Life is full of unexpected events. My husband Jim refers to them as “a bump in the road”.
In the summer of 2005, June 5th at 2:00 pm we experienced a major bump!
It was a beautiful, summer day and an ordinary work day for him. He wanted to get an early start, because by noon it was going to be extremely hot. Jim was painting an apartment building for a local businessman. He’s the type of worker who sets time goals and since he had contracted three buildings, every day of good weather was to be used wisely. Off he went, happy as lark, doing what he enjoyed most. By the way, Jim had retired from his Mill Workers Job, but he just didn’t like sitting around doing nothing.
When he contracted this job we went to the job site to check things out and I had an uneasy feeling when I saw how high the buildings were. I asked him to give the job to someone else. His reply was “Oh woman, you worry too much”. I then asked him if when it came time to paint the high point, if he would make sure that our son-in-law Ron was working. “Ok, ok” he replied in an annoyed voice.
About one week of painting had gone bye. There was a death in our family so he took a couple of days off. My brother-in-law’s funeral was on Saturday, June 3 and Jim went back to work on Monday.
I had loaned the church some catering items which I decided to pick them up on Monday. As I was leaving the church, I thought about stopping by the paint job to see how their day was going. At that moment an extreme tiredness hit me and I decided to go home. As I entered my house, the telephone was ringing. I answered and the voice on the other end was my son-in-law. Ron was crying and yelling, “Mrs. Wilson, Boss fell 17 feet of the roof of the house and he’s being life flighted to Allegheny Hospital in Pittsburgh.”
Around this same time my youngest daughter and my 5yr old grand daughter were in the same area at the city pool swimming. Makayla looked into the sky and said, “Mommy, look at the helicopter going over.” Little did either know that it was transporting Daddy Wilson to the hospital. Shortly after they saw the helicopter I had Maria on her cell phone relaying the bad news. “Hurry home,” I shouted through the tears and fear of not knowing how serious his injuries were. “We must leave for the hospital as soon as possible”.
On the way to the hospital I began to thank God that Ron was there because had he not been working, no one would have known about the accident and he would have died! Later I received a call from the gentleman who owned the buildings. “Mrs. Wilson, I just want to say, “Your husband is a very lucky man!” I asked why? “The area Jim landed in had a large tree stump and a giant bolder, had he hit either, he would be dead. He was between the two.”
I shared with him that we believe in angels and the angel of the Lord guided his fall. Today as I write this story, I can chuckle and say “He was between a rock and a hard place!”
By 5pm most of our family had gathered in the waiting room. I had gone straight to the emergency room to face my worse fear. Not knowing what I would see, I rushed down the long hall and asked for Mr. James Wilson. As I entered the section where he lay I was overwhelmingly surprised to hear him talking and very alert. “Glory to God.” I shouted aloud. I was so happy, and there are no words to express how I felt, Just hours before when I first received the bad news, I had screamed so loud, my next door neighbor came running to see what was wrong. My scream was now one of joy. Within minutes my joy turned to concern about what medicine they were giving him. I asked the doctor and he said Morphine. I asked to have it changed. The doctor walked out of the room, turned around, came back and asked if this was a religious request. I said “no, I don’t like that drug. Surely, there’s something else.” They changed it.
I returned to the waiting room to give our family good news that he was alert and the bad news that their dad was totally paralyzed. At that moment you could feel the anxiety rise in the hearts of everyone in the room. Then my niece and nephew suggested we all go back to the emergency room and give Jim some encouragement. Imagine this scene. There were about ten of us walking done the hall singing his favorite song. Whose Report Are Going To Believe. Naturally we had to quiet ourselves the closer we got to the area, but we had established in our hearts that we were not going to believe the report of the doctors. We were going to believe the Report of The Lord!
We spent a long, tiresome, night in the intensive care unit, waiting for his room to open up. About 3:00 the following day he was ready to be transferred upstairs. The first four days I stayed night and day. Under the circumstances, because he was unable to use his hands he couldn’t do any of his normal daily activities, someone needed to stay with him. They had placed him in room that was no where near the nurse’s station, so if he needed help, he would be unable to reach his call button. At the end of my fourth day I really needed to go home. My oldest daughter Veronica was my replacement.
It was a rainy night and Veronica said her dad was restless. The attending nurse gave him a high dose of pain medication. As the night progressed he began to have hallucinations. Veronica said for hours he continued to call her saying he could hear some cats meowing. Each time she would dose off, he’d yell out that the cats were in the room. Finally Veronica said, “Ok dad, I hear the cats, now please go to sleep!”
