The Padded Room

Not long ago, Michelle said, "I am going to have to put you two into a padded room." Michelle manages the reception desk for about a dozen doctors at the hospital about a mile from where we lived when we were in Omaha. When we picked Dr. Drval as our main doctor, we met Michelle. Each time as we did annual physical medical stuff, we got to know her better. Then HW2 had her carpel tunnel surgery on her right and later her left hand by Dr. Ayoub, out of this same office. As HW2 recovered from these surgeries, we talked to Michelle about our upcoming barge trip to France and the Bordeaux region. She wanted to go, but she needed to work, as she is a single mom and is the sole support for her daughter.

Imagine her surprise to be called from New York on the way back from France to ask to set up an appointment with Dr. Aoub for HW2, since she had badly broken her finger in a fall there and wanted the doctor to look at the surgery and her progress in mending. Michelle got us an appointment as soon as we returned to town, and, of course, heard all about how it happened. HW2's hand was examined, and he thought the French surgeon had done a wonderful job and took out the wire structure holding the finger in place while it healed.

Some time later, I fell going down the basement stairs and broke a bone in my foot. A week or so later, after returning from a quick trip to Albuquerque to put stained glass in a gallery there, HW2 made an appointment for me to see a doctor, get x-rays, and have a cast put on my foot. When we emerged from the doctors office to the reception area, with new cast on my foot, Michelle said, "I am going to have to put you two into a padded room." We really try to be careful and look where we are going so that we can avoid the dreaded padded room. We walk around the park here each morning, and recently, as we were taking our tour around, we went over a small bridge over a ditch, and suddenly there was HW2 on her fanny, sliding off the bridge. It had gotten cold enough to have some frost on the surface, and HW2 fell. "I'm OK, I'm OK," she said as she got back onto her feet. Now she is really quite sore on her left side but slowly improving each day. Padded room, watch out, here we come!!!!!