April 08, 1997

RECOVERY

I didn't get any rest in the hospital in W. Chester, PA. after my attack. I was put into a semi-private room with a very noisy black family. The elderly father was in the other bed in the room and his two noisy children were with him all night. One of his children's (the guy) was supposed to have been a patient also or was to have been checked out in the emergency room.

The elderly guy's TV was kept on all night long but I was able to tune it out in my head a little bit since it wasn't that loud and not really turned in the right position so that I couldn't see it. I was given a sleeping pill but I wasn't able to tune out the loud talking and whining that the girl did. to calm down enough so that the sleeping pill could work.

Also, there was a IV in my right arm for fluids and the bag had run out and I had some pressure pants squeezing my legs so I wouldn't have any problems with bubbles in my blood. I spent most of the time awake reading some magazines one of the nurses found for me and staring up at the ceiling trying to figure out what had happened during the time I don't remember and why it had to happen to me.

Praise Adonai that nothing was found to be busted. There was the possibility that I did have some badly bruised ribs. I did have a mild concussion, a swollen left arm, a large bruise on my right arm, and a large bruise on the left of my torso that went from my ribs to the area of my kidneys. My attackers might have kicked me around when I was down on the ground.

Around 5:00 a.m., I decided to try and send a voice mail to one of my friends back in Americus, GA at Habitat to tell him what had happened. Jim was about the only person that I had the phone number memorized since I no longer had my address book. I had to call several times because I didn't have all of the information like my room number, room phone number, and the address of the hospital.

Between the hours of eight in the morning and noon, the phone by my bed rang off the hook almost constantly with well wishes and calls of concern from around the country. People were shocked that something like this had to have happened. I got an invitation to stay with the Habitat for Humanity regional director who lived in the area.

Bob Warner (the regional director) came by when I was released around 4 p.m. It was great to get out of the hospital. When I was settled in, the Warners surprised me by offering to go out and buy me some clothes and toiletries. I just had the clothes that I had on when I was attacked. I had the house to myself Friday because Bob and his wife had to go out of town for a wedding. Saturday morning, one of Bob's co-workers came by to take me to another friend of mine in the Washington, D.C. area where I will be staying with for about two weeks to recover before traveling back down to Americus, Georgia.