dry.  When it gets icy in fact, runners are probably the best kind of footwear for walking on icy sidewalks and roads.  I’ve never been nervous about walking on ice, I guess that comes from playing hockey most of my life.  I’ve never fallen on an icy sidewalk or road before either.  I have had a couple of close calls but always managed to catch myself.

Well, it finally happened.  I was out walking Toby and we did our usual route.  We got to the road we turn on and head up the sidewalk, on a slight uphill.  The sidewalk ends by a driveway to a house and you must step out onto the roadway at that point.  I looked carefully, and the road appeared top be dry and bare.  It was -4C and so I stepped carefully out onto the road and my feet slipped.  I almost managed to catch myself, but with the swollen and unfeeling feet, my balance isn’t the greatest and down I went.

Instinctively I didn’t do too much to break my fall, which in the long run probably saved me from injury.  I did land on my left hand, of course the one that doesn’t work so well, and it hurt, a lot.  My face was heading for a meeting with the asphalt, but as luck would have it I was carrying a big bag of Toby’s poop.  My face hit that, and it cushioned the blow, preventing me from smashing my face.

OK, I know what you’re thinking, gross, right?  There was no problem.  The bag was tied shut so there was no spread of the contents.  I laid there for a few minutes taking a mental inventory of what I might have injured.  Feet, seem ok.  Knees, no problems there.  Did I break a hip?  Nope, so far so good.  Shoulders and arms are fine.  Hands were protected by gloves and the pain in my left one has subsided.  All in all, I’m doing ok.

Now the problem comes in.  I’ve never been what you would call a flexible person, but I am way less flexible after my hospital adventure.  I avoid sitting or lying on the floor because I have a great deal of difficulty getting up.  Heck, I even have trouble getting out of a chair sometimes.  Anyway, I’m lying facedown in the middle of the road and it’s time to see if I can get myself up.

Here’s where a major problem kicks in.  I’m lying on a sheet of ice on a downhill slope and with minimal flexibility.  So, I make the effort to bring my legs up underneath me to get to a kneeling position.  There’s not a chance that this is happening.  Every time I try and push with my feet, they would slide back out from under me.  This went on for about 10 minutes and I was getting no where.

My body heat is rapidly being sucked out of me and I’m starting to shiver.  The body heat is melting the upper layer of the ice and the -4C temperatures are refreezing it and I am starting to stick to the road.  I keep moving to prevent my clothes from sticking and keep trying to get up.  I’m in a winter jacket so that will keep they hypothermia at bay…for awhile.  But, I am starting to get worried about it.

I’m lying on a frozen road and starting to stick to it.  It’s a side street and it’s still under construction, so there’s not a lot of traffic, if any.  I wiggled around enough so that I could get my cell phone out to call for help.  I’m not sure who to call though.  Renee doesn’t have a car and is at work.  Caitlin and Karl are both at work and a long way away.  So, I decided that it would have to be 9-1-1.

I don’t know how kindly they’re going to look on me considering I’m uninjured, I just can’t get up.  Plus, if they come I’m pretty sure they’re going to want me to go to hospital just to get checked out and I really don’t want to do that.  I finally made the decision to do so, when a fellow comes running up to me asking if I’m ok.  I explained what happened and he helps me to roll onto my side.  I try to scootch over to the curb but that doesn’t work.

He sees the problem, runs back to his truck on the busy road below and comes back with a mix of salt and kitty litter which he spreads out around my feet.  He’s trying to help me up, but we are not having much luck, especially since I’m still holding onto Toby’s leash and won’t let go.  Then another fellow arrives and backs his pickup truck up the hill within a few feet of me and opens the tailgate.

Grabbing it and with the assistance of both, we manage to get me back on my feet.  I thanked them profusely and wished them a Merry Christmas and they got back in their trucks and drove off before I could get their names.  Just an amazing couple of fellows that would stop to help a stranger lying on the road.  Thank you to them, whoever they were. 

108 CHRISTMAS SEASON CATCHUP

Well, I have taken you all along on my journey from the beginning of summer right into the Christmas season.  I’m still not completely “right” and there’s a few people that would suggest that I have never been completely “right”, but I have recovered enough that I can now function normally.  I still have issues to deal with, but they are coming along.  I’ll consider myself completely healed the first time I step back on the ice to play a game.

I am resigned to the possibility that may never happen, but I’m still fighting hard to make it a reality.  My foot is still too swollen to get a pair of boots or to put on my skate.  It still gets painful after a long day or a long walk, but I’m dealing with it.  Considering my foot was surgically rebuilt less than four full months ago, I think I’m doing well.  Yes, I am impatient as I want to be back on the ice, but, sometimes these things can take 6 months to a year to fully heal and I may miss the whole season.

I had prepared for that by notifying the organizers of both my teams in August that I was out for the season.  It was the one Doctor who said, “we’ll have you skating again by Christmas” that gave me hope and belief that it could be done.  Christmas has now passed and I’m not close to skating yet, but we’ll take it on a month to month basis and see what happens.

In the last couple of weeks in November Hershal warned me that he would be off on paternity leave for sure on December 18 and earlier if the baby arrived earlier.  Well, baby did decide to make his entrance a little early, so I missed a few days with Hershal and have now been bouncing back and forth between Gordon and Edwin.

I decided to take break on treatments to my foot and concentrate on trying to get my left hand fully functional.  I have gone from almost not being able to close my fingers in hospital, to a point where I have full mobility in my thumb, about ¾ mobility in my index and baby fingers but the middle fingers are still stubborn.  The actual middle finger is about 50% whereas the ring finger just barely bends.  We’ll see what happens in the new year.

After speaking with Edwin about the realistic chance of getting the foot back to normal, he said there is the possibility that it won’t happen, and I’ll be stuck with a somewhat bigger foot.  That was also what the surgeon told me, and we shall see.  I took some steps (pardon the pun) to see if there was another solution.

MY CURRENT, NON-FITTING SKATES

I phoned my skate guy, Jay, at Scoff’s Hockey Shop and explained the situation to him.  I asked if they had skates big enough to fit fat feet.  He told me that he had several very large sizes and he would see what he could do.  So, one day I made the trek into Burnaby to see about getting fitted for a bigger pair of skates.  Unfortunately, there is nothing big enough in the standard size skates.

