CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ABOUT A week or so after my surgery a nurse was helping me to walk again. It was slow at first, dragging my right leg a little. The nurse was very patient and helpful. The phone rang at the nurse’s desk. Since I was using a four-legged walker, which was very steady, she left me standing in the middle of the hall while she went to answer it. I concentrated hard on walking. I shut my eyes and visualized myself walking.
I began to see inward, the muscle and nerves. I saw them working together in unison, making me walk. I felt the rhythm, a rhythm you don’t think about when you walk. Normally we take it for granted. The messages were traveling at four hundred miles an hour from brain to muscle, telling them to work. My brain was tired and traumatized though, it needed time to think. These things should be involuntary, but now they were voluntary. Concentrate. Concentrate on the nerve impulses to make the muscles contract and relax.
I opened my eyes and glanced towards the nurses’ station. My nurse was deep in conversation, but still kept a fleeting eye on me every so often. I looked ahead towards the end of the hall. Keeping my eyes centered on that wall, I lifted my walker off the floor and walked as fast as I could to the end of the hall. When I reached the end of the hall I quickly turned around and set my rocker down and looked over at the nurse who promptly set down the phone and ran down the hall after me.
I did other crazy things too. I learned how to pop wheelies in my wheelchair and play jokes on the nurses. After fourteen days they must have had enough of me, they sent me home.
I was sad to leave in a way. I got to know so many people, probably because I got to be a favorite and they all spoiled me. A lot of