Art reminding one of life
Warning.
This blog contains information about an episode of Grey's Anatomy that aired on 10/15/2015. If you have not yet watched this episode and you hate *spoilers* you should stop reading here.
You were warned.
* * *
There is a patient on this episode named Rachel, who survived brain surgery performed by Dr. Shepherd. Not McDreamy, but his sister who is now the Chief of Neurosurgery. Rachel can't speak, and can't get out of bed on her own either. Nor does she want to. But Dr. Shepherd wants to really push her and has her intern Dr. Edwards supervising what Edwards considers to be the torturing of Rachel.
It brought back memories of those very difficult weeks after I finally awoke from my nine week coma. They didn't push me immediately, but once the physical therapists started showing up, I went through what Rachel was going through. They wanted to push me not just to my limits, but beyond.
Most of us never spend more than 12 hours asleep at any one point in our lives. The only movement my body engaged in for 72 days was being turned from side to side by the nurses on the Intensive Care Unit. The body goes through deconditioning. The process of deconditioning involves reduction in muscle strength and muscle mass, as well as deterioration of the musculoskeletal system overall. The older a person is when this process occurs, the greater the impact.
I'd been through it once before. 11 days in an ICU left me in need of three weeks of rehabilitation at a rehab center and several more weeks of regular physical therapy sessions. But even after that experience, I wanted no part of the work the hospital's physical therapists wanted me to do. Just getting me to sit up at the edge of the bed was a major point of contention on a daily basis. It hurt, I didn't want to do it and it was extremely painful. I tried everything to do just the minimum amount of work possible but that didn't keep them from pushing.
Eventually I wound up at a sub-acute care center. One step down from a hospital ward, but there were PTs there and they pushed me to sit up in a chair by my bed, to walk up and down the corridors of the unit I was on and to work with them in their therapy room. I was such a difficult patient they eventually stopped forcing me to go to therapy sessions in their room, although they did make me sit up in the chair and walk the hallways daily.
Had I been more concerned and aware of what I was doing to myself by failing to try to recondition as soon as possible, I might be in much better physical shape today. I'm trying to do what I can but given the limitations I've created for myself, it isn't easy to do on my own.
So I really did identify with what I saw on TV on Thursday night. Perhaps it will motivate me. I can only hope.
This blog contains information about an episode of Grey's Anatomy that aired on 10/15/2015. If you have not yet watched this episode and you hate *spoilers* you should stop reading here.
You were warned.
* * *
There is a patient on this episode named Rachel, who survived brain surgery performed by Dr. Shepherd. Not McDreamy, but his sister who is now the Chief of Neurosurgery. Rachel can't speak, and can't get out of bed on her own either. Nor does she want to. But Dr. Shepherd wants to really push her and has her intern Dr. Edwards supervising what Edwards considers to be the torturing of Rachel.
It brought back memories of those very difficult weeks after I finally awoke from my nine week coma. They didn't push me immediately, but once the physical therapists started showing up, I went through what Rachel was going through. They wanted to push me not just to my limits, but beyond.
Most of us never spend more than 12 hours asleep at any one point in our lives. The only movement my body engaged in for 72 days was being turned from side to side by the nurses on the Intensive Care Unit. The body goes through deconditioning. The process of deconditioning involves reduction in muscle strength and muscle mass, as well as deterioration of the musculoskeletal system overall. The older a person is when this process occurs, the greater the impact.
I'd been through it once before. 11 days in an ICU left me in need of three weeks of rehabilitation at a rehab center and several more weeks of regular physical therapy sessions. But even after that experience, I wanted no part of the work the hospital's physical therapists wanted me to do. Just getting me to sit up at the edge of the bed was a major point of contention on a daily basis. It hurt, I didn't want to do it and it was extremely painful. I tried everything to do just the minimum amount of work possible but that didn't keep them from pushing.
Eventually I wound up at a sub-acute care center. One step down from a hospital ward, but there were PTs there and they pushed me to sit up in a chair by my bed, to walk up and down the corridors of the unit I was on and to work with them in their therapy room. I was such a difficult patient they eventually stopped forcing me to go to therapy sessions in their room, although they did make me sit up in the chair and walk the hallways daily.
Had I been more concerned and aware of what I was doing to myself by failing to try to recondition as soon as possible, I might be in much better physical shape today. I'm trying to do what I can but given the limitations I've created for myself, it isn't easy to do on my own.
So I really did identify with what I saw on TV on Thursday night. Perhaps it will motivate me. I can only hope.
posted by me at 4:57 PM
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