The Cooke family is happy to report our father, Bill, who wrangled words on these pages for 60-plus years, is doing very well after hip replacement surgery. I’ve been staying in Rockdale while brother Kyle takes a much-needed and well-deserved break on our family’s favorite vacation spot, Galveston Island.
Even though there is the normal post-surgery soreness and swelling, Dad seems to have a new lease on life. His spirits have lifted considerably after hobbling on a bum hip for the past six months. It was difficult to see him so immobile and in pain, after having been raised by an active and athletic father all our lives.
But it’s amazing what technology and the skilled hands of a surgeon can do these days. As expected, dad’s surgery went well and the folks at St. David’s in Austin were terrific.
We experienced a series of coincidences though after they wheeled dad to a private room for a night of recovery.
The first was that his nurse, Carla, has recently purchased a home in Rockdale. She said she’s escaping Austin and looking forward to a slower pace as she nears retirement.
Small world, huh? Then who pokes her head in the door for dad’s first physical therapy and “cheerleading session” but Vickie Walker, a Rockdale High School graduate and the middle child of Gloria Walker and the late Darrell Walker.
Vickie helped dad with his first steps on a walker the afternoon following the surgery. In an even more coincidental connection, Vickie grew up in the home my parents now live in. So she knew all the steps and potential obstacles he would face as he began his road to recovery using a walker and cane.
She does an incredible job with her patients and her enthusiasm was infectious and, no doubt, encouraging to dad and mom. They had watched this woman grow up, and now she was leading him in surgical recovery. Still a small world, huh?
We were giving updates on Facebook (okay, mostly my brother Kyle was doing so), and we had a newspaper industry friend pop into the comments. “I’m in St. David’s too!”
I got a call from Mike Hodges, who is the executive director of the Texas Press Association. I had just spent the previous weekend in Washington, D.C., with Mike and his wife Eileen for the National Newspaper Association Convention, where we lobbied legislators and mingled with other publishers from around the country.
Eileen had just had a knee replacement at St. David’s and her recovery room was just around the corner from dad’s. She wheeled herself down on her own walker and we got to catch up and hear about her surgery. She and dad compared notes about the fashionable patient gowns.
Quite a small world, huh? Dad came home the next day and we’ve been watching college football, NFL football (Geez, Cowboys, come on!) and playoff baseball. He’s been doing his physical therapy and his body is recovering slowly but surely. He’s in so much less pain than before, he is a happy camper despite the soreness.
We’re grateful for all the prayers of support, and we so enjoyed seeing some familiar faces during his time at the hospital.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.