How did I get here?

Let me start out by saying I never expected to be living in a nursing home at the age of 55. Actually I never expected to be living in a nursing home period. Few people do I suspect. Ten years ago a tumor was found inside my spinal cord. They removed it and I learned to walk again. Easy Peasy... OK, not Easy Peasy, but I went from wheelchair to walker to cane to walking. I did it and while not fully functional, I got around. Two years ago I quit a job in Pennsylvania because I was miserable. I've worked in TV for 30 years and have always been able to find work so I didn't worry. Then the recession/depression happened and no one was hiring. In order to save money I let my Cobra health care go, then discovered no one else would insure me with my disability. To make matters worse, the money was running out, my 401K was a quarter of its former bulk and then in April of '09 I started losing feeling again in my right leg. Did I tell my family or go see a doctor? No, I'm stupid and decided to see if it will get better by itself. Big mistake. Then I fell in September and to quote a bad commercial "could not get up". So I laid there on my apartment floor for a week until my brother and sisters became frantic and called my landlady. She broke in, then there were ambulances, hospitals, MRIs, CAT scans, etc. Finally they did a test called a mylogram, a lovely procedure where they inject dye in your spinal cord and hang you upside down, and discovered that my spinal cord had not healed correctly after the original surgery. According to the neurosurgeon, I have a "tethered spinal cord" and my next fall could tear my spinal cord out. My family (who all live in North Carolina) freaked and I now find myself in a Pennsylvania nursing home learning to walk again and waiting for disability to kick in so I can move to a rehab facility in NC. Since I have to be here anyway I thought I would give people a preview of what could be your future in a nursing home.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Things Overheard in the Hallway 1

"Norma, why are your teeth on the floor?"
I am fortunate enough to have my teeth... a couple of them are crowns and there is a partial bridge... but I paid for them all and they are all in my mouth. I am in the minority. Most teeth are kept in small plastic bowls filled with water on the table by your bed. Unless they are not on the table by the bed or in your mouth. This often leads to a search mission in the pre-dawn hours to hunt down those disappearing dentures.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2010 at 10:09 AM

    Had to really laugh at this one. Brought back memories of my Daddy and our constant search missions for his dentures! We found them in some very unusual places!!!

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  2. Jan HaswellJanuary 9, 2010 at 10:58 AM

    Asked an aide the worst placed she has found teeth... her answer (after making a horrible face)was "Another resident's mouth." Ick and double Ick.

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  3. ajJanuary 18, 2010 at 11:36 PM

    Used to wash my grandfather's coveralls (at the beginning we even had a wringer washer). One day I was shaking them before hanging them outside to dry and guess what, his dentures flew out onto the lawn. Ha ha needless to say, I ran in the bedroom and put them in their usual place on the night stand. Not a word to anyone. I was about 9 then and haven't spoken of them until today.:)

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