He did offer me another, somewhat more expensive option.  There is a company in Winnipeg that he deals with, that makes custom fit hockey skates and if I was interested we could go that route.  The custom fit skates are more expensive than standard skates by about $200, but if I can get back on the ice it would be worth it.

So, we got started.  Jay scanned both my feet with a 3D scanner and it was kind of cool to see the images as it took in ever bump, and hollow on the feet.  He said he would send in the scans and then what they do is 3D print my feet and then custom build skates around them.  That way the skates literally fit your feet like a custom skin.  Several NHL players are using them now and these skates may be the way of the future.  I’ll be right in on the bottom floor of a “cutting edge” market.  Again, excuse the pun.

Jay warned that the one big stumbling block here will be the opening.  He says there is absolutely no trouble custom building the skate to fit my foot.  The stumbling block is where you put your feet into the skate.  It must be wide enough to accommodate the foot, but still be able to be laced up.  That may not be possible, but these guys have worked miracles before.  Here’s hoping.

107 FOOTY PHYSIO

Now that we have got confirmation of the surgical procedure, it’s time to go to work on the foot.  The biggest task ahead is to get the size of the foot down to a level that I can squeeze it into a skate.  If I can do that, I can resume playing hockey.  My stamina is pretty good and once I can get onto the ice doing more strenuous exercise than walking, the stamina should improve quickly.  We shall see what the next month of daily physio produces.

Hershal started to work on my foot with ultra sound and then hooked it up to a machine with large suction cups and electrical stimulation.  It’s sort of like a very large TENS machine.  He told me to let him know when the pulse was strong enough and still comfortable.  He kept cranking the power up, but I couldn’t feel a thing.  My foot was not flexing or anything.  In fact, he got it up to full power and I still could not feel a thing.

Three days into treatment, the office called and cancelled the rest of my appointments for a week.  It turns out that Hershal had broken his ankle doing Jiu Jitsu.  In fact, here I was with a bad right foot and he also broke his right ankle.  After only a week away, he resumed my therapy, walking around in the identical cast that I wore, except smaller.

We were quite a pair, but I guess it worked out.  It gave Hershal empathy for his patients.  Not that he didn’t have empathy anyway, but it gave him new appreciation for what his patients were going through.  Except in my case, I could not feel my foot and he was in a lot of pain with his, especially by the end of the week.  So much so that he had to cancel Friday’s appointment.  He apparently is also a subscriber to the theory of “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”.

After missing only, the one day and after the weekend, he was ready to get back to work.  It was time to try a more aggressive treatment on my foot.  The office had just acquired a test machine called Shockwave Therapy.  It produces ultra-sonic pulses that are designed to trigger an inflammatory response which triggers the body’s healing abilities.

He started with that on my foot and while I couldn’t feel anything before, I could sure feel this.  It was very strong and was literally bordering on painful.  It was tolerable though and only lasted 5 minutes.  It produced quick results and my foot looked smaller.  Whether it was, or if I just wanted it to be, I don’t know.

BOOT SUCCESSFULLY ON

RIGHT BOOT STRAINED
LACES

When I got home Ii took my old boots out to try them on.  They are a 12W as compared to my 13EEEE runners.  With a bit of effort, I was able to get the boot on my foot and get the boot laced up.  That buoyed my spirits considerably.  So much so, I went downstairs and dug my skates out.  I sat and tried to put my skates on, but in a crushing disappointment, I could not even get my toes into the skate.

That isn’t too surprising though.  My shoe size prior to this whole series of incidents was a size 11 and my skates are a size 9.  Most hockey players wear skates that are one or two sizes smaller than their shoe size.  The reason being is that the skates feel like they are part of your feet and give you a much better feel for the ice.  So, I’m hoping that we can get my foot size down enough to squeeze my foot in.  We shall see what happens.

We continued with various treatments on my foot and there is an improvement, in that I am now feeling pain in the foot.  Hershal says this is a good thing, because it means the nerves are becoming uncompressed and starting to be able to feel again.  I hope it bears out.  The size has not reduced at all and in fact it seems slightly bigger again.  Enough so that I cannot get my foot back in the boot.  I have been shopping all over, but nobody makes boots big enough to fit my feet.  Certainly, long enough, but not anywhere near wide enough.  My thought is that boots would give me better support than the runners.  So, the saga continues.

106 DARTH VADER RISES

Having gotten the good word about removing the cast, I had to wear it home as I neglected to bring my other runner with me.  But, subscribing to the Mythbusters theory of “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”, I proceeded to do just that.  On the way home, I did a couple of errands to be ready for Halloween.  As soon as I got home, I removed the cast, never to go back on.  I got dinner ready for when Renee arrived and then went to get my costume on.  It’s interesting how this all came about.

MY NOW EMPTY CAST

Since moving into my new place, I have gotten quite into decorating both for Halloween and Christmas.  I got hold of a 12-foot inflatable ghoul for less than half of its usual price.  I had seen them at Rona’s for $189 earlier in the month, but when I was in there about a week before Halloween, they were clearing out the last of them for $100 which was more palatable, but when it turned out to be just the floor model left, I asked if I got a further discount.  The manager knocked off another $30, so I bought him and brought him home and named him Norbert.

NORBERT THE 12' GHOUL

ME IN COSTUME
CHEAPO LIGHT SABRE

 It’s a little longer story for Darth Vader.  I had joked about my cast throughout the time that I wore it, that it was part of my Star Wars Storm Trooper armour.  From there the seeds of an idea started to grow.  Last year, I wore a camouflage “Ghillie” suit.  I have the suit for wildlife photography rather than hunting.  I didn’t feel like wearing it again, so I started to consider the idea of getting “real” stormtrooper armour.  Was I ever shocked as the “authentic” armour came in at a cost of $1800.  No way was I spending that much for a costume, especially since it was just to hand out candy outside.

I kept checking various websites over the next several weeks to see if maybe they went on sale for a more palatable price, but they never did.  Finally, a week before Halloween I found a website based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, called Halloween Costumes and they had an “authentic” Darth Vader costume, regular priced at $1200, still way out of what I was willing to spend.  Then suddenly, they had a one-day blowout sale and the costume was on for $200.  Still a lot for a costume, but I thought, why not I can have some fun with it.

