Adventures in the Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Hospital

Clumsy Marti tripped over a cat toy in a dark room and fell down.  I had a total hip replacement on January 6.  I had a private room in the post-surgical area of a local hospital.  The nurses were sweet and attentive and seemed to respond soon after I called them.  The nice part of the post-surgical care was the lovely Morphine Drip. After a week in the hospital, I had to leave to go to a local physical therapy rehabilitation hospital.

I went from my cozy nest in the hospital to an alien place.  The rehab hospital was at times a loony bin, a zoo, and a circus.  I went from a private room to a shared room. Nothing compares to being woken up in the middle of the night because roommate is vomiting (or has a worse problem). 

No privacy at all.  When roommate’s doctor came to talk to her, I heard everything, and of course roommate heard my doctor talking to me.  Each day, we were asked about our pooping habits.  I have no idea why my pooping, or not, was important, but the nurses kept track of each patients daily stats.

I learned that I had to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and be “ready to roll” for physical therapy.  If  you miss time with PT, you get to make it up another day. I also learned that 90% of PT is positive attitude.  Positive attitude is where the loony bin, the zoo, and the circus show up. To keep myself positive, I found humor everywhere:  no dress code for staff, i.e, nurses, therapists, etc. did not wear a “uniform.”  I often found the clothes for the nursing staff and therapists something I could giggle to myself about.  The office staff did not have a dress code either: a funny thing was the female person that had a short skirt, tights, and cowboy boots.  Another strange staff person had a brightly colored hoodie that had “dinosaur large scalloped shaped  lumps” from the head of it down the back.

The patients also provided humor in their dress: one dude showed up each day for therapy in the same pair of pajamas.  One lady showed up in different clothes each day.  I loved the lady that finally got a cast on her leg: it was purple!

Some patients seemed to be there due to heart attacks or strokes.  Some of them were not verbal, and some of them could talk, but had no idea why they were in the rehab hospital. I didn’t ask those patients why they were there.

I took off over a week from rehab hospital until I started outpatient physical therapy at the same facility.  I am still learning new ways to do things around my house when I am not fully mobile.  So far, I am doing OK and have stayed safe.  I am close to walking without walker, but when I can walk a little, I will continue physical therapy until someone says I can’t continue.

Cats are happy that their human Mom is home; I have a friend (Jane) that I knew would come over each day to take care of my cats.  Three of my cats hid and she never saw them!  I had a friend take me to the liquor store to get Jane some nice red wine; I had it put in a lovely gift basket that also included some Godiva chocolates.

I do suggest that if you have surgery and need physical  rehabilitation that you go to the rehab hospital.  I also suggest that you work hard so you can get out of the place!