So off to another hospital for rehabilitation. I couldn't walk, I couldn't read, I had the nose of a dog and the ears of a bat! My senses where so hyper that the shades needed to be drawn and not even the cleaning lady could come in my hospital room. The crinkling of the waste paper bag was too much for me to handle. The headache, oh the headache...it was like NOTHING I had ever experienced. The dura graft that covered my brain was sown in place and the tiny needle holes leaked spinal fluid for 2 months straight! I had to sleep at a 30 degree angle. The rehab unit was nice and the nursing staff was great. But the Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy drove me crazy. Why couldn't these people just leave me alone?! I didn't want to do anything but lay in my bed. Of course that was IMPOSSIBLE on a Rehab Floor. The pain was brutal. I remained on Morphine pills and barbiturates for the head pain. I was starting to make some progress, that was until this horrible excuse for a Neurologist went and ruined my world! I know....that sounds pretty harsh. But if I am going to be honest then I have to speak the truth. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "you can't take these meds anymore because you will become addicted. You have children who you need to take care of." Who did he think he was? I just had my entire neck and skull sawed open the week before and he was worried about me getting addicted?!!!
Well, he took away all my medications without consulting the Doctor who ran the Rehab Unit. I could feel every millimeter of where that saw carved through the bone of my skull! My nurse came into my room on the next shift and saw me rolled up in a ball with the lights out. She asked "what happened to you?" I told her that the Neurologist took me off all the pain meds. This Nurse was furious. Her name was Roxanne. She looked like a biker-chick, and had a truck drivers mouth. But she was my ANGEL! She ran out of the room and came back with my pain meds. She used some colorful language to describe the Neurologist and told me he had no right to do what he did. She reported him and he was off my case.
I made progress a little at a time. My short-term memory was trashed and I could not organize my thoughts but I was able to at least walk with a walker and read a little. One morning I awoke. I sat up and then without any assistance walked right up to the Nurse's Station and said "I want to go home now". They looked at me with amazement. Everything just seemed to kick in gear. I called my husband, packed my bags, said my thankyous and waved good bye.....was I really ready to go home?