I thought that the price was in US funds, but it was Canadian as they have a division in Canada which ships here.  It was also free shipping, so I laid down the $200 and hoped it would arrive before Halloween.  It arrived two days after I ordered it.  Was I ever impressed, however, the light sabre that came with it was a cheap plastic flashlight thing.

I called my son who has a cool Luke Skywalker light sabre and he told me they were available in a Darth Vader red and a Kylo Ren one as well.  So, onto Amazon I went and ordered a Darth Vader Black Series light sabre.  It cost almost as much as the costume, but was well worth it.  So that is how I came to have the costume and light sabre for Halloween.

I wanted to wear my old boots with the costume, now that I was out of the cast, but could not for the life of me squeeze my still swollen foot into them.  I even tried to buy new boots, but nobody makes them wide enough.  My runners are a 13 EEEE and are the only shoes that will fit.  So, I was forced to wear them, but better than doing it with the cast.

I got all dressed in the costume and went outside.  It was a big hit with neighbours and kids alike.  The light sabre which also has sound effects just set it off nicely.  Speaking of overdoing things, I walked up and down the road beside my place, directing kids where to get their treats.  I did that from about 5:30 PM until just before 9:00 PM.  I even wore out a set of batteries in the light sabre.  Renee was at the back gate, also in costume and handing out goodies.  I posed for pictures with neighbours and kids and I was amazed at how many wanted to take pictures.

ME IN COSTUME WITH
GOOD LIGHT SABRE

ONE OF SEVERAL NEIGHBOURS
POSING WITH ME

There were even a few kids who were too scared of Darth Vader to approach me and get photos or say hi.  There were one or two who had light sabres who even wanted to fight me.  All in all, it was a very successful Halloween and great fun.  Even though it was a chilly night, this costume is HOT!  I was sweating up a storm inside it.  The eyeholes fogged over within about 10 minutes and I walked around virtually blind the whole time.  I’ll be making some modifications for next year, such as adding a fan for cooling and defogging.

I also carried my iPhone with a series of Darth Vader voices and the Imperial March playing, but it wasn’t loud enough, so I have already added a Bluetooth speaker into the helmet.  That should help.  But I really paid a price after.  By the time I went in the house, my foot had really swollen up, to the point it was hard to get my shoe off and I was in agony.  So, it was well overdone.

105 FREE AT LAST

Physio continued all through October, attending every day except weekends.  All efforts were focused on my left shoulder and left hand.  We couldn’t do anything on the foot, because we could not find out what was done inside it.  I had heard a rumour from one of my nurses that the foot had to be rebuilt, but we didn’t know for certain.  The surgeon was not returning my calls and was not responding to faxes from the physio.

I’m tired of writing physio, so I’ll just start referring by name.  I got to the Maple Ridge Physiotherapy and Pain Clinic on Dewdney Trunk Road and my primary therapist is Hershal Shah.  He does a great job but was worried about using ultrasound, shockwave or other therapies on my foot until he found out if it was stable enough and if there were any metal pins, clips etc. inside.

Finally, we got a response.  The surgeon faxed over a series of reports.  The only problem was that all the reports were pre-surgery, so we still have no idea what went on inside my foot.  So, we were still at square one and continuing treatment on my shoulder and hand.  There was one day we did spinal decompression on my lower back because it was so far out of whack from walking off balance in the cast.

Suddenly a break through at the end of October.  I got a phone call from the surgeon’s office that I had to be at his office at 1:00 PM on October 31, Halloween.  I guess they got tired of all my calls and the faxes from Hershal.  Maybe there was some progress to be made.  Hershal gave me a list of questions that I should ask that he needed to know.

On Halloween I headed for my appointment on 223 Street.  Still new to Maple Ridge, I went down Lougheed and turned left on 223 rd.  Wrong way and I ended up almost in the middle of the Anita Place Protest Camp.  What a complete shit-pit.  It is absolutely disgusting.  Not to mention dangerous.  I got out of the truck wondering where the office was and was immediately “swarmed” by three of the residents of the camp.  They were demanding to know why I was there.

Now, I’m not normally intimidated by aggressive assholes, but, there were three of them and I’m in a cast and not fully recovered from my hospital stay.  So, I just kept calm and explained I was trying to find my Doctor’s office but must have taken a wrong turn.  At that point two of them lost interest and wandered away.  The third guy pointed up the street and then he left.

Finally, I found it.  I should have turned right off Lougheed.  I wandered inside and reported in.  I sat down and no more than 5 minutes later I was ushered in to a treatment room.  I sat there for another 5 minutes and I was expecting to see Doctor Buzzkill again but in walked “Baby” Baschu.  His bedside manner is supposed to be a lot better than his Dad.

He had me remove the cast and my sock.  He looked at my foot and proclaimed, “It looks like it is healing nicely”.  He answered the questions for Hershal and told me that they had cultured the liquid drained from my foot, but found no infection in it.  Which is interesting because the other Doctors cultured the drainage from my foot and said there was.  Who to believe?  In any case, he said that the swelling was so bad that all 5 of my toes had become dislocated and so had several other bones.

All had been put back in place but there were no clips or metal in my foot.  That was why I was on total bed rest for so long and in the cast for even longer.  But, he gave me the words I had been longing to hear. “You don’t need to wear the cast anymore”.  He also warned me that my right foot would never look just like my left foot again.  I assume that means it will remain somewhat bigger, but we shall see.  The whole appointment, from the time I arrived, to the time I walked out the door, was 15 minutes.

I didn’t mind the short appointment time, in fact I was happy about it as I had things to do with it being Halloween.  I just thought it was rather quick for such an extensive rebuild.  He never even touched my foot.  He just looked at the scar and the size of it, but, oh well, I’m “Free at Last”.

104 PHYSIO OR BUST

After enduring an entire month of not driving, three if you count hospital time, I had finally had enough.  I couldn’t get an answer from anyone as to how long I would be in the cast.  So, on October 1^st I decided enough was enough.  I had been practicing walking without the cast in the house and so with the cast on, I walked down to my truck.  Then just before getting into the driver’s seat, I took the cast off.

