❤️⚕️❤️  STILL HERE!  ❤️⚕️❤️

A NURSING HOME TALE

By Karen Strickholm 09/28/2023

Greetings, my people! It’s been a beat since you’ve heard from me – more than two years, in fact. During this time, I’ve been dancing a do-si-do with Death.

Things went horribly awry… There was paralysis, from the neck down. There was kidney failure. Massive IV antibiotics. Seizures. A distressed heart. In short, hanging on by a thread… (more)

So much! If you think you know my medical story, I assure you, you do not. Until recently it was too complicated, too horrifying, too traumatizing to tell. See this brief ticktock, which lays out the journey completely for the first time.

Reconnecting with you is my first intention. Also, I’ll be sharing with you the tales of my life as a medical vagabond, a “secret shopper” of America’s convoluted medical system. This is stuff you are gonna want to know…

• The secret angels and predatory devils in the healthcare world – how to tap the former, and guard yourself from the latter.
• Adventures of the hoyer – a crane-like lift device that moves my body in a sling from bed to wheelchair.
• Walking the edge of death – What happens when things get dire, and how to make sure people don’t write you off, just when the battle is most critical.
• Up close and personal –  You will rarely be alone… So many people. Roommates. Doctors. Nurses. Aides, social workers, therapists, ombudsmen, business office people, schedulers, unit managers, other sick people – many with dementia.
• The darkest and best humor is found in the healthcare world. It is legendary, and ROFL funny.
• From wipe-out to new beginnings – When the past has been smashed to smithereens, how does one chart a new way forward?

Thank you for joining me as I close the book on the old, and ring in the new. I can’t wait to reconnect with you, and you, and you! <3 I may be slow to respond, but I will – I’m back in the saddle. Or up on the walker, taking those first steps yet again.

Thank you for joining me on this road! ~ Karen

2023 – Recovery begins anew. At last get under care of an Infectious Disease Specialist, Am prescribed “prophylactic antibiotic therapy” – e.g. antibiotics for life. In addition to Endocrinologist, begin treatment with Pulmonologist, Nephrologist, Cardiologist, new Wound Specialists. Nerves regenerate, feeling and movement slowly returns. With physical therapy, am able to stand. For the second time in three years, have gone from completely bed bound to standing – the necessary precursor to pivoting and then truly walking. Those wretched painful wounds continue open, unable to resolve under high steroid dosing. Strength is returning