Twilight Zone

I was in a world of pain when I was admitted to the hospital, so they did what they usually do in the ER, they gave me morphine. I promptly entered a zone that is not for the timid. I completely lost all contact with the real world. I heard stories of the outrageous things that I said but the dreams and night mares that I was having were frightening. Despite the fact that I was off kilter, the hospital personnel insisted on asking their routine questions. "Do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is?, Do you have your own teeth?" I became very perturbed by these questions and caused my family quite a bit of embarrassment when I gave non-sense answers. They would change from morphine and give me other narcotics but it did not bring me back. Finally one of the doctors said"Enough!!"No more narcotics. It was with great joy that Kristin came into my room one morning and said,"Grandma,you're back!" No more fantasies. I returned to my real self. Of course all of the family was happy to see me 'in my right mind' but a few of them insisted that I was "loopy", their word, not mine. I became very upset when I would make a statement and they would tell me that I was making it up or that I did not really know what was going on. One night, I wakened up and felt my bed moving! It was as if I was levitating. Just a smooth move across the floor and then in a minute or so I 'floated' back and a man came out from under the bed and proceded to leave my room. The next day I related the experience to my daughter and she said,"Mama, that did not happen! You just dreamed that" I insisted that I was sure that it did happen and became a little agitated that my 'sanity' was being questioned. Later on a nurse came into the room and my daughter told her of my experience. The nurse, said there had been some problem with the electric outlet and the electrician said he could handle the problem without waking me up. So in fact there was a man under my bed! I had to shoot down any ideas that I was 'Loopy'off and on during my stay. People think I'm not for real on a daily basis, you would think I'd be used to it by now but not so! I did have an evaluation while I was there in the hosp. and I passed with flying colors. So there! Ciao.

Going through Hell

Winston Churchill said, "When going through Hell, keep going." That's pretty much what I've been doing for the major part of this past year. On February 4th I entered Baptist East Hospital for surgery and stayed there for most of the next six months. I was released to a rehab center for a few weeks but returned to the hospital again. I finally got to come home at the end of June but two days later I fell and broke my hip so back into the Hospital for another month. I had a few brushes with death during that time. I think I 'coded' three times and the call out went to all family members to come home to be with me. I took Churchill's advise and just kept on going and was back in the game again before too long. The family went back to their lives and I continued on my path to recovery. Believe me it was an arduous time, it took all of my strength and tenacity to survive. I am no longer in the hospital but I am pretty much home bound. I can walk very well with my walker!I have not fully recovered yet and who knows, this could be as good as it gets at my age. Next Monday, I will be 88 years old and all of the things that you hear about growing old are all true. I cannot open anything,I can't always hear everything, my eyes are growing weary, I have gaps in my memory. I forget things for brief periods of time and then the forgotten things pop up again in my memory. Some people call those 'senior' moments, I call them Versed moments. (Versed is commonly called "milk of amnesia") I have had it so often that I think it has left me with a part time brain! The one thing I can open is a book,so I spend a lot of time reading which is my first choice of what to do when you have time on your hands. I am re-entering the Blog World and will be relaying some of the happenings of my year. Ciao