Finally, I was driving.  I was doing with just a sock on my foot.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not unlawful to drive in socks, bare feet, flip-flops or spike heels.  Not that I wear heels, but if you do it’s not against the law.  It’s not recommended and if you get into an accident and it can be proven that your footwear or lack of it contributed to the accident, then you can be charged.

Now, being a professional driver since the age of 19 and driving since I was 17, I have forgotten more about driving than a lot of people ever knew.  I have had a total of 7 advanced driving courses, including high Speed Pursuit driving and VIP Protection driving.  In fact, the last driving course I took was less than a month before I retired.  I didn’t ask to take it, but it was mandated that everyone in the department had to, and so who was I to turn down a chance to drive fast in a controlled environment.  But, I digress, suffice to say I was driving again.

It felt good to be behind the wheel and free again.  I could run errands, and most importantly start going to physio.  I booked my appointments and have been going to physio now every day since the beginning of October.  I’m off for a week over Christmas, but I will continue into the new year until I am back to normal.

The first treatment I got was on my neck.  I forgot to mention how I got this injury.  I was moved into the rehab ward with about two weeks left in my hospital stay.  The goal, to get me up walking and being able to function on my own.  I was in a 4-person ward with 3 elderly women.  What I didn’t know is that hospital beds have alarms on them.

One night I was fast asleep at 2:30 AM and for some strange reason, dreaming I was back at work.  Suddenly an alarm went off and jolted me awake from a deep sleep.  I guess training kicked in and I sat bolt upright and in the process, strained all the muscles in both sides of my neck.  It was very similar to a whiplash injury.  As if I didn’t already have enough wrong with me.

Several different things would have helped, such as heat, muscle relaxants and/or massage.  Well, the hospital will not allow heat, because some time in the distant past a patient got burned.  The closest I could get was a warm blanket.  That didn’t work.  They did not have muscle relaxants available and nurses are not allowed to massage patients.

It’s amazing.  Nurses can give you the most powerful narcotic injections, they can see you naked and touch you in the most intimate of places, but they are not allowed to give a massage.  It’s considered a healing procedure and that can only be done by a physio-therapist.  Since this happened on a Friday night, and physio does not work weekends, I was stuck with it until Monday.  I was in agony and had a choice between Tylenol 3 or heavy-duty stuff like Hydromorphone injections.  I opted for Tylenol-3 but it wasn’t that helpful.  I also resorted to ice packs.

When physio came in on Monday, she immediately found the trigger points in both shoulders and with some very painful manipulations was able to ease the pain, but my neck remained stiff long afterwards, to the point I had difficulty turning my head.

PREP FOR FIRST PHYSIO

THE NEW ME

As mentioned I got into my own physio when I started driving again and had spinal decompression on my neck.  I was also taking Robax Platinum, which made a huge difference.  I couldn’t get started on my foot, until I had authorization to take the cast off.  Several phone calls to the surgeon and I got no response.  My physio tried faxing him several times and got no response either.  He needed to know what was done inside my foot before starting to work on it.  I had no idea myself, other than it was drained.

103 CASTING CALL

Walking with the cast on has become very “natural” and I have slowly increased my distance all through September, but the most frustrating part of it is that I cannot drive.  The cast is on my right foot and is quite wide, so it will not fit well between the brake pedal and the console.  I can do it, but I can’t move my foot quickly from the gas to the brake.  Too much of a safety hazard, so I just won’t risk it.

I have resigned myself, that I won’t be driving for awhile, but the frustrating part is that I can’t get an answer from anyone as to how long I must wear the cast.  It’s now been on since the last week of July.  I’m allowed to take it off at night to sleep, but to walk to the bathroom, I must put it back on.  On those nights when I get up several times, I just leave it on.

Finally, I was able to start walking to the bathroom without the cast and then I slowly worked on it until I could walk from the recliner to the dining room without it.  This turns out to be an important step (pardon the pun) in what I have planned very soon.  More on that later.

Every couple of days walking, I would increase my distance by a block or two.  This was important for Toby who is doing his own recovery program as well.  One of the things holding me back though is all the other issues I have been battling.  I need to go to physio to get work done on these issues, but, Renee is only here to drive me on weekends and physio has closed them.  The faster I can get there, the faster my recovery will be, I hope.

The more I worked, the more muscle mass that was starting to return.  I left hospital at 240 pounds and very weak.  I put on 10 pounds, all muscle mass and I am much stronger, and my stamina is better.  I am being very diligent in my diet, to the point I don’t have to test my blood sugar any further.  In the hospital they went from poking my finger 4 times a day, to not testing it at all because my readings were so good.  I do test it about once per month just for curiosity.  I have not had a reading higher than 6.5 and anything under 9 is considered excellent.

I have a very set regimen when it comes to meals and what I eat.  I have breakfast every morning at 8:30 and have the same thing, 2 poached eggs, 2 pieces of raisin toast with Becel, a bowl of plain oatmeal flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon.  I drink a half liter of water and a cup of tea with Sweet & Low and a splash of milk.

Lunch is at 11:30 every morning.  Again, it is regimented.  I have a bowl of soup alternating daily between vegetable and chicken noodle.  6 Stoned Wheat Thin crackers, a can of pink salmon or tuna, alternating days.  Capped with a homemade salad, topped with calorie wise dressing (various).  The salad consists of romaine lettuce, spinach, croutons, half an avocado, half a tomato, stalk of celery, English cucumber and a carrot.  I also drink another half liter of water.

My afternoon snack consists of a red delicious apple and a cup of tea.  The snacks were the hardest thing for me to incorporate.  I have the afternoon snack at around 2:00 PM and evening snack at 8:00 PM which is usually an assortment of berries.  Sometimes some popcorn.

Dinner varies but it involves chicken or other meat and vegetables such as green beans or peas.  Sometimes I have another salad and lately I have been having those little potatoes.  So that’s pretty much it.  I have had one cheat in 4 months and that was when we met up with our old friends from the dog park.  I had a beef dip and the cheat was the fries.

