Eleven Seconds by Travis Roy & E. M. Swift

Author:Travis Roy & E. M. Swift [ROY, TRAVIS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO016000
ISBN: 9780446553254
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2008-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Probably the best thing about that emotionally draining weekend, for me, was seeing my mother again. She’d missed out on so many of the good things that had been happening to me in Atlanta. Mom had been sitting up there in Maine all by herself, coping with a difficult situation at her high school. A new principal hadn’t worked out, and my mom, in her capacity as one of two assistant principals, took on many more responsibilities. As if she didn’t have enough on her mind.

She’d put in a long day at school and go back to that cold, drafty house at night by herself. She was in the midst of having an addition put on the house, overseeing the tearing down of our barn to make room for a wing that would accommodate my special needs. Mom was working with Alan Mooney, an architect, and the many, many other volunteers who put in hours of their own time to get the addition done in time for my return. Excavators and builders and roofers and painters—more angels carrying us along. We ended up sending 45 separate thank-you cards to people who’d donated time or supplies. Most of it while Dad and I were in Atlanta.

We’d call home just about every night, and Mom would be alone eating take-out pizza. She never complained, but it must have been so tough for her to hear about everything that was going on over the phone. We almost tortured her with details of how much better I was doing. She would much rather have been down in Atlanta with me and Dad, but someone in the family had to start living a normal life again. I was just beginning to appreciate how extraordinarily capable she was.

My release date from Shepherd was fast approaching. One of the first things they had done after I got there was give me a date—April 11—when I’d be going home. The average stay was eight weeks, but I was scheduled to stay nine. By that time, they figured they would have done as much for me as possible, and there was a long waiting list of new patients for every open slot.

I was not yet feeding myself, nor was I using a joystick to steer my wheelchair, but I had definitely gained strength and range of motion in my right arm. Marcie, my therapist, believed that by the end of the summer I’d be doing both those things by myself. It seemed like all the other patients there had improved more than I had. My friend Steve, a C5, had continued getting back more feeling and more movement his entire stay at Shepherd. His progress was truly extraordinary. When I went back for my eight-week checkup, in fact, he not only had a full range of motion in both his arms, he was using his fingers a little bit. By then he could have eaten that whole bowl of potato chips, no problem.

My father asked me if it bothered me to see everyone recovering more movement than me.

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