So eventually, I wind up back at Mount Vernon Hospital which is for recovering patients I guess.
I got the window side, which wasn't exactly a big win, but it was better than not having it.
The days dragged by very slowly and you kind of fall into a rut, doing the same things over and over. Fortunately, I had a pretty large music collection to listen to on my phone and a pair of headphones to pass the time.
I highly recommend 70's Soul Music to keep your spirits up if you wind up in the hospital. That and some serious doses of Funk are the way to go.
The days were broken up into sections by the different types of rehab I would go to during the day.
There was Occupational Therapy which was helping me do the things I would be doing while getting back to work, and daily activities. That means I basically worked on going up and down stairs, walking down hallways and getting up and out of chairs.
My Stroke affected my sense of balance (no more dancing for me, ya'll) so I was using a wheelchair quite a bit, to roll around from place to place.
I think I enjoyed this part because I could still walk and use my legs. I got to treat the wheelchair as a luxury. Had I been permanently bound to a wheelchair, I'm sure my attitude would've been much worse.
Fortunately, the Stroke didn't affect my higher executive functions which means I could still talk normally and remember my past. So they decided to give me a pass on the Speech Therapy.
They had to check on my brain to make sure I still understood how things worked, so I got to do word problem worksheets every day during the week with one of the designated helpers. Let's call him, John.
John and I would work on logic worksheets for about an hour or so after I did my morning walking exercises. They weren't hard at all on their face. But, I did have a bit of trouble just getting the mind to focus and address the logic puzzles and ordering problems I was presented with.
Once I worked out the fog, this was the best part of the day, just because it was the easiest of the tasks I had to do. Eventually, John told me my brain seemed fine based on my performance on the worksheets and I could focus on the physical things.
On occasion, I got to go outside and walk around a bit to practice walking. It was pretty hot last Summer, but I had plenty of shorts and tee shirts to wear and my folks were grabbing up dirty clothes and washing them pretty regularly.
After the trips outside, I was usually pretty tired out so those trips were usually at the end of the day.
I came to discover Darkness was my new nemesis. The lack of balance I was suffering (the Stroke affected my cerebellum and inner ear) made not being able to see my surroundings quite treacherous and I could not maintain my balance or keep my body upright in darkened areas.
It's amazing what we take for granted until it's gone.
During this time I went through a few different roommates. I didn't really get to know any of them very well and I didn't remember their names because I was usually watching TV or listening to music on my headphones.
There was one older gentleman who was in pretty rough shape. He didn't leave the room as often as I did, which I can only assume was because of his age and the severity of his situation.
Let's call him Mr. Jenkins. He was in his 70's and he did make sure to watch Sandford and Son and Good Times in the evenings. I love those shows and made sure I was awake when he watched them and I would listen to the show through the curtain dividing us.
Each room had two beds and two TVs, with curtains dividing the room. The TVs did not have area specific speakers. so whatever you watched, basically everyone watched.
I didn't really watch the shows Jenkins watched in that I have seem most of the Sandford and Son and Good Times, but I did listen and enjoy the audio. Eventually, they moved him upstairs and I didn't see him anymore. That may have meant something as far as his health issues, but I never asked about much about it.
I have always had a theory that people always like the things they first got attached to in the prime of their lives. So I assumed that Jenkins was large and in charge back in the 70s when these shows first aired. I started watching the reruns of those shows in my youth and always liked them.
During this whole stage of my recovery, I was apparently having swallowing issues. I kept being put on different menus. From regular food, to machine-processed foods to clear foods. Hospital food is bad enough, but getting shaped semi-liquid waffle type mush was maddening.
Fortunately. they gave me Jello (everyone likes Jello) and Ginger Ale along with the other things. So, I wasn't eating a lot of food.
Eventually, this too did pass and I got back to real food. Just in time to as I had convinced Tammy to bring me some pizza from Valentino's near where she lived (and where I no longer lived, I was told).
Things were getting better...slowly.
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