The month of September has dragged out and other than the walks I have been pretty much house bound until the weekends when Renee is here to drive.  Handy Dart was mentioned for getting to appointments, but it does me no good because Toby can’t be left home alone.  He has gone everywhere with me since Day 1 and he’s not about to stop now.  So that limits me right off the bat.

102 REBIRTH

I used the walker, which had been booked for three months, for a grand total of two days.  Then I started walking on my own.  I slept in my recliner for the first two nights and then I made the long walk up the stairs to have a shower and to sleep in my own bed.  I still must sleep in the recliner during the week as Toby cannot do the stairs anymore and cries when left alone.  But, that aside, I am home.

When I woke up after the first night, I was really disoriented.  I wasn’t in the hospital, I dreamt I was back in my old house in the basement, but no, nothing looks familiar.  It took a few seconds and my head cleared and I realized I was home.  Toby was asleep next to my recliner and Renee was fast asleep on the couch.  I drifted back off to sleep.

The Doctors and Physios all told me that it was extremely dangerous to walk a dog of Toby’s size while using a walker.  Renee took Toby on his walks for the first few days and then when she went home after Labour Day, I took over.  The walks were quite short to start with, but I kept increasing my distance by a block or two every second day.   The foot in the cast was fine, it was my stamina that sucked.

LEFT FOOT AFTER GETTING HOME

LEFT FOOT ONE MONTH LATER

The Doctor’s prediction of skating by Christmas seems like a pipe dream at this stage, but I have made tremendous progress already.  I’m already up to walking 4.5 KM per day with Toby and this is only just two weeks after getting home, so it just might be possible.  I have lots of issues that need to be addressed by my own physio-therapist and I can’t do that until I can drive again.  Maybe skating will be possible, but the stamina to play may take awhile longer.

Bottom line, I survived a near fatal infection from a cut foot.  I’m out of hospital and home after 8 weeks.  I need to get the cast off, so I can resume driving.  I still have a lot of issues to deal with, from building up my stamina and strength, to fixing injuries and conditions that have accompanied this whole situation.  Some of them make no sense whatsoever.

SLEEPING IN THE RECLINER

FIRST LUNCH AT HOME

From top to bottom, I need to fix my neck (muscle relaxers are helping) but it needs decompression.  My left shoulder is still painful and to this day I don’t know why.  My left hand is almost useless.  I can’t close my fingers and the hand shakes badly.  My lower back needs decompression and this is likely caused by walking in this cast which makes my gait lopsided.  My left thigh has some sort of weird burning tingling pain, and finally my right foot.  It is still somewhat swollen from the infection and surgery, but I can walk on it without the cast.  Just not for any kind of distance.  All these things will be addressed when I can drive, because then I can get in to see my physio therapist and get each issue dealt with.

There’s some things I will be stuck with for the rest of my life, such as diabetes, but following a proper diet (which I’m doing) and the huge 60+ pound weight loss and exercise has allowed me to keep my blood sugar under control so well that the doctors took me off the metformin which was causing major side effects and slowing down my recovery.

COMPARISON SHOT SHOWING CHANGES BETWEEN JUNE AND SEPT

The cuts on my left foot have finally healed and as such are no longer an issue.  Other issues I may be stuck with are the shaky hands.  I have had minor tremors in my hands since I was about 7 years old, but they were barely noticeable.  Now it is very prominent.  I’m hoping that as I regain strength that the shaking will return to minimal, but, I don’t know.  Mom’s hands shook badly as she got into her sixties and I may be in the same boat with a hereditary condition.

These things are all minor in the grand scheme of things, since as I mentioned before, I’m alive.  I will deal with things as they come, day by day and try to make every day count.   My blood pressure is great, again without the drugs (110/66 this morning).  I’m scared to go back to the lake at this point and I certainly won’t ever go barefoot again.  I can’t go next year though as I don’t want to take a chance on getting hurt and missing Caitlin’s July 7 wedding.  We have all made the decision that I should not go back to the lake alone again, but we shall see. 

101 HOME

Finally, the day came, 7 weeks and 5 days after it started.  So, for arguments sake, 8 weeks.  I thought I would just be able to get up and leave, but I had to wait for a Doctor to sign the order.  Unfortunately, there was no telling when that would be.  Breakfast came and went.  I had a physio session and had been granted independent walking privileges the day before.  I went all the way to the end of a very long hallway and all the way back.  My therapist watched me from the nurse’s station, but did not intervene.

A little while later I walked down to the nurse’s station where there was a scale.  Patients were not allowed to use it un-supervised, so I grabbed my therapist and jumped on the scale.  I weighed in at 240 pounds, a sixty plus pound weight loss.  Other than surviving the whole ordeal, this is the one bright spot to come out of it.  I am determined to not only keep it off, but to lose another 15 pounds and get down to 225.  I’ll have some speed when and if I can ever get back to playing hockey.

Lunch time came and went and just as lunch was delivered, my old work partner arrived for his second visit.  After, I finished eating and while we were chatting up a storm, the nurse came down and gave me the words I had been waiting to hear.  “You’re free, the Doctor just signed the order”.  I already had my bags packed, Griff grabbed my electric fan and get-well poster and we headed for the door.  A quick call to Renee and we sat outside and waited.  Then I remembered I needed my prescriptions and trekked back inside.

MY RED CROSS LOANER
BOOKED FOR 3 MONTHS

LARRY ONE OF MY
ROOM-MATES

Renee arrived, and brought my loaner walker and loaded all my stuff into the truck.  Then she brought Toby out for our big reunion.  We had not seen each other since the evening I was loaded into the ambulance.  He didn’t even notice me at first with all the new smells around the hospital.  Plus, I was in a full beard and my voice was very weak.  Finally, he figured out who I was an gave me a great greeting.  Then it was into the truck, Renee driving as I have been banned until my air-cast comes off.

 Toby was constantly nosing and kissing me as we pulled into the parking lot at London Drugs.  I made the long walk into the pharmacy section and got my prescriptions in.  Of course, there was a long lineup.  By now, the excitement and all the exercise I had been doing had taken its toll.  I was exhausted and collapsed into the seat of my walker and began the wait.  I started getting dizzy and was sweating buckets.  Finally, I had the prescriptions in hand and started the trek back to the truck.

