We knew last September that Megan would need surgery to repair the collapsed arch in her left foot and to loosen the heel cords on both legs – which would land her in a wheel chair with casts on both legs for six weeks.
The surgery was scheduled for Monday, March 8, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise – about a 275-mile drive from our home in Idaho Falls. We had plenty of time to prepare. Albeit, the time passed quickly, and we were suddenly faced with getting our butts in gear on this!
For starters, we located a portable large metal ramp so we could get her over the front step. Then David built a ramp for our fabulous circa mid-sixties sunken living room. Hey! Those sunken living rooms were the cat’s meow back then, granted, not a brilliant interior feature if you’re confined to a wheelchair, and not so regal with a large slab of raw plywood leading you down into the sunken room.
But anyway, we located a wheelchair for Megan with large back wheels that would enable her to propel herself. Except it wouldn’t fit through the bathroom door. So we took the door off and hung a curtain. But the wheelchair still wouldn’t fit. So we bought a second, much smaller wheelchair – a transport chair. It does make it through the curtained doorway! Now that’s progress! Megan tried it out:
Perfect! Check out that custom ramp in the background – leading into our aforementioned living room.
We decided to replace the old faucet in our main floor half-bath with a new high-falutin’ faucet we purchased at Lowe’s that included a pull-out shower head. And we hired a plumber to install it – a good plumber, one we had used several times in the past. He gave an enthusiastic ‘thumb’s up’ to our newly purchased faucet and proceeded to install it – ripped out the original faucet, but then forthwith emerged from the bathroom spewing profuse apologies and explanations. Apparently, although the faucet we had bought was standard, our ‘sixties’ sink “wasn’t.” So the new faucet wouldn’t work and the original one, unfortunately, was ruined.
Don’t turn on the water! Oh wait! You can’t.
The three holes on the top surface are supposed to be the same size – you can’t install a hose in that middle ‘stopper lifter’ hole! Great. How could you know this unless you were the one who had tiled the sink in – 45 years ago? So now we had no functioning sink. We had effectively downgraded our ‘half-bath’ to a sink-less ‘quarter-bath’ just in time for her surgery. But don’t worry. David was on it. He would come up with something.
Now was our last chance before surgery to check out the mall. Spring had arrived in all the shops! A little early.
Megan bought a new winter coat.
Sunday March 7, 12:30 PM – we hit the road for Boise- across I-15 with the cruise control set at ’80’. Here we are turning onto I-86 just before Pocatello, about 40 minutes into our drive. The weather in the foreground appears almost balmy! Yeah, right.
At the time we were listening to a song from Megan’s Jordan Sparks’ CD… “It’s a Battlefield…Battlefield…Battlefield..” Really? That should make the three-hour drive ahead of us interesting …
We drove and drove, with the music blasting, stopping to gas up and grab a taco on the go. Finally we found ourselves within 30 miles of Boise –
No, that wouldn’t be me driving alongside David and Megan on my motor bike. Although I did wonder at the time, looking out my front passenger window as we passed, what the wind chill feels like blasting against your head at 75 mph in 48-degree weather. Tough biker chick, there, following behind her two male biker buddies, both wearing helmets. Maybe she put off planning her trip till the last minute and forgot her helmet, or maybe she’s just more macho than those wimpy guys wearing helmets of all things.
4:10 pm now and we’re trying to locate the Hampton Inn in downtown Boise. That is, David is trying to locate it. I have a horrible sense of direction and can’t read the signs any quicker than he can, even if he is driving. Plus, I’ve got my i-phone out – hot to photograph something … Oh! We are passing Boise State! Quick! “Click!”
Now those are some fine cement pots! In such a straight line. Okay, honey, so, no … I don’t see the sign for the motel or where we need to turn … Um …
Oh, it’s the Stadium – home of the Broncos!
– weren’t they ranked number four in the nation, in college football last season? “GO DAWGS!” Huh? Hey! We’re die-hard Georgia Bulldog fans! And our son who graduated from UGA would have plenty to say about Boise’s ranking and the teams they didn’t play, like UGA and other teams in the SEC.
Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, so we’ve checked into our motel, thanks to David’s fine navigation, and we are now walking downtown in pursuit of dinner:
Whoa! We should move here! It’s a good 10 degrees warmer and the tulips are already up and several inches tall! Well, they may be up in Idaho Falls too, but how would you know what’s going on underneath all that snow?
It was Oscar night. But we bagged out early. We had to be up at five!
We arrived at St. Luke’s Hospital Monday morning 6 am pronto:
(except it was dark then and this photo was taken at 10 AM!)
Megan was ready and so were we …
Always cheerful. What a trouper! At 7:35 she went into surgery. We waited …
…and paced a bit. David decided to …
cop some ZZZZZZZ’s – and I went on a quest to find some super leaded coffee – with real cream.
Dr. Showalter – the orthopedic surgeon, came out and talked with us at 9:15. All went well! She was up in her room on the 5th floor by 10:30. A little sleepy …
The staff were wonderful. Here you see her Physical therapist, Julie:
She helped us figure out how to transfer Megan and what additional equipment we needed at home.
Megan enjoyed her nurse, Becca:
who was almost as incessantly cheerful as Megan. Megan had great care at the hospital. And after two days, it was time to check out.
and head home again, which is another story…
With that big metal ramp for the front step, though, at least we knew we could get Megan up to the front door and into the house. And David had ordered another faucet (with a hose!) online that would likely work in that bathroom sink. Good thing he’s such a handy man. Life is good!
Tags: Boise, two legs in casts
The Decompression of a Boomer 
March 17, 2010 at 4:26 am |
I didn’t realize David was catching zzzz’s in that one picture. I thought he was reading the paper! I am glad the surgery went well.