Rehabilitation
I was connected to a foley catheter after surgery so one of the things I really wanted to do was to use the toilet. After a couple of days, the doctor agreed to remove the foley catheter and allowed me to use the toilet. The nurses helped me to a wheelchair and then I was wheeled to the bathroom. I was able to then stand and pivot on my right side. Since I needed assistance to go to the bathroom, I especially felt bad asking the nursing staff for help in the middle of the night. Therefore one of my first goals was to be able to use the bathroom on my own. This is when I began to appreciate all the things I took for granted.
It had been days since I had my hair washed because of the incision from the brain surgery. Once my stitches were removed, I was allowed to have my hair washed. It felt so good to have my hair shampooed and then later dried with the blow dryer.
During this hospital stay I have been given such great care by the hospital staff: the doctors, nurses, therapists, housekeepers and meal
deliverers. As I received this wonderful care, I realized that this is not the case for many others around the world where there is war, hunger, people dying of AIDS and other diseases. This is when I recognized how blessed I was and how grateful I am for even the simple things in life. Prior to this situation, I was very active and had such a busy work schedule that sometimes I didn’t even have enough time to eat breakfast. My idea of happiness was being able to help others through the teaching and speaking engagements, counseling and trying to acoomplish all the assignments that I had put on my schedule.
Having this brain surgery took me out of my hectic life to where I was now lying in bed and not able to even take care of my basic needs. As the days went by I began to feel happy being able to have enough time to rest, enough time to listen to music and enough time to eat my meals. This happiness that I began to discover was very different from what I thought happiness was suppose to be for my life. I began to enjoy all the new simple things that made me happy even to the point where I felt I did not want to return to my old way of pursuing happiness.
Previous Page (Brain Tumor Diagnosis)