Healing Lisa
Lisa slept fitfully. She turned in her sleep, groaned and sometimes, momentarily woke up. Knowing that she was probably dehydrated, I made some soup and had her drink it from a cup. That seemed quite pleasing to her and she slept better. I sat by her bed and held her hand while she slept. Her fever grew again so I gave her some Advil according to the maximum dosage on the bottle.
Charlie was ever present. He often jumped up on the bed and looked directly into her eyes playing with her hair and chattering softly to her as if in empathy with her condition. He seemed sad that she was not well. I felt the same.
As I watched her through the night, I couldn’t sleep. I kept putting snow packs on her leg. I really wasn’t sure what to do. I kept thinking about the consequences of the break and whether it would heal. And what of the baby? Would both of them be okay? I didn’t know—my medical knowledge was limited--I just tried my best.
Lisa’s thigh hurt her every time she turned in her sleep. I got the idea to try to stabilize her thigh so I ran upstairs to the pigeon coop and looked around. I found some slats there that would do the trick. Seeing an old saw, I cut a few of the slats to what I figured for length from Lisa’s knee to her hip and brought them back down to the bedroom. Lisa was finally sleeping peacefully so rather than disturb her, I laid the slats aside for the time being. Besides, I wasn’t sure how I was going to attach them to her leg just yet.
I sat down in the big chair to think and watch. Her cries awakened me. “Honey, I have to pee… I have to pee.”
Shaking the cobwebs from my mind, “What? Oh, uh, sure. Should I go to the kitchen and get a bowl or a pan?”
Lisa smiled. “No need to do that, silly. There’s a bedpan in the closet that my father got for my mother and that I used for him.”
On the top shelf of the closet was a stainless steel bedpan. I wiped the dust off with a towel, and then gently lifted Lisa’s hips so I could slide it under her. She groaned. I could imagine how painful that position would be with a broken thigh bone and injured groin. Lisa peed a lot. Hopefully, she would be okay until morning.
I emptied and rinsed out the bedpan and came back to the bedroom with a warm washcloth to clean her. She said it felt good except where I pressed too hard on her thigh. The swelling seemed to be going down, but there was a growing yellow-green bruise throughout her whole upper thigh, across her hip, and up onto her abdomen. Red lines still indicated where her groin muscle and tendons connecting to the leg had been strained, or even perhaps, torn. I didn’t tell Lisa how that bothered me when I saw it.
“I think I should stabilize your thigh. That way it won’t hurt as much when you toss and turn. I found some slats to use for splints but I’m not sure how to put them on your thigh. Do you have any tape in the house?”
“Not that would hold those slats and not tear my skin when you removed it. There’s some elastic bandages in the closet to the left of where you found the bedpan. They should work. I used them on dad when his legs swelled up.”
“Good idea! I’ll get them.”
I got the elastic bandages and used one to start wrapping Lisa’s leg as gently as I could before placing the slats next to it. Charlie thought it looked like fun and tried his best to help, but I shooed him away. He sulked, and watched closely. I started placing the slats on each side of her thigh and began wrapping another bandage around them to secure the slats. Lisa grimaced. “It hurts, Honey… it hurts!”
“Sorry, baby, let me think.” I spotted a pillow in my chair that would probably give her leg just enough height for me to wrap it without hurting her so much. “I’m going to place this pillow under your leg. I need to secure the splints. It’s going to hurt some.”
Lisa nodded. I doubled up the pillow and put it under her right calf to raise her knee and thigh. And then, I wrapped the bandage around her knee and zig-zagged it round her thigh to her groin over the slats. The splint was in place. I then wrapped another bandage over the top of that to make the thigh even more severe and provide padding from the sharp edges of the wooden slats. Since her ankle and calf on her right leg was also swollen, I wrap that as well from the ankle to the knee.
We were both relieved when the wrapping was done. I certainly didn’t want to have to change that splint very often, but I knew I would have to when I needed to check the healing process and bathe her. The good news was that Lisa could turn and move without too much pain, even though her groin area still hurt with the slightest movement. Lisa complained, “It feels like I have a wooden leg.” And then, she laughed. Lisa slept soundly until the morning sun came streaming through the big front windows of the apartment and warmed us both awake.
