Operation: Healing Angel

by Margaret Kay

  “Good morning, and it’s just Shepherd.”

  She motioned him up to a tall counter. She remained on the side with him and grabbed a folder that had his name on it. “My name is Peggy. I’m the office manager. I have some forms for you to complete and I need to see your I.D. and insurance card, please.”

  He pulled his wallet from the side pocket of his pants, annoyed that he had to. Angel took care of this in the office and made sure the claims were filed, so Vic was paid. “Here,” he said as he handed the cards to her.

  She handed him a clipboard with forms on it and a pen. “Vic filled out most of this for you. Don’t worry about the insurance information, I’ll fill that in. Please just review, add whatever info is missing, sign and date this so we can file your insurance claims.”

  After he completed it, he glanced around the outer office. Soft classical music played, overlapping with the sound of waves that he just noticed. On top of the counter was an aromatherapy diffuser. He only knew what it was because Angel had one on her desk too. The furniture looked comfortable, and there were inspirational sayings lettered here and there on the walls. A few he had seen when viewing her website.

  He checked his watch. He hoped they ran somewhat on time. He didn’t have it in his schedule to waste more than fifteen minutes waiting on them. After only waiting five minutes, he heard voices and laughter approach from the hallway behind the counter. He recognized Dr. Diana’s distinctive voice. When she came into view, he observed that she was dressed in form-fitting, stretchy black pants that he noticed were very flattering, and a blue, silky-looking dress shirt that was feminine and brought out the color of her eyes. He was a bit surprised she wore street clothes. For some reason, he had expected her to wear scrubs in the office.

  When Diana saw Shepherd sitting in the waiting room, a sense of relief flooded her. She had expected him to cancel that morning. “Okay, Mary, thank you. Have a great rest of your day. Mom, her next appointment should be in three weeks.” Then she turned her attention to him. “Hi, how are you today?”

  Shepherd felt his lips tug into a grin, returning her beautiful, natural smile. “Good, thanks. You?” His eyes bounced between her and Peggy. Yes, now he saw the resemblance.

  “Very good, thank you. Let’s go back and I’ll show you the office.” She led him to a door on the west wall that was hung like a barn door.

  She slid it open and motioned him through, closing it behind herself. They were in a hallway with two doors on the left, three on the right and one on the far end of it. Through the open doorway to the left was an office. A large desk sat in front of a bookshelf that lined the entire wall behind it. A large double window was in front of it. It was decorated in calming shades of blue and green. “My office.” She pointed to the closed door on the right. “That is one of our two massage rooms.” The door beside it was open. A massage table sat in the middle of the room. “And this is the other.” Further down the hall, another door on the left revealed an x-ray machine.

  “You have your own x-ray capabilities?” He asked.

  “Yes. I usually will not treat a patient if I have not seen x-rays. If they do not come with them, I take my own.” She pointed to the last door. “A restroom.” Then she opened the door at the far end of the hallway. “Our physical therapy floor is through here.”

  Shepherd rolled up beside her. There were six tables and all the equipment a well-appointed physical therapy office should have. Four therapists in black pants and black polo shirts worked with patients. She led him through the room, circling back to the right. “We have two full-time and six part-time therapists and two interns that work here. The center is open from seven a.m. until eight p.m. Monday through Friday and from eight a.m. till three in the afternoon on Saturdays. There is always a minimum of two people staffed. So, I am sure we can find times that will work with your schedule.”

  “And you only work on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays?”

  “Yes. I am up in Racine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I don’t take appointments those days, but I am often back in the area by five in the afternoon and will swing in just to catch up on paperwork.”

  Shepherd couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She brought him through another barn-style door. Two tables standing straight up were in the two rooms in this area, each within rooms with those large barn-style doors. “These are my chiropractic rooms. I have two different drop tables. As of right now, I’m the only chiropractor here, but I am considering bringing in another one. We’ll see.” She pulled up a chair and sat in front of him. “Colonel,” she began.

  “It’s just Shepherd,” he reminded her.

  She smiled wide. “Okay, just Shepherd. I’ve given this a lot of thought and here is what I can do. First off, let me preface this with the belief that no matter what your schedule is, it will do you a world of good to get out of your office a few times a week. From what Vic has said, you’re a workaholic who spends in excess of sixteen hours a day working, Monday through Sunday.”

  Shepherd shrugged. “Guilty as charged.” He grinned an unrepentant smile at her.

  “Believe me, I understand. I too work or study close to sixteen hours a day six days a week. I do, however, take Sunday as my one and only free day to recharge. Everyone needs one day every week to rest. Vic doesn’t think you take many breaks though.”

  “My business operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And often, when something comes up, it is very last minute. I’m not sure how this will work for me.”

