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July 1998
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July 1998
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by Dustin Gill
D.
Dustin Gill is a 21 year old college student at Catonsville Community College, with courses in anthropology, psychology, and astronomy. TT readers may communicate via email with Mr. Gill at picklez@pop.erols.com I don't quite remember when I first started dealing with Maryland Rehab, but it was at least a year and a half ago. Three people had come out to meet me and my computer. They brought me a floppy disk with the newest version of Ez-Keys for Windows. This is the program that lets me use my morse code in Windows 3.1. I had an older copy of the software but could never set it up to work right. The newer version also gave me the ability to use a mouse cursor for the first time. It wasn't the best mouse I could use, but it was the only one I had. Later, I think, they brought out a piece of equipment called a Jouse. It's a cross between a joystick and a mouse. It's mounted on a mechanical arm. The mouse is moved by using my mouth to move a joystick like straw. To activate the buttons I do a sip or a puff for a right or left click. This is a rather crude example of how it works, but it's the best I can do without pictures. Anyway, it was a lot better than using the mouse through morse code. The Jouse was smoother, easier, and less stressing. I could play games that I couldn't before. Unfortunately, I only got to play with it for a few minutes before they had to take it back. A few months later they bought me one of my own which was great. The only problem was getting all my nurses to attach it properly.
The Jouse attaches to my bed frame combined with two pieces of wood that help stabilize it. It's tricky to do and if you don't do it right, it is hard to use. Last year some time, I agreed to go through a DORS evaluation. One of my nurses told me that since DORS had bought me the Jouse I should agree to go to the evaluation. A friend had gone through it before and told me some bad things about it. I was feeling reluctant to go, but went anyway.
The thing I hated most about going to Maryland Rehab was having to get up at eight a.m. Monday through Thursday. The first time I went there was in January of this year. The first day I was not doing anything tough, but that would change in time. I was tested on about every subject around. I did fine on subjects like English and literature but when it came to math it was a different story. Math is my worst area of studies. I can do simple math in my head usually, but I am always using my calculator on my computer to calculate numbers. They way I did the tests was on their computer which had the same software and hardware that I had at home.
One of the things I always looked forward to every day was eating lunch there. I usually ate little or nothing before I left the house and would be starving when lunch time came around. The food was pretty good, which surprised me.
Anyhow, I spent two weeks and three days going to and from the Maryland Rehabilitation Center. Every day doing so many tests that sometimes my head ached and I crashed when I got in bed. I'm not trying to say anything bad about when I was there, it's just that some days was tough. The last day I had to go to Maryland Rehab was nice. I got to hear how I did on the tests that they had given me. I was suprised to hear that I had done better than how I thought I did. I left the building feeling a great weight lifted from my shoulders. My mind was relieved to know that it didn't have to wake up at eight a.m. any more. And that was that.
For all intents and purposes, I chose to leave out peoples names and specific times. Mostly because I can't really remember them. Countless hours of watching Jerry Springer and professional wrestling have ruined my great memory.
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