I got another greeting from Toby and the air conditioner blowing in my face helped me to revive a little.  Then I was home.  I sat on my walker in the visitor parking, just behind my place.  I was feeling just awful and must have looked it as well.  I had to wait while Renee parked the truck and came to open the balcony door. I was dizzy and sweating and feeling awful, I started slumping lower and lower in the seat of the walker. Because I was slumped over and looking awful, my neighbour’s daughter came out to make sure I was ok.  I assured her I was, but I really wasn’t too sure myself.

WAITING TO GO HOME

We had arrived home on garbage day, how appropriate, because that’s what I felt like at the time.  Renee was trying to turn the truck around to go park on the street and got trapped behind the garbage truck.  I had no idea where she was or what was taking so long.  It’s only a one block walk from the street to the house.  But, finally she opened the balcony door and came out to help me in.  She carried my stuff in and brought my walker up the stairs.  The 6 stairs for some reason looked so intimidating.

Finally, I got up the stairs into the house and slumped down into my recliner.  I was home after being away since June 21.  I reclined in the chair and took a nap.  Now, the rehab would begin in earnest and I would have to do it without medical assistance.  Renee was here until Labour Day and was a big help with meal preparation and all the little things that needed to be done.  I couldn’t make it up the inside stairs so taking a shower was not in the cards, nor was sleeping in my own bed.  So, I spent the night in my recliner.  Not a problem as I have fallen asleep in it many times before.

Things had changed around here while I was gone, the building right across from me was still under construction when I left, was now complete and all 6 units were occupied with new neighbours.  The main road was now open and so was the kids park up the street.  But, I was home, no matter how much it had changed.

100 PAGE ONE HUNDRED

On Thursday, they wheeled me down to the gym and just had me do the stairs, without the walk in between.  I went up and down the stairs twice and sat down in the wheelchair.  That’s when it started to happen again.  My heart rate spiked, and I got dizzy and started to sweat.  They quickly wheeled me back to my room and got me into bed.  I didn’t pass out this time, but I sure wasn’t feeling good.  Initially I was going to skip the afternoon session, but was feeling better, so I went for a short walk.

These pass out sessions resulted in yet another battery of tests.  I had a ECG done to determine if I had developed a heart problem.  It came back negative and the Doctor came in to tell me that there was no indication of any problems.  He said there was an indication that I had suffered a heart attack in the past, but that was false.

I was also sent down for an echo-cardiogram on my heart.  This test lasted for well over an hour and was basically the same test as done on pregnant women, only instead of looking at a baby, they are watching your heart.  I really hit it off with the technician and we chatted for a long time, even after the test was over.  He said that my heart looked to be in great shape for someone of my age.  There was no indication of any irregular rhythms, but he was not allowed to do a full analysis and present it to me.

When the Doctor came in to tell me these results, he saw my hands shaking badly.  My hands have always had a little tremor even when I was a young child.  It was far more pronounced now.  I put it down to side effects from the sepsis as well as the fact that I was so weak from the loss of body mass and being in bed for so long.  Because of his observations he sent me for a CAT can of my brain to rule out the possibility of Parkinson’s Disease.  Nobody ever came to tell me the results, but I assume it was negative, because I’m sure they would have told me if I had it.

But, then the problem was solved by me, quite by accident.  One of the little treats that I really got into was gum.  I had not chewed any gum in years, but it helped to keep my breath fresh and was a little treat to boot.  It all had to be sugarless gum because of my diabetes.  Caitlin and Renee would bring me Trident and one-day Caitlin brought me a plastic container of Dentyne.  I was sitting eating my dinner and had my reading glasses on and happened to glance at the Dentyne container and glaring out at me was the one word, Aspartame.  I am highly sensitive to it and in larger doses, like a soft drink, it will trigger a migraine.

Seeing that I began to wonder and looked it up on Google.  In the list of many side effects of Aspartame were the words, may cause elevated heart rate.  Curiously enough on both days that this happened to me I was chewing the Dentyne gum while doing the physio.  I immediately stopped using the Dentyne and threw the rest away.  In fact, I stopped chewing gum altogether, even though the Trident doesn’t use Aspartame.

RUNNING SHOE ON MY LEFT FOOT
TO BALANCE OUT THE CAST. MADE WALKING
SLIGHTLY EASIER

Come Monday morning, I told my therapist what I discovered and having gone three days without the gum, I was ready to try again.  I walked all the way down to the gym, went up and down the stairs twice and then walked all the way back to my room, with absolutely no ill effects.  I was a little tired as it was a long way, but I was in no danger of passing out and my heart rate remained steady.  I was back on track for my newly revealed release date of Thursday, August 29.

It, the parole, didn’t happen on August 29, I had to wait another two days before I was finally released.  The holdup here was waiting for physio to present their findings to a medical board of Doctors, nurses and physios and that was not going to happen until August 30^th.  Oh well, what’s another couple of days in this lengthy adventure.

How about that, my long, long ordeal was coming to an end.  Well, at least the hospital portion of it.  Now that it was so close, my “1” mantra was getting very difficult to maintain.  I had a date and I was now starting to focus on getting out.  Along those lines I ordered a rental walker from the Red Cross that Renee could pick up on Wednesday, the day before my release.

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.

098 A DETERMINED EFFORT

After the Friday failure, I got even more determined to do better the next time.  I spent the weekend trying to sit as upright as possible, for longer periods of time.  The idea being to clear my head and get it used to being upright again after so many weeks in bed.  It got so that late Sunday night I could sit upright for just over 2 hours at a time, but let me tell you, the effort wore me out.  By the time I would lie down again, I was sweating and tired, and feeling like I just did a two-hour gym workout.

Monday came, and I was sitting up and dressed by 5:30 AM, just waiting for Physio to arrive, so I could make my next attempt at walking.  I was determined to do better today.  I knew I would.  I forgot that I had to be hooked up to my IV anti-biotics, so I had to lie down again for those to empty into me.  That half hour came and went, and they disconnected me from my PICC line again.

Breakfast came, and I ate my warm bread, sitting up and waiting.  Breakfast always comes around 8:00 AM and the Physio’s always come in around 9:00 AM.  It came and went, so did 10:00 AM and still no Physio.  I was getting more disappointed that I wouldn’t get a chance to walk today.  Finally, at 11:30 AM they arrived.  But it wasn’t my usual two, so I had to explain the whole story again.

