I guess you would agree with me that walking has been truly
a big deal - great and fantastic - actually to me, but what everyone has been
taking it for granted, after you have listened to my tale.
I suffered a spinal ailment when I was in my early teens. I was not paralysed as my spinal cord was not infected at all. It might have been fatal if it were too badly infected. However, two of my lumbar vertebrae had, sort of, been devoured slightly by bacteria. I had to lie totally flat and immobile (with the exception of my hands) on a plaster-of-Paris bed fashioned by the surgeon according to the contours of my back, buttocks and lower limbs. I was lying like an inverted tortoise! I was bed-ridden like that for more than six months.
After that, my upper torso was encased in a permanent plaster-of-Paris jacket which was most uncomfortable. But I was excited as I was allowed to walk with that white "armour" protecting my spine! However, I was not allowed to have baths except to wash my face and hair and the bottom half of my body. Nurses had to pour methylated spirits down my chest or back,
whenever I suffered unbearable itchiness on the skin there to relieve me of the discomfort.
I suffered a spinal ailment when I was in my early teens. I was not paralysed as my spinal cord was not infected at all. It might have been fatal if it were too badly infected. However, two of my lumbar vertebrae had, sort of, been devoured slightly by bacteria. I had to lie totally flat and immobile (with the exception of my hands) on a plaster-of-Paris bed fashioned by the surgeon according to the contours of my back, buttocks and lower limbs. I was lying like an inverted tortoise! I was bed-ridden like that for more than six months.
After that, my upper torso was encased in a permanent plaster-of-Paris jacket which was most uncomfortable. But I was excited as I was allowed to walk with that white "armour" protecting my spine! However, I was not allowed to have baths except to wash my face and hair and the bottom half of my body. Nurses had to pour methylated spirits down my chest or back,
whenever I suffered unbearable itchiness on the skin there to relieve me of the discomfort.
Eventually, I was deemed to be cured and the
plaster-of-Paris jacket was cut away. I had my first complete bath but a
hospital orderly had to help to scrub away the thick, dirty, old scaly skin on
my back. I was then discharged from hospital after having stayed there for
nearly two years where I had spent the greater part of my youth!
Something good came out from that hospitalization. I became an avid reader while being bed-ridden. I started writing, too, to while away the time. I wrote first to pen-pals and then to newspapers and periodicals. I won prizes in a few writing competitions and the matron would tell everyone in the ward about it which made me rather elated each time.
ltbs
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new one.
George Eliot
Something good came out from that hospitalization. I became an avid reader while being bed-ridden. I started writing, too, to while away the time. I wrote first to pen-pals and then to newspapers and periodicals. I won prizes in a few writing competitions and the matron would tell everyone in the ward about it which made me rather elated each time.
ltbs
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new one.
George Eliot
