Except The Unexpected

The Struggle

Once I was placed in this new unit it wasn't as dark and gloomy as my old room was, there was a huge window to the left of me showing off the city of Boston, the sun brightening the whole room up and there was much more space then the last room I was in. Mind you, I was still not able to move from the neck down at this point as it lasted for 8 painful weeks. So, once I was all settled in they realized I couldn't push the button with my fingers to call a nurse if I needed anything, the button is typically a red circle with a nurse icon in the middle of the circle that's attached to a remote they give you. After all, Instead of the normal call button they found a specific one that I could use with just moving my head but that button was a pain in the ass when I was sleeping as I did move my head a lot and the button would sometimes slide down behind my head or back. Either way, it was very helpful but annoying for me but as time went by I had baths in bed, depends were changed and soon later I began PT and OT to acquire back my body strength. That was the toughest thing I had to do out of everything else, it was so overwhelming to the point where I just wanted to say "fuck it" and not do anything about it. The beginning of my PT and OT was like torture, I was strapped to a table like stretcher which slowly went up till the point where it was vertical and was "standing" up straight making my body feel as if it was being pulled down by 100lb of weights. Other times, they would move my legs and arms in certain positions doing different stretches and soon enough I had some movement back but only in my fingers and toes. With lots of time and patience came, I was given showers in my wheelchair and being brought to use the bathroom on a toilet rather than in my depends or a bed pan. More and more progress was made due to the activity my body was put through that the PT and OT nurses were doing as I soon became to the point where I was able to be in a wheelchair, still not being able to do as much as I wanted to but I was wheeled around quite a lot to get out of my room and out of bed such as going to the gift shop, cafeteria and a room that was complete filled with windows that lit up every corner that it was so beautiful showing about almost every angle of Boston.