Finally, it was time, I was going to walk.  The walker was moved into position and I had forgotten Friday’s training on how to stand up.  Who would have thought one would need to be taught to stand?  Anyway, I got the retraining down and finally it was time.  I pushed up from the bed ad grabbed the handles of the walker, and I was upright.

Knees were weak, and I was shaky.  Then the waves of dizziness and nausea washed over me again, only this time I was able to fight through it and remain upright.  Now the moment of truth, I was going to walk.  Physio suggested I try walking in place first and it turned out to be good advice.  I took one step, here we go.  I took a second step and then a third.  Four, five and six and I was done.

SIX STEPS, STANDING IN PLACE

 I was shaking and sweating like I had run somewhere, the dizziness was getting worse, and I fell backwards onto the bed.  My head cleared much quicker this time and I didn’t puke so that was progress.  But it was still very disappointing.  Both Physios complimented me and told me that it was a great effort on my part.  One of them told me that some people don’t get that much done on their second try after being bed ridden that long.  It was still a blow, but I got over it quickly and was determined to do better tomorrow.

The next day, I went through the usual rigmarole in getting ready and then it was time, I took a few steps standing in place to get the feel and then off I went.  I walked across the room to the door and back again.  A grand total of 10 steps.  It wasn’t much, but it was a start.  I was pleased with myself after the effort of the past two tries.

The next day they loaded me in my wheelchair and rolled me down the hall of the newly renovated second half of the ward.  Into the physio gym we went.  It was so new that the parallel bars were still wrapped in brown paper and packing material.  They spent 10 minutes unwrapping it and I would become the first ever person to use them.  Up I went and down to the end, a quick turn to the left and back to the beginning.  Another turn to the left, and here comes the dizziness and nausea again.  I sat down in the wheelchair and they gave me a basin into which I promptly puked.

I sat there for 30 minutes with my head between my knees, until the dizziness passed, and they rolled me back to my room.  I was very thankful to get back in bed, but I made the accomplishment of getting in 20 steps.  That’s double the total from yesterday.  Things are looking up.  Well, I spent a lot of time looking down until my head cleared.  It would not be the last time this happened, but the last for awhile.

097 THE FIRST TRY

Then the day finally came, I was given clearance for weight bearing.  This gave me bathroom privileges and the chance to attempt walking.  I don’t know who was ore excited about it, me or the physio-therapists.  They had been trying for a couple of weeks to get permission to get me up.  It had started with instructions to start sitting more upright in bed and for longer periods of time.  I would crank the bed up as far as it would go, to get to an almost upright position, but not quite.

Prior to this everything was done either semi-reclined or flat on my back, including eating.  Now I was sitting in an upright position to eat, but I tired quickly.  The next step was to swing my legs over the side of the bed and eat my meals that way.  I could see out the window into the little walking park just outside.

Lying back, I could see out the window at the trees, but could not tell for sure what the weather was doing.  All the smoke in the air didn’t help.  I also didn’t know about the park until I could sit upright.  This was all to acclimatize my body to being upright after being prone for so many weeks.  I still had it in my head that as soon as I could put weight on my foot, I would be off walking and quickly regain my strength.

Finally, the day came, and I was pumped up, I was ready, this would be the first step as it were into going home.  I had Renee bring in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt for me.  Up until this point I had been stark naked under a single sheet.  I’m usually warm at the best of times, and my body doesn’t tolerate heat well.  Combine that with the fever I had been running and the summer heat, I was cooking all the time.  But I digress, I had my shorts and Dri-fit t-shirt on and I was ready to go.

I had been sitting up for about 90 minutes waiting for the physio team to arrived.  There were two of them and they brought me a walker.  I remember thinking that it was silly, why would I need a walker?  Well, apparently the physios had done this before and knew what was coming.  I didn’t, or at least had convinced myself that I wouldn’t be that guy.

They moved the walker in front of me, lowered my bed so my feet just touched the floor, and gave me a complex set of instructions for how to stand up.  Again, I was thinking, how silly, I know how to stand up, I’ve been doing it all my life.  But I followed the instructions and got set to push off.  I gabbed the handles of the walker and lifted myself off the bed.  Well, that’s not quite true, I needed the assistance of both physio-therapists to make the move because I was so incredibly weak.

Up, up and away!  I rocked back and forth and gave a heave and I was up.  First time since July 8 and this was now well into August.  Immediately, I knew things were not as they should be.  My legs were weak and barely able to hold me.  My arms were weak and could barely hold the walker.  Then my head started spinning.  I was so dizzy I could barely see, and then I started to puke.

They laid me back down on the bed and I promptly passed out.  I was out cold.  I have no idea how long I was out, but it couldn’t have been too long.  I had a cold towel over my face and a sense of crushing disappointment rolled over me.  They tried to reassure me that this was normal for someone who has been bed ridden for so long.

But, it was not how I had pre-visualized this going.  I was supposed to be up and walking, albeit with a walker.  Hear I was just figuring out just how weak I had become and the realization dawned on me that this was going to be a great deal tougher than I had thought.  I was up for the challenge for sure, and I was determined to get going, but I had to let the disappointment dissipate.  Especially since physio, shut down any further attempts for today.

Back to the drawing board as they say.  I spent an hour or two feeling sorry for myself and dealing with the failure.  Then I got determined.  I started sitting on the edge of the bed for hours at a time, getting my head used to being upright.  This was on a Friday and physio was off for the weekend, so there would not be another attempt until Monday.

096 PREVISUALIZATION

Almost from the day I got my walking cast on, I was previsualizing what would happen.  Just like I used to do before hockey games, when I would stand out by the rink and previsualize what was going to happen and what I was going to do.  It seemed to work well in game situations and I think I always played better when I did it.  I told anyone who would listen what was going to happen when I was given clearance for weight bearing.  I told my son, Karl about it and he paid me a great compliment by saying, “all good athletes do that”.  I thanked him for believing I was an athlete.

Anyway, I was lying in bed and was losing muscle mass by the minute, but I didn’t realize I was also losing fat, which was a good thing.  I kept saying that as soon as I could get up walking that my muscle mass would start to rebuild, because I would be up and walking around the hospital regaining my strength.  More on this, or at least the reality in another chapter.