I fixed Lisa some oatmeal, without milk, and she enjoyed it. We didn't have any milk. The cows on the roads were quite emaciated and showed signs of attacks by predators. I’d thought about trying to snare a goat and attempt to milk it, but the goats were up in the hills around Hot Springs. I’d seen them coming down to the springs to drink. If I could snare one, I could put it in one of the garden enclosures where there would be plenty to eat and it would be protected from coyotes and other predators at night. At least that was my plan. I put my plan on my list of things I would try to do—soon.
Three days later, Lisa decided she was tired of being in bed. I felt it was safe enough to transfer her to the wheelchair. It was a bit awkward and painful to get her seated and comfortable, but she was so glad to be up, it didn’t matter. Charlie was happy she was up, too. He soon hopped up on her shoulder and rode.
It was her house, so Lisa soon began cooking and doing whatever chores she could from the wheelchair. This gave me time twice a day to run upstairs and tend to the pigeons, collect eggs and other chores like snow removal.
I grew tired of working with the makeshift splint and decided that I would go scavenging for something better when Lisa felt like she could be alone okay for a few hours.
The snow had drifted to about seven feet in front of the shop, but I kept the front door clear so that it would open during and after every snowstorm. The snow was now drier in the colder air and soft powder except where the wind blew the drifts high and packed hard. I used the snowshoes to make my way to the grotto where all was well with the capuchins. And then, on to the truck where I could barely get the door open. Fortunately, the batteries still held a charge on the gauges. Since it was only 20° or so, it took a while, but the engine started after a few cranks. I let it run for 20 minutes to charge the batteries fully.
I checked on some of my snares, but most were buried under new or drifting snow. I reset those. I found one frozen rabbit that had probably been caught three or four days before. I took it to thaw out for rabbit stew that evening.
I moved on to the storefronts, looking for the prosthetics shop that I remembered seeing somewhere on Third Street. The signs painted on the filthy windows told me that I was at the right place, but the snow was halfway up the door, and it was locked so I had to break in, somehow. There was a transom above the door, so I broke that, carefully cleaned out all the broken glass, and climbed through it.
The place had been ransacked, but I was able to find what I was looking for, a leather and plastic thigh brace that looked like it might fit Lisa. I also found crutches, more elastic bandage and tape, and other useful items. I found a small ladder that was used to reach higher shelves and placed it in front of the door so that I could climb up and throw the things I had gathered out through the transom.
And then, I looked around for some plywood, plastic or something that I could cover the transom with. There was a large old cardboard box that I cut a piece from that did the trick. I climbed back out through the transom and placed the cardboard over the broken transom window. The tape I found worked great for sealing the cardboard. Never knew when I would have to come back. Would have to remember to bring a ladder or crowbar if the snow melted.
I was gone too long.
“I thought you were never coming back!” cried Lisa. “I’m so glad to see you. Don’t… don’t get hurt out there. I need you!”
"Now, now Baby. Don't worry. I'm careful. Especially now. I hugged her in the chair. She really cheered up when she saw the crutches. As soon as we could get her back in bed, we unwrapped the splint and tried on the leg brace. It slipped on easily over her black and blue leg and pulled as tight as she wanted with the Velcro straps. The brace was very easy to put on and take off, if a bit heavy and awkward. We were both very happy with that. Most of all, the pain of turning was nearly gone.
Very soon, Lisa didn't need the brace at night and was up on the crutches and around the house until her leg and groin began to hurt too much and she had to go back to the wheelchair or bed for a while.
We were shut-ins, but showed no signs of cabin fever. The spacious second floor helped. When we weren't cooking or preparing food we were playing games or putting together puzzles that were all probably over 100 years old stored away in the closets. Some of them were quite worn from generations of use.
Lisa longed to go up to the roof. As soon as I felt that it was safe for her, I helped her get there to play with her beloved pigeons. When it really got cold, she could find them in the third floor loft. Charlie enjoyed those trips with us. He would help us feed the birds and even learned to gather eggs for us without breaking or eating them.
