Ring the Bell and Win a Prize!

If you have ever been to a carnival, you've heard it before.  Ring the bell and win a prize.  In my husband’s case, the prize was a golden ticket which would take him home.  Ah, but not so fast.  He had to work and work hard. 

He was making progress with his speech therapist.  But now it was time to advance to work even harder with the physical therapist.  The time had come for the cast to come off his leg.  The doctors came in and sawed that thing off.  Low and behold, his leg looked awful and at the back of his ankle he had a huge decubitus ulcer.  His leg was approximately two inches shorter and they also discovered he had heterotrophic ossifications in his right hip.  (Which is bone growing inside of muscle.)  Not exactly the bell ringing we had anticipated.  Not at all what the doctors had anticipated either.  Physical therapy just took 2 steps backwards.

When someone had been through such a huge trauma as my husband, they always tell you, don’t get upset if he suddenly stops making progress, because that is how it works; 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. Wound specialist had to step in and take care of the ulcer.  (He would actually continue seeing them even after he was discharged from the hospital.  This type of ulcer takes forever to finally heal.  At one point, the doctors were even talking about skin grafting, but we never had to go that route.)  Ring the bell and win a prize had now become a high stake target and if anyone wanted to reach it, it was my husband. 

His foot was fitted with a soft boot that he would continue to wear even months after discharge.  The first target was to try and teach him to transfer.  The therapists would work with him to transfer from the bed to his wheel chair, from his chair to the exercise matt, back to his chair and then back to bed.  This was a winning moment.  Because now, he wanted me to learn how to help transfer him, then he would not have to wait for the nurses to help him when he had to use the bathroom.  His thinking capacity was truly returning.  And so I learned.  We practiced with the physical therapist until I was proficient.  The moment of graduation came when I had to perform for the therapist and nurse.  My name then went on the wall and then into the charts as a capable person to help transfer my husband.  The nurses’ job just got easier and this was the moment that they decided that I was an asset to have around. I had finally won them over! Now when I arrived early in the morning, I could get him up, dressed, out of bed and into his wheel chair.  With my assistance he could wheel into the bathroom, brush his teeth, shave and get ready for the day without waiting for someone to help him.  My husband became a happy man for the first time in months!  We were on the upswing again, 3 steps forward.  Ring the bell and win a prize was looking better and better. The golden ticket was lurking on the horizon!