I had numerous scenarios in my head of getting up and wandering around the hospital.  I did it after each of my three knee surgeries, so why should this be any different?  My Doctors, Nurses and Physiotherapists tried to tone me back a bit by telling me not to get too far ahead of myself.  Here I was breaking my cardinal rule of just living one day at a time.  Here I was thinking ahead.

No matter which scenario I went through, I visualized it to be a successful conclusion, with me getting up out of bed and immediately being able to walk around the hospital.  Maybe even outside, where I hadn’t been since July 8 and here it was late July.  I was figuring on being released by July 31 and putting an end to this lengthy three weeks stay in hospital.  Little did I know, this was a pipe dream at best.  I had no clue that I would be there for another 5 weeks.  Oh well, as they say, “ignorance is bliss”.

Meanwhile the days kept passing and the visitors kept coming.  I was using cellular data to access Facebook to keep up to date and post updates of my own.  Then suddenly I got a notice from Telus telling me I had burned through my “massive” 1 gig of data.  I had no clue about this either as I rarely ever use data.  Most of the time I’m connected to WIFI, either at home or the WIFI in my truck through OnStar.

Speaking of the truck, and possibly a premonition of what was coming.  When I headed up to the lake on June 22, I had my iPhone connected to the Apple play stereo I had installed in the truck earlier in the year.  I was listening to TSN 1040 the sports talk shows all the way to Kamloops.  On my old radio, the signal would die just before Chilliwack.

Just as I was making the turn off the highway on to the Yellowhead highway, on the last leg of the trip to Barriere.  I decided to switch to my music library on the phone.  I told Siri too play my music library shuffled.  The first thing out of the speakers was my Mother’s voice.  She said, “I just don’t know when I will be back from the lake this year”.  More prophetic words could not have been said, and it gave me chills to hear her voice, especially this close to the cabin.  Mom passed away in 1992.

The stranger part of this is that while I have several sound bytes of my Mother speaking, they are stored on my desktop computer at home and my laptop which was in the back of the truck and turned off.  There is not one sound byte from my Mother on my iPhone or iPad.  So where did the voice come from?  As I mentioned earlier, my Mother came to visit me when I was first brought into Kamloops Hospital.  So, here I was with absolutely no idea when I would be released from hospital and conversely, when I would be home from the lake.

The days continued to pass, and I continued to dream about getting out and getting home.  I expected to be weak and I expected to need rehab before I would be able to get back on the ice.  I even expected that I might end up missing a whole season, but it’s a little disappointing when the truth smacks you hard in the face.

095 STAFFING

Staffing was a major problem.  There were shortages because of low staffing levels, summer holidays and if a nurse booked off sick it leads to absolute chaos, until and if a replacement could be found.  The nurses and care aides were run off their feet.  There were for the most part, some amazing nurses and care aides, a small minority not so much.  I mentioned my introduction to the hospital and first encounter with Zoltan (yes, it’s his real name), he didn’t make a great impression on me that first day, but he changed my mind as time went on.

He was assigned to me several more times and I came to change my initial impression of him.  Yes, he was quite brusk, but was very efficient and helpful in later encounters.  He never failed to help me when needed and never failed to answer the call bell.  That wasn’t the case with all the staff.  On the medical ward that I was on, each nurse was assigned to care for up to 9 patients.  By necessity, they had to take care of the sickest ones first and I guess the complainers.

Some people would ring their call bells at the drop of a hat and for some of the stupidest reasons.  I never rang the call bell unless I really needed help, the nurses loved me for that reason.  But, they would also give me shit because I didn’t call, especially when it came to pain management.  As I was told it is far easier to control pain if you get out ahead of it, rather than waiting until it’s well established.  Then it is much harder to get under control.  By the time I figured it out, I almost didn’t need pain meds anymore.

This also worked to my advantage, because lots of times the nurses during some of the rare quiet times would come and sit and visit with me.  The company was wonderful, and it was great swapping stories.  They were all interested in this story of how I came to be there, but when they found out I was a retired policeman, they were interested in career highlights, or war stories as we call them.  They had their own stories to tell as well and cops and nurses just seem to be able to relate to one another.  I guess that’s why, so many cops are dating or married to nurses.

I mentioned Nurse Tim in Kamloops, but I also had his counterpart in Ridge Meadows.  His name was Waylon.  What makes him more significant was he was a youngish Asian fellow, with a Southern country singer name.  He explained that his Dad was a huge country music fan and a big fan of Waylon Jennings, hence the name.

I didn’t get Waylon assigned to me that often, but really appreciated it when I did.  He was very attentive and could almost sense when something wasn’t quite right with me.  We spent hours just chatting, especially on night shift when it was quieter with the bulk of the patients asleep.

CLOSE UP OF SCAR

STILL SWOLLEN

Conversely, there were the ones who weren’t quite as attentive, and I really didn’t bother to learn their names.  One I dubbed “The Ice Queen”.  She was also Asian, and tall and slim.  That all makes no never mind, it’s just to give some context.  On nightshift, she would walk around the ward with one of the heated blankets draped over her shoulders.  She would rarely come into the room and a lot of times would not bother to answer the call bell.  She would turn it off remotely and then never show up.

There was one night that she came in at 6:00 PM and that was the last time I saw her.  I had trouble sleeping that night and never saw her making rounds or coming in.  The next nurse I saw was at 6:00 AM when the day nurse came in.

LEFT FOOT AFTER 3 WEEKS
OF TREATMENT

LOOKING MORE GRIZZLED
ALL THE TIME

Of the care aides that I dealt with on this ward, the most amazing one was Marcy.  I never had to use the call bell to ask for anything from her, she just always seemed to show up at just the right time.  If the ice had melted in my water jug, she would bring me a new jug of water.  It’s too bad Ridge Meadows lost her.  She had been there for 27 years and suddenly they started screwing her around on shifts.  The administrators changed the care aides from a 12-hour shift to an 8-hour shift and took them off night shift, which just increased the workload for nurses.  Marcy decided, enough was enough and transferred to Eagle Ridge Hospital.  Their gain, I would say.