Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Huntsville Visitation

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Today we visited the HealthSouth of Northern Alabama in Huntsville, where we were welcomed at both the outpatient and inpatient facilities. Once again, HealthSouth did themselves proud, with a gracious event, lots of interactions with patients and friendly staff. Our thanks to the Administrator Douglas Beverly and to Pamela Herdy.

This is the poster HealthSouth created as notice of our visitation.

We had lots of staff interaction today, including with Dr. Beck (second from left), who is an avid "birdman" (he hang glides and parasails), so he had much in common with the boys from their recent skydiving.

"Improvise, overcome, adapt" were once again the motto as we discovered that the planned route to HealthSouth was a bit overcome with traffic. So Joe put us onto a safer route that was thankfully close to Hardee's, where everyone "carbo-loaded" for the grueling 4 block ride.

Somehow, everywhere Jim goes, he seems to antagonize native Michiganders. Perhaps it's his sparking support for Ohio State. Perhaps it's his leg, which is a horrible salute to OSU. Either way, the leg goes away on Friday when Jim gets his new socket (hee hee hee). We've recommended that Jim turn the old socket into a lampstand. Or perhaps a toilet paper dispenser.

We met lots of rehab patients working on recovery from knee replacements today. Here, Joe poses with an inpatient. Both smiles deserved each other. Joe says she was one sweet lady.

Meredy, from Ohio Willow Wood, got a lot out of the visitation, meeting many inspiring people like the man at right.

The boys presented a pair of Attitude socks to Grady who had made astonishing progress in only one week after his knee replacement, which is a very painful surgery to recover from.

The rehab patients smiled and clapped when we arrived. They seemed eager to share our stories and theirs, so we took as much time as possible to shake hands and warm hearts. They were a great crowd!

At last! Free HealthSouth booty!!!!

In thanks for our visitation, were were each given a HealthSouth t-shirt, water bottle, and very kind note of thanks. Now we need to find a kind administrator who has extra HealthSouth shorts.

As we were leaving, we met an AK who hoped to meet us. She thoughtfully showed us how her C Leg worked and was eager for her prosthetist to give her even more speed and motion so she could get moving faster. You go girl!

An admissions coordinator for HeathSouth, Tani Chapman linked up with Jim and Trish to show them her astonishing trike. What a ride! Jim took it for a little spin and thought highly of her custom selections, such as power steering.

Bruce even got into the act, pondering out loud if next year's ride could be upgraded to something a bit more powerful than a bicycle. Or at least faster -- both Jim and Bruce dig free fall, which is a 120 MPH wind rush. Later in her visit to our hotel, Tani's mother and father-in-law brought over their bikes (one two wheeled, one three wheeled) so that Jim could look out the window of his hotel and imagine he was actually "biking" to Birmingham tomorrow instead of "cycling." Maybe next year, Jim.

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