Helen's Story
Sequoia Park, a grassy rectangle between housing developments in Denton, Texas, is a few yards from Helen Ramsey’s front door. Helen has been just about everywhere you can reach in the U.S. by motorcycle, but these days, strolling around the half-mile oval of sidewalk that meanders around Sequoia Park’s perimeter is adventure enough.
But when she woke up sick one morning and had to go to the hospital, Helen worried her favorite walk might be finished.
If anyone was up for a challenge it was Helen. The 73-year-old mother of three, grandmother of nine and great grandmother of another three, had served a six-year hitch in the U.S. Army. She’d grown up in a military family – and not just any military family. Seven of her 12 siblings had served. “I was what they call a military brat,” she said. She’d been born in Oklahoma, but her father was a career military man, and she’d moved from base to base, so she had a lot of hometowns – including Denton. She’d also spent a career as a nurse and had added to her travels by taking road trips on the motorcycle that had long been her passion.
Then about four years ago, Helen was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and roaring cross country on a motorcycle, or even one of the runs to a nearby casino she enjoyed screeched to a halt. But she still had Sequoia Park, that placid ribbon of concrete just past the cul-de-sac in her neighborhood where families took their children to play on swing sets on cool evenings.
Then one day she came down with a respiratory illness. She suffered through it for days. “I was sicker than a dog,” she said, and when she couldn’t breathe one morning, her husband Tommy took her to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Helen had been sickened by a flu virus that combined with her Parkinsons and wreaked havoc on her ability to breathe. It also seemed to hasten the other effects of her long-term illness -- time in bed had slowed her walk. She couldn’t bathe herself, go to the bathroom or bend down to put on her own socks and shoes. Worse, her memory was slipping – simple problems confused her, and her voice had faded to a whisper.
Her doctors at Texas Health thought she’d benefit from an inpatient rehabilitation hospital, so they suggested Select Medical Rehabilitation Hospital of Denton. There, a physician-led team of physical, occupational and speech therapists joined with nurses to help her find some of what she’d lost.
Helen’s therapists asked her to name her goals. She wanted to get back to her peaceful rounds of Sequoia Park.
To get back to her walks, Helen had work to do. After three days in the hospital, she could only shuffle for 10 feet with a walker if someone helped her.
Work at the rehabilitation hospital started right away.
Her physical therapist took her to the hospital’s therapy gym and had her use a specialized recumbent bike to build the muscles she’d lost in her lower body. When she was strong enough, her therapist had her work on her posture and balance behind a wheeled walker called a rollator.
Sometimes Helen practiced simple tasks on her feet. This was a method her occupational therapist used to help her build strength and balance. She reached for items placed on the ground and worked on her fine motor skills by manipulating clothespins to help build strength in her fingers. Her therapists also gave her strategies and tools for handling some of the day-to-day necessities she’d lost the ability to perform. A long-handled shoehorn, for example, made it easier for Helen to put on her shoes.
Her strength began to return. Before long, the 10 feet she could walk lengthened to 150 feet and could make it to the end of the hall outside her room. As Helen grew closer to the therapists, nurses and other staff members grew close to her, too, joining in games of dominoes, which Helen loved.
The games did more than pass the time. Helen’s speech therapist used games to help test her memory and ability to talk. Helen learned strategies to compensate for when her memory failed – keeping lists and associating new information with something familiar.
Her therapist also helped her with the volume of her voice. Helen practiced speaking louder, sometimes starting in a low pitch and ending in a higher one to push her voice back to a volume people could hear.
Helen embraced it all. “It feels like home,” she said after her 10 days at the rehabilitation hospital were up. Her memory strategies were working. She demonstrated improved problem solving and could move about more safely. She could also walk longer distances, dress and use the bathroom all on her own.
When Helen returned home, she continued to make strides in home health care and outpatient therapy. Her ability to walk continues to improve.
As she departed Select Medical Rehabilitation Hospital of Denton, she had a message for her care team: “Y’all helped me so much,” she said.
Most recently, Helen lengthened her walk to go out her front door and down to the corner. Just a few more yards and she’ll be at the edge of Sequoia Park. It’s not a thousand-mile motorcycle run, but for Helen it’s still worth the trip.