Rehab — By Tommy Purser

While I have not yet decided what, if any, New Year’s resolutions I will make, if I had to make a list, at the top of it would be to continue at home what I have learned so far from seven rehab sessions over the last few weeks.
I am rehabbing from a table saw accident that only an inch spared me from losing four of the digits on my right hand.
It’s been a tough experience that is showing slow but decided results. I am improving at each session.
I’ve made new friends at rehab and have also rekindled old friendships, as I’ve been seeing old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. For, you see, at my age — 73 — many of my similarly aged friends are also undergoing rehab.
While my rehab is a result of stupidity with a table saw, their rehab is a result of age. I spotted an old friend who was recuperating from knee replacement. I watched him go through his rehab routines and realized that, not only was he rehabbing his knee, but he was also dealing with shoulder problems.
There were three more old friends I ran up on who were also in knee rehab.
And another in hip rehab.
And yet another in shoulder rehab.
A couple of more friends of my age group were dealing with back problems.
And a couple of more working to overcome the ravages of strokes.
Yet another friend has neck problems and she admitted to me that she has been to rehab in the past to deal with “several body parts.”
I suspect that once I have completed my hand rehabilitation, I will be back later to deal with ailing joints in my aging body. It kinda goes with growing old.
But rehab is about learning to go on with your life. Which is so very much preferable to the alternative.