by: Marty Chrisman

Luke lay back in the whirlpool and closed his eyes, feeling himself relaxing as the warm water swirled around him. He had to admit that it felt good. He was still uncomfortable with the aides providing his personal care. Even though Bo provided a lot of the care for him, there were times when the aides had to provide the same care. Some of the aides were young, not much over 16 and Luke knew it embarrassed them to have to care for someone like him whom they considered young and attractive.

It was one thing to work with a patient who was comatose. It was something entirely different to deal with one who was awake and alert enough to talk to you. It embarrassed Luke too, the nudity didn’t bother him, but having to depend on them to help him with his more personal needs did. He still had a catheter because he had no control over his bladder, he couldn’t tell when he had to go and when he didn’t. The same thing applied to his bowels so he had to be cleaned out every other day which was really humiliating and embarrassing.

The therapy sessions with Cindy were starting to help. He could feed himself now using his silverware so the feeding tube had finally been removed. And they had started him on solid foods that morning which was a vast relief even though he didn’t really care for hospital food. He had to admit the food here was a lot better than most of the hospitals he’d been in but he still missed Daisy and Jesse’s home cooking. He had finally let Cindy coax him into the wheelchair but he still hated it. He was terrified of the thought of spending the rest of his life in one.

He also knew that he’d end up bedridden again in a few days. The doctor had decided that he was strong enough to have the surgery to repair the disk in his back. And he’d be stuck in bed for at least a week after that if not longer. But he was praying that the surgery would be a success and that once the pressure was relieved on his spinal cord, he’d be able to walk again.

Bo was still staying with him and he was grateful for his younger cousins company, especially at night. He still didn’t want to be alone although he did encourage Bo to go home sometimes during the day so he could change clothes and have some time for himself.

Luke opened his eyes as the door opened and Cindy came in. She smiled as she reached out to turn off the whirlpool and hit the button to let the water drain from the tub. “How was that?” she asked

“Pretty good.” Luke admitted with a crooked smile.

“I figured you’d enjoy it. You’re doing really well, Luke. I’m proud of you.”

“I have you to thank for that.”

“Hey, you did a lot of work once we stopped butting heads over your therapy.” Cindy reminded him with a soft laugh.

Luke chuckled. He knew he hadn’t been the most cooperative patient in the beginning. But once he started being able to do more things for himself, he started working harder to improve the skills he did have. His upper body strength had returned and thanks to Cindy’s exercises, his lower body was in good shape too even if he couldn’t feel anything down there yet. The muscle tone had been restored and his joints were functional.

After the water had drained from the tub, Cindy handed Luke a towel so he could dry off as much as possible before she opened the side of the tub that swung open and closed to get patients in and out of the whirlpool.  Once she had the side lifted up, she used a special lift to get him out of the tub and back into his wheelchair, where she helped him put on a tee shirt and covered the rest of his body with a blanket. Then she took him back to his room, where she used the lift to get him back into bed. Once he was in bed, it was simply a matter of rolling him from side to side so she could put on his sweat pants. Once she had him dressed, she asked him if he wanted to get back up for awhile but Luke declined, deciding he’d rather take a nap.

Later that day, Jesse and the rest of the family arrived, along with Cooter. Daisy surprised Luke with a homemade meal of all of his favorite foods. He grinned when he realized that Cindy must have called and told her that Luke could eat solid foods now.

With the first real appetite he’d shown since the accident, he ate the fried chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, fresh rolls, and apple pie until he couldn’t eat another bite.

“You’ll be home soon, sugar.” Daisy told him with a grin “And then you can eat like this every day.”

“I hope so.” Luke told her with a smile “It just feels good to be eating again.”

“At least you ain’t so danged skinny anymore.” Bo told him with a teasing grin and earning himself a stern look from Jesse for talking with his mouth full. Luke had regained the weight he had lost and his face had filled out again softening the contours of his features.

Jesse smiled as he listened to the interaction through the three cousins. He was grateful that Luke was alive and would be coming back home to them soon. He had been terrified that they were going to lose him, not so much to death as to the darkness of his own mind. Jesse never wanted to go through something like that again. He had already warned both boys that he never wanted to hear of either one of them getting on a small plane like that again. He knew that his warnings might not be heeded as much as the boys enjoyed the thrill of racing and tearing around in the General Lee. They loved living on the edge and he didn’t want to do anything to dampen the spirit that had made them into the men they had grown up to be. Jesse was extremely proud of both of them.