  “Yes, Vic said you often change the schedule with him.”

  “When one of my teams needs support, I have to be there,” he said firmly and unapologetically. “If it’s a matter of pay, I am willing to pay a retainer in addition to service fees.”

  “And your employee, Doc, you cannot specifically schedule when he will be in the office or not to conduct your therapy?”

  “The case he is on right now, came up the day before. Sometimes there is little notice.”

  Diana hated to admit it, but it looked like a private duty person would be his best match. But she knew she could help him, and she wanted to. “You get therapy and a massage five days a week. Could you come here three days a week and I’ll come to you two?”

  Shepherd rolled that around in his mind. “Two here and three at my place would be more convenient.”

  “Are there any days that are easier for you to come here than others?” She would start there.

  “Saturdays are probably easier to come here, through the week, depending on what time, it’s a crapshoot.” The truth was Saturdays were a crapshoot too.

  “Is there any time of day that is easier for you to get away or if someone came to you would be less likely to suddenly not be convenient for you?”

  “Look, I don’t mean to sound difficult. I cannot disclose to you the exact nature of my business, but please understand that when I say things can suddenly require my attention, I really mean it.”

  The look on his face and the tone of his voice conveyed a sense of urgency. Colonel Sam Shepherd was not being dramatic, he was not blowing self-important smoke up her ass. She judged his words to be genuine. She simply nodded.

  “Here’s what I can do. As I said, I’m generally back from Racine Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by five in the afternoon. I can swing by your place and do the physical therapy. I can have one of the massage therapists who work here come by your place any other time during the day for your massage. I can’t spend the time to do both after I’ve put in a full day at school and before I check in here at the office. I’d like you to come here to the office on Tuesdays and Saturdays and we’ll do the massage, the physical therapy, and I will adjust you too. Thursdays and Sundays will be your off days.” That truly was the best she could do.

  Shepherd considered that for a moment. He did feel bad adding something outside of her routine to her very busy schedule. “And if Doc is in the office Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, once you teach him what he wi
ll need to do, he can do the physical therapy session so that you won’t have to stop by. I think that will work.” He’d have to get the information on the massage therapist and run a security check on her too.

  “Okay, great,” Diana said with a relieved smile. “We’ll get him up to speed quickly.” That should help her to not have to make the house calls. She checked her watch. Lexi should be finishing up with her current client. She came to her feet. “Let’s go to my office and we can put your schedule for the next week down on the calendar and by then, the massage therapist I will have working with you today will be free. I’ll meet you on the physical therapy floor after.”

  Shepherd again felt disappointment. Dr. Diana would not be performing his massage today, or any day by the sound of it. “Will this be the same massage therapist who will come to me three days a week?”

  “It will be either Lexi or Debra. They are both really good for therapeutic and relaxation massages.”

  Shepherd nodded. He followed her from the room, exiting back into the hallway. They ended up coming into the waiting room from behind the desk her mother, Peggy, sat at.

  “I’m going to plug a treatment schedule for Shepherd into the calendar for the next week to see how it will work,” she said to her mom. “I’ll give him your card and direct line to call if he needs to make any changes. We’ll do everything we can to rearrange appointments to accommodate him.” She grabbed one of the business cards with her mom’s info from the counter and handed it to Shepherd as her next patient came in through the front door. She greeted him by name and then turned back to Shepherd. “If the schedule works well enough for you, I will replicate it on our calendars for the following two weeks. If we can schedule two weeks at a time, that fits my schedule best.”

  Shepherd nodded. Then he followed her through the same barn-style door again and found himself in front of her desk agreeing to a schedule he was not sure would work at all for him. He glanced at the business card in his hand. Peggy Palmer. Dr. Diana had a business card holder on her desk. He plucked one of her cards from it as well and slid them both into his wallet.

  A few minutes later, Dr. Diana smiled at someone behind him in the hallway. “Are you ready for him?” She asked.

  Shepherd shifted in his chair to view a small Asian woman. She had short black hair and glasses. He could not tell her age. She looked young, but many Asian women did to him. He watched her walk into the room.

  “Hello, Colonel Shepherd, I’m Lexi. I’ll be performing your massage today.” She had the faintest Korean accent.

  Shepherd shook her hand. “Hi, and it’s just Shepherd.” Yes, he was getting tired of telling these people that.

  “By the way, how is the pain today?” Diana asked. From his demeanor, she didn’t judge he had any.

  “Tolerable,” Shepherd replied.

  Diana wasn’t sure what that meant. She rose from her chair. “I leave him in your capable hands, Lexi. Please bring him to the physical therapy floor when you’re through. I’ll meet you there.” She left her office. She had a patient waiting for an adjustment. She’d see three patients while Shepherd received his massage.

