The room on 5E

was smaller than my room in the ICU.  I felt cramped (though I realize now it was my spirit that felt hemmed in).  I was so weak.  I couldn't talk.  I couldn't walk. It was a thrill just to dangle!
"Dangle?!" you may ask.  Reader Dear, it was part of the hospital jargon; it's the title for sitting on the edge of one's bed with one's feet dangling free!

I requested to dangle often. What a wonderful perspective to be had by sitting up!  Looking at the world from a reasonable angle!

After the advent of dangling, it wasn't long before I began taking tiny little steps (with a walker, or hanging onto someone, to be sure!)

And after I felt the thrill of that independence, well, I was itching to scratch "hospital stay" off my list!

There was a lot of talk about which rehab facility I should be transferred to, and which would take me.

Anywhere, anywhere! was my thought. The Yard Man and Elder Daughter made a trip to Harrisburg, PA (about 45 miles distant) to check out a hospital there, the one with a whole floor dedicated to rehab patients.  I wanted to go, sight unseen!

But the report was dismal: No! Not a good place!  The Yard Man and Elder Daughter convinced me that I would be better off spending a few more days in my current bed in 5E until they could find an opening elsewhere.  But, dear me, they had no sooner persuaded me that Harrisburg  was not the place for me than I found myself in the back of an ambulance, heading for Harrisburg!  (The local rehab facility looked at my chart and was convinced I couldn't handle their strenuous exercises; I had continued to beg for an exit from 5E ASAP! Options were severely limited!)

The ambulance ride was thrilling for its wow-I'm-out-in-the-free-world aspect!  I savored the brief glimpses of the sky from my gurney rides leaving location one and entering location two!  It was a cold and windy winter day, but if I'd have had a nice warm blanket, Dear Reader, I'd have given up six (or perhaps seven) whole days of (the upcoming) spring season for six (or perhaps seven) whole minutes outside!