Sooooooooo……
Since I couldn’t safely navigate in/out of recliner and on/off toilet w/fractured Tibial plateau and stupid brace, they sent me back to inpatient rehab for 10 days. Encompass in S Ft Worth: PT staff & nurses STELLAR; admin questionable : terribly understaffed for needs of patients! You KNOW they’re handicapped and more needy than most: plan accordingly!!! Had to wait 2 hrs once to get help to go to the bathroom!!! Night shift much more “Johnny on the spot” than day. Add a nurse/CNA to day shift, folks!! Picking up lunch trays is NOT PRIORITY over helping patients w/their needs! Food was semi-decent at first, but I never got what I asked for (why did they bother having me fill out the request?!) and all meats were INSANELY SALTY!! Guess I got spoiled by Medical City FW Rehab food: IT WAS AMAZING!
Worked on arm strength (Bench pressing and hand weights & arm pedaling); stood a few times for a few seconds, but can’t put weight on left leg for 8 weeks, so that was awkward and unsafe. Can’t pedal cuz of ….. you guessed it! …. leg brace: not supposed to bend knee. Ortho gave me shorter brace Monday, since the original was too long and got caught on EVERYTHING, making me a …. FALL RISK!
Got home Tuesday, cuz G’daughter in play Tues nite. FUN! Went to Applebee’s afterwards!! THANK GOD FOR REAL FOOD!!!!
Have been lazing around since I got home. Can now swivel safely into recliner (need someone to spot/help lift me out) and on/off toilet alone. Woohoo! Small victories! Trip to Dr. was EXHAUSTING! Sleep interrupted every hour by nerve pain attacks, so recovery slow.
BOOKS: Still haven’t loaded Pirated Plot. Waiting for Rosa (sweet DIL; mistakenly put SIL in last post!) to have time to work on covers. Got quite a bit done on SCARS while in rehab, till I knocked laptop off bed and KILLED IT!! Oh, well! I had already ordered this new one. It came today! Happy camper! Now I’ll continue work on SCARS, which I’m having fun with.
TRIBUTE:
Tomorrow (June 25, 2026) marks one year since one of my best friends since 3rd grade went HOME to be with Jesus. William James Browne Collie. He always saved me seats on the bus. His was the last stop; mine the first, and vice versa in mornings. He was the first guy to ask me to go steady (On the high bridge in Corpus on the way to a band contest. The high bridge will always hold fond memories, despite it being replaced!). We never really dated, cuz he was babysitting his baby brother from his mom’s new marriage to a GREAT GUY. William later changed his last name to honor that man! He played tritoms in marching band, and I’m DELIGHTED that my son became a drummer!(Ok, he was a drummer before he was born!!!)
When William was in high school, he took first aid, then EMS classes. He actually got fired from the funeral home he was working at for resuscitating a “dead” man he was supposed to be picking up. William joined the Navy as a corpsman and saved lotsa lives. He actually performed an emergency appendectomy while stationed in Antarctica! He served as a paramedic on the local ambulance, was a stellar OR nurse in Corpus, and always lived to serve and help others.
We stayed close friends for 40+ years because we kept our relationship pure! I am eternally grateful to him for that! So glad he didn’t ask me to marry him, cuz I would have, but he was madly in love with Jeanne, whom he found again years later and married. After a rocky first marriage and horrific divorce, I’m glad she and her family made him HAPPY!!
Funny story: William was engaged and his fiance broke up cuz her parents got a divorce and it scared her. He called me to tell me, then said, “Wynne, I’ve done something really stupid!!” Most young men in that situation would get drunk or …. Not my William! He bought an ambulance!!!! When I finally quit laughing, I told him that wasn’t stupid, but a valuable investment. I have no idea how long he kept it, but I’m sure he profited from that “act of stupidity.”
William had back surgery. When he called to tell me that was the plan, I CRIED!! I didn’t want him to end up handicapped like I am!!! His surgery went well and he had been home a few days, doing well. His wife walked him to the bathroom, turned to move the walker out of the way, and BOOM! He was GONE!! Massive heart attack! Although we were all devastated by his loss, I’m soooo grateful that he didn’t become handicapped and slowly deteriorate like so many others.
I MISS YOU, WILLIAM, AND I LOVE YOU!
Another TRIBUTE:
Dixie Smith, my sweet Shelly’s mom, went HOME 2 yrs ago tmor. Such a sweet, godly, wise woman! Taught for years. Raised four amazing kids. Praying for them and her wonderful husband, Rollin. Glad she and Shelly Sue are together again.
OUR CLOUD OF WITNESSES GROWS OFTEN!
Wynne Loveless Writes 