  Shepherd followed Lexi into the second massage room. The lighting was low, aromatherapy scents floated in the air, and soothing music with nature sounds played softly. “Please strip down to your level of comfort. You can toss your clothes onto that chair. Will you need assistance to position yourself face down, beneath the sheet on the table?” Her hand pulled the sheet back.

  “No, I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

  “I’ll be outside the door, please call to me when you are ready.” Diana had told her how self-reliant he was.

  Shepherd wheeled up close to the table. He pulled himself into a seated position on top of it. He shed his shoes and clothing, leaving only his boxer briefs, and then positioned himself as requested. He fought off the feelings of disappointment that it would not be Dr. Diana performing the massage, but he told himself based on what his physical reaction had been two days before, it was probably best.

  Lexi gave him a good massage. Her style was different from Vic’s and different from Dr. Diana’s. No, he did not pop wood as a reaction to Lexi’s touch. Nor did he nearly fall asleep. After he was redressed, he followed Lexi to the physical therapy room.

  “I look forward to our next appointment,” Lexi said, presenting her hand. “Dr. Diana will meet you here. I’m sure she’s just finishing up with another patient. She had a full schedule today.”

  “I look forward to it too,” Shepherd said to be polite. “Thank you, Lexi.” He waited for a few minutes, glancing around at the other therapy sessions going on. There was a young man who reminded him of Vic. He joked and laughed with the man he was working with. He wondered if he was one of the part-time physical therapists. Maybe he would be interested in coming to work for him as Vic had.

  “How did Lexi do?” Dr. Diana’s voice startled him out of his thoughts.

  “She’s good, though I’m sure everyone who works for you is.”

  “I’d like to think so,” Diana said. She patted the padded table. “Let’s get to work.”

  Shepherd felt a bit self-conscious pulling himself onto the table in this public setting. He’d never had physical therapy in a communal room before. He realized in that moment how privileged he’d been since the injury. Most patients did not have a dedicated therapist who came to them.

  A woman who looked all of eighteen years old came over and joined them.

  “This is Sheila Jean, one of our interns. I’m going to have her watch and learn, and at some sessions, run you through some of your therapy,” Diana said.

  Shepherd’s mood dipped further. So, Dr. Diana wasn’t even going to conduct all the therapy sessions here, either. She planned to pawn him off on this intern. He’d have to talk with Vic. He needed to recommend someone else. He smiled pleasantly and nodded at the eager young woman.

  They started face down. Five minutes into the session, Vic joined them. Sheila Jean stood back and watched attentively. Both Vic and Dr. Diana moved his limbs and stretched him. Dr. Diana kept a running narrative of the why’s and how’s going throughout the session to explain it to the intern.

  “So, here is a stretch that is a good, deep stretch. Shepherd works his muscles on the weight bench so strenuously, he needs this,” Diana said. She folded his arm over his chest and hopped up onto the table herself, and used her weight, leaning into him to provide an amazing stretch. He smelled that pleasurable, fresh scent wafting from her again. It had to be her shampoo or body wash. It wasn’t perfume. Then she repeated the same stretch with the other arm. Her lack of shyness struck him as a confidence that he found so damn attractive.

  When his physical therapy session ended, he rolled along with her and Vic back into the room with what Dr. Diana had said was a drop table. It was mechanical, standing straight up. She lowered it so it was horizontal to the floor. He transferred himself to it, face down per her instructions.

  “We’ll adjust everything but your spine between L-1 and L-5 on this table. Then we’ll transfer to my flexion distraction table to adjust that area.” She pointed at the table in the other room.

  She caught sight of Vic’s questioning expression. She shook her head at him. Since she didn’t know what was going on with the lumbar region of his back, she’d approach his treatment with extreme caution. She would want new images taken of his lumbar spine. The images she’d looked at on Tuesday morning were several years old. If it was a disc issue, adjusting him from the posterior could cause more damage.

  It was a rough adjustment. As she had noted previously, he was severely out of alignment. It would be interesting to learn how long the adjustment would hold. She wished he’d come to her office three times a week. She suspected he’d need three good adjustments a week for at least a month to hold.

  She had him transfer to the flexion distraction table and lie face up. There she fully adjusted his lumbar spine, which was just as bad as the res
t of him. She also adjusted his neck, knees, and feet. Then she bent each of his knees up and adjusted his hips, which were out again.

  After several forward bends on the face-up table, Shepherd was sure that the numbness and pins and needles sensations down both legs were gone. He laid stunned, wondering if that was what he really felt. He said nothing. By the time she bent his knees up near his face and used her body to press on them, the same sensations he’d had for years, returned.

  By the time he’d pulled himself back into his wheelchair, he was sure he had imagined it. “You mentioned an inversion table?”