The following day when I returned to the hospital, I gave explicit instructions that Jim was not to receive any more strong pain medication. High doses of Tylenol and nothing else. The drugs made him crazy and I chose not to deal with that.
We spent 11 days at Allegheny. Jim was being fitted for a body cast and a neck brace before we would go to Harmerville Rehab Center. We had no idea how long we’d be there until we met with their doctors and got their diagnosis. Just before we were to leave the hospital, the doctor decided my husband needed a devise put into his body to prevent blood clots. I had no opportunity to discuss the procedure and I was really upset. They whisked him away downstairs to surgery. When they took the ex-ray it showed a natural balloon, so the surgery was not necessary. Shortly after, he and I were shuffled off to the transport van, to make that long journey to the rehab center.
As I sat there watching my darling husband sitting in his wheelchair I cried silently, wondering how our life was going to be if he could never walk again. So many thoughts troubled me. I finally began to focus once again on “Whose Report Are You Going To Believe”?
By evening we were settled in his temporary home. I had planned on staying overnight but it was not allowed. The nurse informed me that I could spend one night only. I was not expecting that answer. I spent the night and the next morning I went to my car to get some things for the day. Momentarily, I felt homeless. It was a horrible experience. I pulled myself together. Knowing I had no intentions of traveling back and forth, I decided to go to a real estate office and get some help in finding an apartment. After spending an entire afternoon there we came up empty. No one would agree to a short term lease. A moment I was overwhelmed then I called my brother Richard. His home was one hour from the hospital. I spent one night.
I arose early in the morning anxious to get back to the rehab center before breakfast. Jim needed fed. He disliked the system the nurses had. All the ones that needed their aid would placed around one table. One spoon of food would be given and she moved to the next patient, giving that person time to chew. That wasn’t going over very well with him so I had promised I would make sure I fed him.
I had so much on my mind. The unfinished adventure of apartment hunting was the consuming thought of the day. As I thought everything over, I realized that my brother’s home was the same number of miles away from the rehab center. That was not beneficial for me. The only difference was that one was in Pennsylvania and the other in Ohio. Besides, I had already returned home and gathered up articles I would need to furnish the temporary apartment. I placed everything on my back porch.
Another reason I returned home was to gather some of Jim’s clothes. It was a long lonely drive, as I entered the house it seemed so different. Actually the house and its content had very little meaning at that moment. I looked around and I thought to myself, one day this will all be one big yard sale. Without my husband everything had lost its meaning. Going through the closet was also a horrible experience but it was necessary so I packed his bag. Set his bags by the door turned off the lights and went to bed because I was totally exhausted.
There was so much on my mind that I almost made a big mistake that morning. As I stood by the dining room table going through the mail I felt prompted to call the travel agency. We had booked an Alaskan cruise and i needed to check our status. The lady at the travel agency mentioned the first time that Mr. Wilson had not taken insurance out on our trip. My heart dropped, then she said under the circumstances let me see what I could do. She returned to the phone and said that the agency had agreed to give a fee of five hundred dollars and give us the remainder of our money back. If we had waited one more day we would of lost the full amount. That day I really experienced the grace of God and his favor.
I called my son in law to tell him that I was going to find a place to stay and I would be calling him to bring my belongings to me. I was moving by faith, believing someone would be gracious enough to offer me a short term lease. With all of that going on in my mind I made a big mistake that morning. I was in a hurry to the rehab center and I suffered the consequences of my actions
As the old saying goes “haste makes waste!” I wasted three hours of being lost. I got on the wrong exit and went twenty-five miles the wrong way. Now I am really going to miss breakfast. At this point I turned around then pulled up at a toll gate. I threw a dollar in the bucket and it set off an alarm. My stupidity finally paid off. There were two toll gate ladies standing in the corner. The one lady came up to my car and asked what was wrong. I began to tell her how upset I was because I was trying to get to the rehab center and I had taken the wrong turnpike exit. She was kind enough to show me with her car and actually take me to the right exit.
Oh great, I thought. I was on my way. Then I became doubtful about the direction she gave me. I made the mistake of stopping at a small store and asked for directions again.
