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| This is probably the only existing example of the attache case mentioned below. It's posted here instead of where it's referenced because I've never had a photo of luggage in a blog before. |
After my physical therapy session/experience with the Wartenberg Wheel, it was obvious that something was terribly wrong with my back. This was long before MRI technology. I’ll get to my experience with the “highest tech” of the day in Part 5. I’m sure the doctor knew the disk was ruptured, but I never heard that term until just before surgery.
I spent a week in traction in the hospital. During that week, I have only one recollection. It was well after dinner had been served. Dinner is a generous description of what they served back then. I suspect it was nutritious, but I know it was boring. It was also not very much volume for an 18-year-old football player.
One of the orderlies would stop by my room and talk for a bit every evening. This night, he asked, “You want something else to eat?”
“Sure!”
“How about a milkshake? I can get to that machine in the kitchen.”
“Great!”
“It’ll have to be vanilla. That’s the only ice cream flavor they serve here.”
“Not a problem.”
He left. He was gone for a long time. When he finally returned he was carrying one of the cardboard ice buckets that each room had.
“I couldn’t find any paper cups,” he announced. “So I put your milkshake in this.” He handed me the bucket.
I looked into the bucket. It was, at least, three-quarters full of milkshake. My guess was that there was more than a quart sloshing around. It was yummy.
When I checked out of the hospital, I was instructed to wear the back brace I’d worn during my last six weeks of high school. Here’s what it looked like.
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| Back of the back brace. |
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| Front of the back brace |
Because the brace was essentially a metal frame that wrapped partly around me from the back with several straps to cinch it tight, my posture was exquisite while wearing the brace. My flexibility, never one of my fortes, was that of a piece of wood.
I limped around the UCSD campus from late September through early December. You will remember that my leg had no feeling in the outer half.
One day in October, when it was a Santa Ana, I was wearing shorts. I went into the bookstore annex that was on what was then called Third College Campus. I stopped in there periodically because the clerks were nice people… and they sold cans of soda.
As I was checking out, the clerk said, “I don’t know if you realize it or not, but you’ve got a big stain on your leg. Maybe you had a leaky pen in your pants’ pocket.” She pointed to the outside of my left leg.
I looked down. Sure enough, there was a blue-purple blotch. I pulled up the hem of my shorts. The blotch was an oval. I rubbed it with my finger. Nothing came off. I limped into the bathroom and tried washing it off. That’s when I realized it was a bruise—about four inches wide.
I carried an attaché case with my books and notebooks in it. The case was thick cardboard-like material. The photo at the top of this blog is the same model I had. I usually carried it in my left hand. As I limped the case would smack into my leg with each step. Because I had no feeling in my leg, the bruise continued to be re-bruised daily. That was what finally convinced me that what had happened to my back was bad.
My surgery was scheduled for the last Friday of the UCSD Fall Quarter. I had to take my chemistry final early because it was also scheduled on that day. I vaguely remember checking into the hospital on Thursday.
I do remember Thursday afternoon.
But not in writing until Part 5.
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What a great orderly! That milkshake must have tasted amazing! I look forward to Part 5!
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing! A LOT OF MILKSHAKE, but amazing!
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