The next two and a half months passed by uneventfully. I was growing accustomed to my cast and yet I grew to hate it at the same time. I had to buy clothes one or two sizes larger to fit around it and everything was different. Everything. From the way I walked to the way I had to sleep. It took longer to do everything and I just wanted to take a shower.
February 6, 1974 - I arrived at Newington Children's Hospital in Newington, CT. We arrived a little early, so my mother and I decided to peruse the gift shop while we waited for my father to register us.
It was a great gift shop and anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE hospital gift shops!! They have the greatest gifts! If you've never frequented them before, do so - you'll be glad you did! Naturally, I ALWAYS looked at the HUGE stuffed dog in the lobby, but I knew it would never be mine! So we were looking around and I noticed some Christmas ornaments on the sale table. Laying there was an adorable little cloth doll ornament. She had orange-red hair with a yellow dress and red and white stockings. Her hair was made of yarn, was parted in the middle and in pony tails. I just thought she was cute and told my mother. She agreed it was cute; then we left to find my father.
We took the elevator upstairs; it all looked familiar this time. As soon as I saw the nurses’ station, there was Shirley. She jumped right up and came over to hug me. I immediately felt as if I was home.
Shirley showed me to my room and I had a roommate this time. She was in the bed closest to the door and I was in the inside, near the window. Next, I was hooked up to the familiar traction again. This time, Shirley brought soft, billowy cotton pads along with the Vaseline. She was an attentive, compassionate nurse and I have often thought of her over the years. She was one of the nurses who deserved 3x the money she made. I got settled in and had lunch. My mother took out her knitting and my father and I watched some TV. The plan this time was that my mother would be staying at the Serruta's house for the full time I was in the hospital and either Teresa or Jimmy or one of their children would take my mother to the hospital each day and pick her up in the evening. This is what I meant when I said they were kind and gracious people. Usually it was Teresa who would bring my mother to the hospital each morning and she would often show with some home-baked breakfast treat, or lunch food for me. Every time she would ask, "What can I bring you tomorrow, Valerie?", my mother would say, "You DON'T have to do this Teresa, they DO feed her!". Teresa would say, "Why eat hospital food when I can make it for her??” She was so sweet. Then some member of that family would come pick my mother up each evening around 7 and bring her back the next morning around 9 or 10. Every single day, except for the weekends. For 7 long weeks. No doubt, they went to heaven - God rest their souls.
I honestly don't remember if my father went back home that night or not. Seeing that it was in the middle of the week, I would guess so and then came back for the first surgery the following week? I mean, the man did have to work! Poor guy, talk about stress! I remember on one of the next days, I was brought downstairs to respiration or whatever it was called. It lasted for an eternity and I kept "failing" a component to the test. The lady kept asking me if I smoked and I said no. Not once, not twice, but this went on and on and I was losing my patience. Then she told me that I could trust her and she wouldn't tell my parents, but that they really needed to know the truth for the surgery. I repeated, "I do NOT smoke. I have NEVER even tried a cigarette!". She was exasperated with me, and obviously didn't believe me. Eventually she said, "Fine, but I think you're lying!". Back to my room I went. This time, I did tell my mother. Well, as I've explained earlier, Rosie could be a tad feisty and that's putting it mildly! She stormed out to the nurses’ desk and simply said, "Can you please notify Dr. Hardy that I would like to speak with him if he is in the hospital?” Oh God, here we go!! I suddenly wished I had kept my big mouth shut! Well, when he did come around, she went ballistic! I bet even he wanted to run away from her! Ha! Ha! Well, as it turns out, he was FURIOUS!! Furious, furious, furious and asked me what the tech's name was. I told him and he walked out. He came back some time later, apologizing. He explained that "of course, you aren't going to have a normal lung compacity...", blah, blah, blah. Oh dear, now the mother AND the doctor seemed to have joined forces now! I guess that was an okay thing; she stewed about it for a while longer. I was over it by now and just wanted to watch TV. Dr. Hardy left and my mother seemed pleased as punch! I said, "Did you really have to make that big a deal out of it? She probably got in trouble. What if I have to see her again?" and my mother responded, "Too bad. NO ONE talks to my child like that and accuses her of lying"!! I remember thinking, "Thank God I didn't tell her they took pictures of me nude"!!!! She probably would've sued!
The traction became old really fast, actually everything suddenly became old. I was ready to just move on with it. The days went by somewhat fast - they were filled with blood work and more respiratory exercises and meeting the other kids and constantly pulling myself up to the top of the bed. It didn't take long for all the kids to start realizing that mother was there all the time. And it didn't take me long to realize that many of their mothers were not. I would say that at least half of the kids there didn't seem to have any family. No visitors ever came for them. So naturally, they started hanging around my room all the time. They wanted a mother too. So........I very quickly realized that I was going to have to share mine. Whether I wanted to or not.
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