A Time to Build Up....To Every Thing a Season chpt. 5

We were weaving through Columbia lunch hour traffic, trying to make sense of the Mapquest directions we had printed out. Lexington Medical Center, located in West Columbia, was the hospital that performed Sandra's back surgery. We had never been there, and like most directions that you really need to be accurate, Mapquest had goofed the exit number. Fortunately, the billboards along the interstate pointed us right to the hospital.

Kevin had decided not to let Jackie or Sandra know we were coming until we were almost there. They would certainly try to talk us out of it, and that would be futile. Kevin's sister Stephanie was also coming the next day, which was also kept a secret.

When we were close to Irmo, Kevin called Jackie to let him know we were almost there. We were running a little late, so by the time we called, Sandra was already out of recovery. Jackie gave Sandra the phone. The first thing out of her groggy mouth was, "I'm gonna beat your behind, Kevin! Gas is over $2.00 a gallon!" Kevin laughed and told his Mom that it was worth every penny and that he wanted to be there for her. He told her how he had hoped to be there before she made it out of recovery, but true to his persona, he was late.

After a few minutes, Kevin gave me the phone. Jackie wanted to tell me how to get to Sandra's room once we got to the hospital. After he gave me the directions, I asked a few more questions about the surgery.

"So, what did the Doctor determine about her cracked vertebrae? Have they fixed the problem? Will this stop her pain?" I said.

"Oh, yeah. It will. They did say that the vertebrae was mushy...whatever that means. They are running tests on it, but I suspect that everything is fine," Jackie said.

It struck me immediately. Mushy?? How in the world did her vertebrae get "mushy"?

I told Kevin about it, and he, too, thought it was strange. Once we got to the hospital, all of that was forgotten. We were thrilled to see Sandra looking so good after surgery. She was coherent, alert. It was hard to believe that she had just had surgery. The grandchildren piled on her bed. She made a big fuss about us driving all that way to be there for her surgery, but she couldn't hide her joy once we were there.

After a short while of visiting, Sandra dozed off. While she was resting, the nurse came in to check her vital signs. Everything was looking good. But when the nurse asked Sandra to wiggle her toes, she couldn't. The nurse asked Sandra if she could feel her hand touching her foot. She couldn't feel that, either.

No real worries. The spinal block had not worn off. The nurse assured us that this was completely normal. As the nurse finished her exam, I thought to myself, "That would be horrible, to be one of the few people that never recover the feeling in their legs." I brushed it off; it was too morbid to think about.

As the day wore on, the nurses kept focusing on the feeling in her feet. After a few hours, Sandra could feel, but she couldn't move. Again, we were reassured that this was completely normal and that within a day or so, she would regain her mobility.

That afternoon as Sandra was resting, she woke up to an excruciating pain in her left arm. She was howling in pain. We called for the nurse, who immediately came in and repositioned her arm. The pain went away instantly. We were amazed at how quickly the pain subsided. However, the pain in her arm kept reoccurring. No one seemed to have an answer.

The next day, Stephanie came up for the weekend. By this time, Sandra was able to move her legs. We were relieved that all was normal. But we were in for a shock when the nurses came to get Sandra up to walk. She could not stand up. Her legs just buckled underneath her. The reassurances came again. We really wanted to believe the nurses, and I guess we did. Kevin and I had to return home on Saturday, and at that point, Sandra still had not been able to stand up.

We called daily, and still, she could not stand up. Her legs had feeling, they just didn't have any stength, so said the doctors. After about a week and a half in Lexington Medical Center, they moved Sandra to a companion rehabilitation facility that would help her build up her strength in her legs. The doctors suggested several weeks of physical therapy/rehabilitation.

Sandra was very unhappy with the outcome. The family kept trying to build her up, encourage her. Kevin and I called her everyday, hoping to hear some cheer in her voice. On the contrary, she was depressed and defeated. One day, she asked me how it was possible to walk into the hospital for surgery and not be able to walk out. She was convinced that she would never walk again. I didn't have any answers for her. I couldn't understand it either. I was becoming convinced that the surgery on her vertebrae had caused irreversible damage to the nerves to her legs. I didn't say that to Sandra. I kept telling her that the physical therapy would help her.

Sandra had missed so much work that she no longer had any personal time to compensate for her pay. I placed a few calls to the Human Resources department at her county job to see how to keep her insurance in place since she wasn't receiving a paycheck. Once that was squared away, Sandra felt a little more secure about her job and her hopes to return after she was well again.

It had been nearly seven weeks since the surgery, and the rehabilitation facility was growing old for Sandra. She was ready to go home. But home was a long way away. And once there, it wouldn't hold the same comforts.