The woman gave me wrong directions. Lost again! When I realized I was lost I was at my whits end. I saw a firemen standing in front of fire station. I pulled into the parking lot. Would you help me? I even asked if it was possible to get a police escort to the hospital. He of course said no.
“Lady if you just settle down I’ll tell you how to get to the center. Actually you are closer than what you realize,” The fireman said.
I reached the hospital around 11:00 am. Missed breakfast, but I was there to feed Jim his lunch.
As I walked into the room, he asked where in the world have you been?
Lost! I yelled in response, as a matter of fact I was so lost that I was past angry. I told him I would be calling about that apartment because I would not be driving from Steubenville everyday to him. When I made the call the apartment manager immediately answered. He said the apartment was not available but there was another apartment available if I interested I could take a look. Frankly the second apartment was better and wheel chair accessible so I took the offer.
My next adventure, was to find furniture for my new apartment! This was a major step for me I had never liven on my own before. Before I graduated I lived with my older sister then after graduation I moved to Columbus to live with my older brother, moved to New York to live with my husband’s sister, then I got married! Starting this phase of my life was quit a challenge. I experienced a lot of quiet moments in my new place. In my quietness I learned to talk to God.
One evening as I stood in the middle of the floor I remembered how I cried out to God in a voice of anguish when I first heard when my husband had fallen off a roof. This time I found myself calling out to God with a grateful heart one filled with thanksgiving and strange joy in the midst of my troubles. I found comfort in one of my favorite scriptures, “all things work together for good for those who love the lord and are called according to his purpose.” With all that in mind I went to bed.
The next day I checked in to the rehab center to sign up for volunteer work. As a volunteer I was at the rehab center 8:00 am each morning. Before starting my duties I made sure Jim had his breakfast then I would take him to his therapy session. This was a daily routine.
Two days after Jim had been in the center. They brought in a roommate for him. The man was very ill. The gentlemen he hadn’t gone to the bathroom in seven days. Late one evening my husband had said the man’s bowels broke lose and there was suffocating odor in the room. Luckily I had taken a small electric fan that day to Jim and he said he didn’t know what he would of done with out it. The nurses were so focused on the man they weren’t worried about if he could breathe. Even after this incident the center wasn’t all that bad.
I had returned to the apartment early that day and I sat down to go through my mail. There was a letter from a friend, who had sent us a fifteen- hundred dollar check to help with our expenses. That was truly an uplifting moment. It was just enough for me to pay my rent. It was a reminder of God’s divine intervention. The whole community was praying for him and God moved upon this man’s heart to bless us with that check. I remember recently seeing the wife of this particular man and thanking her for their generosity.
Her remark was, “I don’t remember writing the check we were just focused on him getting better,” After she said that it truly touched my heart.
We were truly blessed because he was just hurt not sick. During this time we both realized how vitally important your faith in God is. While I was working frantically to get the right food and vitamins into Jim we also knew the importance of a good attitude. That was not the case everyday it took work on his part and mine. God and his amazing way was working from the inside out he showed us what true healing is all about. You may find the more you cooperate with God easier things become. Allowing God to speak to my heart saved Jim from two major surgeries that would of crippled him for the rest of his life.
The entire time we were doing rehab we relied heavily on a wonderful whole food supplement called “Reliv”. For us it was a life saver. Reliv truly helped to restore, renew, and regenerate cells of Jim’s body. His doctor had prescribed B6 and thymine and I said to myself this 6′ man is going to need more than those two little vitamins to get well.
I brought the product to the center. Each day I gave him shakes. We had only been using the product for two months before the fall. We weren’t sure it would work but we made up our mind to give it our best. Shortly after using it we ran out. One Saturday afternoon a member of the Reliv team connected me to a conference call to a man that had wrecked his motorcycle. He was driving on a lonely farm road then a cow ran out on the road and he hit it. He ended up totally paralyzed from the accident.
His mother believed in Reliv. She faithfully went to the hospital daily with his shakes. It was a long recovery. But he told my husband not to give up and to make sure he takes his shakes.
When time drew near for his second visit Jim wanted to leave the center and I’ll tell you why and what happened. He wanted to go home and attend church. I tried to convince him that it was too soon to go for a long distance trip. Never the less his mind was made up. I called my brother Richard because he was near and he had a SUV which would accommodate the wheelchair.
