Geisinger HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital,
Danville, Pa
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Geisinger HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital, Danville, Pa
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 Our thanks to the Mahoning Police Chief, David Shoe and Fire Chief Kevin Young whose Fire and Police squads escorted us mainly because they knew Beth was joining us today. Beth’s reputation for being a pilferer of anything tie-dyed and a Harley ridin’ scallywag must precede her. Nonetheless, we were all let into the facility after passing through two metal detectors and receiving a good old-fashioned shakedown. |
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 After
Doc’s 15-minute stint in the porta-john, Joe was afraid he fell in. He
closed his eyes, reached in, and grabbed a leg to pull Doc out but,
unfortunately, he pulled the wrong leg and only succeeded in leaving Doc
legless and still in the john. |
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 We
commandeered a local construction crane to hoist Doc out from the potty just
in time for Joe to rid himself of his kidney stones. After whizzing out two
small boulders, Joe is happy that his ordeal is over and calls Abel a big
weenie for whimpering while passing his two extra-tiny fragments of slivers
of kidney stones last week. |
 Beth,
our guest rider, who we met in 2004, was sweet enough today to give the
princess a ride on her Harley-Davidson. With her cape a-flappin’ in the
breeze, AJ was heard yelling, “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!
You can’t even hear me sangin’ with all this dang motor noise!” |
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 AJ
didn’t get any breakfast this morning as she was rushing to get ready so she
decided to use her hand to swipe some of the foam off the top of Doc’s
coffee when he wasn’t looking. She tries to play innocent by pretending to
look in her bag prior to her licking the frothy breakfast from her fingers.
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 Just
in case everyone doesn’t already know, AJ is very shy and doesn’t ever feel
the need to be tacky. |
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 …and
on my 5th birthday, I got a Great Dane named Puny. Puny was a
good dog and she liked our milk cow, named Chicken. One day, Puny and
Chicken found a baby rabbit and we named him Panther*****3 hours and 46
minutes later*****and that’s how Left Turn came to live with me and my cat,
Dog. |
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 "Well
I do declare, I think I misunderstood you. Did you just ask me how a
southern magnolia could turn into such a big old stinkweed?
Oh my stars, how you do carry on so." After her
three hour stint doing a radio interview, the radio newscaster
unsuccessfully wrenched the microphone from the hands of AJ. Only when
her singing of "The Day They Laid Ole Dixie Down" caused a power brown-out
throughout Danville were they able to wrest control away from AJ.
Undeterred, AJ continues the eighth verse at Geisinger HealthSouth keeping
staff, patients, and media totally enraptured in a catatonic state. |
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 Nancy
waits patiently for Beth to finish writing her autobiography and tries to
explain what a state employee does when she has a job but isn't paid but
isn't a volunteer. Beth hasn’t realized it yet, but every poster she
thought she signed was actually disguised as a contract that binds her to do
the entire trip with us next year. Joe, you’re a sneaky little critter.
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 Beth
is also seen panhandling Sarah, bringing her little cup around to try to
drum up some change for gas money for her ride home. That’s just another
reason why she’d be a great addition to our group for next year’s ride. |
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 Grace
and AJ seem to be fatigued after a 5-hour debate on the real meaning of the
age-old question “how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could
chuck wood.” In the end, both realized they didn’t know what ‘chuck wood’
even meant and they decided to call it a day and take a nap instead.
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 Evelyn
snatched the hat right off of Joe’s head and threatened to set her oxygen
tank on fire if he tried to get it back. Doc just cackled and kept
reiterating to Evelyn just how shifty Joe is. Evelyn just smiled and told
Joe to go pound sand and not to bother her. Joe, showing remorse for
all of his antics, was able to recover his hat by putting on his doleful
look and laying on the floor crying pitifully.
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 Doc
and Beth ring the victory bell, which is a tradition. As patients “graduate”
from inpatient rehab, they ring the bell on their way out as a symbol of
their triumph. Our thanks to the Mahoning Township supervisors, Christine DeLong, Bill Earlston, and Ronnie Miller, County Comissioners Frank Sawick, Jack Gerst, Trevor Fin, and Jerry Ward, Danvill Mayor Ed Coleman, Linda McGrail, Program Cpprdinator, Joint Center, GHC, for taking time out from their busy schedules and for the motivational words of Dr. John Parenti, Chairman of the GHS Orthopaedics Department. Special thanks to Lorrie Dillon, CEO, for her wonderful leadership and enthusiastic staff, to Nancy Presswood, DMO, and Anthony Cerminaro, for putting together a great visitation for us and keeping us on task and on schedule, and for the PTs, OTs, and Speech Therapists who have brought so much to us during our visit and for letting us see the miracles you perform each and every day in getting patients back to living. Thank you for your support and for all that you do for your patients and all that you have done to make our visit worthwhile. |
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