THE RECOVERY -- PART 7

ESSAY BY HEIDI JOHNSON-WRIGHT

Those seven days in the hospital were perhaps the longest of my life.

As the senior orthopedic resident said to me: “Consider this surgery a hip replacement, times two.” 

Twice the pain, twice the rehab effort, twice the recovery time. 

To even sit up on the side of the bed filled me with horrific, nauseating waves of pain.

It took one person to lift my torso into a sitting position while another held my leg and little by little, lowered it to the floor.  

Compounding the misery was the hospital’s -- how can I put this? – less-than-stellar quality of care. 

The A/C in my room barely functioned during sweltering August Miami days.

 Nurses repeatedly failed to support my leg while getting me off the bedpan, allowing it to slam back down onto the mattress.

I needed a special chair to sit in when I got out of bed. 

What they brought me was a glorified bar stool that 4 foot, 10 inch me would have needed a ladder to reach. 

RECOVERY ESSAY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- FEBRUARY 8