Early Sunday morning Rick came to pick us up but no one from our church knew we were coming. Our church family was quite surprised to see us. We took our seats and Jim remained in his wheelchair. The praise team sung “who’s report are you gonna believe?”. They were unaware that this was the song we had sung at the hospital the day he had fallen. Amazingly enough as the music played he rolled his wheelchair up to the front of the church. He stood straight up and walked a few steps on his own. Then sat back with a slight plop. The church went into an uproar of thanks giving and praise. They were experiencing answered prayers. Everyone had prayed for a miracle. There he was, standing on his own without leg braces. It surprised even me.
After church we went home. I had prepared a family dinner. We brought his mom from the nursing home to join him. The day went by so quickly. We had to return to the center by 6 pm. I thought how many more of these outings would wehave until we come home for good. As I walked past our bed room I had an odd feeling knowing we wouldn’t be sleeping there tonight.
The next morning, I went to my volunteer station and got my assignments for day. Next I took Jim to his therapy session. I would sit in the gym and watch at the therapist worked with him. Some days it was very sad to see a 6 foot man with leg braces trying to walk. The doctors had said he would never walk again but we did not believe that. Each day we continued therapy believing he would walk out of the rehab center one day. As we looked around seeing so many individuals that would never walk again or even speak. That was not our mindset.
Being in the center each day was very beneficial. I caught several mistakes that would of kept us there longer than we needed to. For instance one night Jim was complaining about pain. The nurse gave him the wrong medication. The next day as we walked him around in therapy I noticed how lethargic he was. At 3 o’clock I asked Jim if anyone had given him medicine before. He answered yes, the nurse had given him something for pain. I inquired about what it was. I found out it was regular pain medicine not the Tylenol we had agreed on. That evening I questioned the nurse and she said she was sorry she had given him the wrong medication. I told her please do not make that same mistake again. I explained to her that his medication affects his ability to function in therapy.
Two days later, as I was exiting the gym the psychologist stopped to talk to me. “Mrs. Wilson the nurses are reporting Jim is very tearful at night.” I looked at him and said, “Sir if you had fallen 17 ft. and broken your neck wouldn’t that bring tears to your eyes? Also being a grown man not being able to do anything yourself, wouldn’t that bring tears to your eyes?”
“I never thought of it that way. You helped me fix my case.” He responded. I f i hadn’t spoken to him that day he would of written a prescription for anti-depressants.
Several days went by. About 8 o’clock in the morning I was taking him to his hand therapy session. I stopped at the near by bathroom. I parked his wheelchair for a minute to use the bathroom. As I returned the nurse practitioner turned the corner. She didn’t see me but I could hear her clearly saying, “Oh Mr. Wilson I have some medication for you.” I quickly stepped around the corner and said we do not do anti-depressants. She began her reasoning. She said he had a bad night so she thought it would be good to give him one. I responded one bad night doesn’t give you the right to write a prescription.
After our encounter she made her scarce. I only saw her when I delivered her papers to her.
Another major problem came was after therapy he needed to go to the bathroom. The nurses had placed his on the toilet and left him there for an hour. After my volunteer session I decided to check up on him. I couldn’t find him. I went to his room there he was sitting on the toilet mad. No one had responded to his call button. I got him cleaned up and back in bed.
Speaking of beds, one day I went to move his pillow around and spiders came out from underneath it. I called the nurse and asked for him to be moved to a different room. After apologizing they moved him to another room.
One evening as I was leaving Jim’s room to go back to my apartment. The psychologist walked up to me and began to apologize. “I am so sorry that your husband has cancer.”
“No way, you have been misinformed. Go back and reread his form.” I replied. He did read the report again and he apologized for making that mistake. He had mistakenly confused Jim with someone else. I looked in his eyes and said, “Can you imagine what a set back in Jim’s mind this would of been if you had told him.”
“I am so sorry,” he replied, “please accept my apology.” Being in the center from 8 am to 4 pm everyday was a blessing. So I could watch out for my husband.
We had been there for a month now. The time had come for his assessment We were granted one day at the apartment. I tired to make it a very special occasion. I fixed up the apartment and cooked a wonderful dinner. We spent the afternoon talking about our future and thanking God for what he had done for us. By 6 o’clock I had returned him to the center and tucked him for bed. I returned home after.
Two days after the visit we were informed that our insurance had run out. Also we would be discharged from the center shortly. It came quickly. Our case nurse had told us even though our insurance had run out he still needed therapy. She spent two and half days checking out a place for him to get therapy. She located a place Calcuta, Ohio.