11 minute read
Replacement parts keep Orofino woman running Senior meals site list/menus .........................................11/12
It’s time to pack your bags — air travel is back
Iwas terrified by the bombers from Fairchild Air Base that practiced over the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley in 1943. My parents listened to the President’s fireside chats. He talked about planes, war, bombs, crashes, dying and fights. In my 3-year-old mind, I transferred it all to our skies. I ran screaming and hid under the bed every time a plane rumbled overhead. Dad’s cousin was a pilot. They made a plan that would either calm my fears or drive fear deeper into my life. Mama dressed me up and held my hand waiting in our driveway for a “surprise.”
After what seemed forever, I heard a plane coming. I tried to run, but Mama held me tight. “Look up.” she said. “That’s the surprise. What do you see?”
The plane came closer and lower. I finally peeked around my mother and looked up. Someone in the plane was waving. It was my daddy. He was waving and throwing kisses at us. The plane left, circled and came back even lower. I let go of Mama, jumped up and down and yelled, “Hi, Daddy!”
“See,” Mama said. “Some planes are big and some are little. Planes are good.”
“Yup, planes are good.” I answered. My fear vanished.
Planes didn’t enter my life again until I became a Home Base Educator for
Clarkston School District in 1977. I was scheduled to fly to Seattle for training. It was a small, 12-passenger plane out of Lewiston.
January was cold, but there was no snow. I’d never been in a plane before. I chose to sit in the second seat back on the left. The plane was freezing. I could hardly feel my feet and legs. No, my shaking was not from fear or nerves but from icy air coming from below. When we got to the Cascade Mountains, I looked down
to find the source. There it was — a fifty-cent sized hole in the floor. I could look right through it and see the snowy mountains below. I put my foot over it. That helped. Now I only had one frozen foot. You should have heard the flight attendant gasp when I told her she needed to plug that hole so the plane would be warmer. My second flight the following summer was to Laramie, Wyo., for a church conference. The plane THINKING from Spokane to Denver was OUT LOUD large and air-conditioned. What a different ride. As we were beginSharon ning to descend, I decided flying was OK. We were almost ready for Chase touchdown, when the plane’s nose suddenly came up and we rapidly Hoseley ascended back into the wild blue yonder. It was like a carnival ride. As we circled above the airport, the pilot came on,“Sorry about that joy ride, folks. A plane decided to taxi across our runway and I had to ska-doodle out of there. We’re now re-scheduled for landing.” Whew.
From that exciting landing, I transferred to a six passenger plane bound for Laramie. This plane was so small that there was no separation between pilot, co-pilot and passengers.
It was noisy, hot and bounced along over the Rocky Mountain air like a balloon. The unnerving part was the co-pilot chewed on his fingernails the entire 45 minutes. That didn’t build much confidence in this inexperienced flyer.
Despite those rough beginnings, I’ve now traveled all over the world and find it exciting. Whenever I hear a plane leave the airport, I feel the thrill of takeoff, the anticipation of adventure and a longing to be up in the air. It’s the thing I’ve missed most about our year of isolation. It’s the planes that make it possible for me to connect with family, friends, missions and new adventures. Soon — I hope, very soon — I’ll once again, gain my wings.
Chase Hoseley can be reached at shoseley8@gmail.com.
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Bionic woman
OROFINO’S NANCY LERANDEAU IS HEALING FROM SHOULDER SURGERY — HER FIFTH JOINT REPLACEMENT
By JAYCE CARRAL • FOR GOLDEN TIMES
OROFINO — Nancy Lerandeau felt the most pain at night. Unable to sleep or move, she would let out an involuntary scream. Lerandeau, 82, had been dealing with shoulder pain for almost three years, taking two extra-strength Tylenols at night to manage the pain enough to sleep.
“I haven’t slept on my right side for a year,” she said.
As time passed, she was unable to properly move her arm, which prevented her from doing activities like gardening or grabbing a plate from the cabinet. “It was hard for me to put on deodorant,” she said. “It was hard to do anything that involved raising my arm, so I had to do everything with my left hand.” Lerandeau has had two back surgeries and five joint replacements over the course of her life. She said her first back surgery was done in 1981, and it was extended in the early 2000s. She had one hip replaced in 2007, then her knees were done in 2005 and 2006. In 2019, her second hip was replaced. “I think that’s something that I just do. I just wear my joints out, I don’t know why —
I never played tennis,” she joked.
RELIEVING THE PAIN
During her most recent operation on
June 2 at Tri-State Memorial Hospital in Clarkston, doctors completed a reverse shoulder replacement.
“The replacements relieve the pain, first and foremost,” said Dr. Bryan Beardsley. “Then oftentimes they’ll get an improvement in their range of motion and strength as well.” Beardsley, who is an orthopedic surgeon, said Lerandeau’s pain was caused by arthritis, which tends to be a genetically predisposed condition. There are two shoulder-related types of arthritis: osteoarthritis, which is caused by normal wear and tear, and rotator cuff arthritis. Arthritis can tear a person’s rotator cuff, which is supposed to keep the ball of the joint centered in the shoulder socket. “But in the shoulder, the socket is almost flat,” Beardsley said. “It’s kind of like balancing a marble on a book.”
See BIONIC, Page 8
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Pete Caster/Golden Times Nancy Lerandeau poses for a portrait last month in the living room of her Orofi no home, after a surgical procedure to replace her shoulder.
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> Continued from PAGE 8
Beardsley said he went into the operating room expecting to perform a normal shoulder replacement surgery. But about 20 minutes after the first incision, he noticed a tear in Lerandeau’s rotator cuff that was causing fluid to leak out of the joint. He ended up completing a reverse shoulder replacement in about an hour and a half.
Reverse shoulder replacements increase stress on a person’s shoulder blade, which can cause the shoulder to dislocate, especially in older females. However, that only occurs 1 percent of the time, Beardsley said. Lerandeau’s joint was replaced with an artificial one made of polyethylene plastic and metal, Beardsley said. About 1 cubic centimeter of bone graft from a cadaver also was used.
Bone grafts usually come from long bones in a donor’s arm or leg, he said.
Lerandeau was surprised to find a letter from the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, which harvests organs from donors, in her document folder when she returned from the hospital. She has the chance to send a thank-you letter to the donor’s family.
Now, her shoulder is lined in thick, silver stables, and her skin is covered in yellow-and-purple bruises. Her movement is limited by a large grey sling, and her hand is swollen. But she no longer feels the searing pain at night, or during any part of the day.
Lerandeau said her shoul-
Pete Caster/Golden Times Nancy Lerandeau shows the scar from her shoulder replacement operation.
der is tender to the touch, but that’s all she feels.
ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
Her recovery will occur in stages over three months. Beardsley said her staples were to be removed in mid-June, but she was to stay in the sling for another four weeks. She isn’t able to lift any weight with her right arm, “(Lerandeau) can come out of the sling for some exercises,” Beardsley said. “I normally let (patients) start lifting their arm in front of their body using their own muscle power right away. But I don’t want them lifting any weight in their hands, so it’s just the weight of the arm against gravity.”
A physical therapy nurse from Elite Home Health and Hospice is helping Lerandeau during the recovery process. Elite also assists her with occupational therapy. The nurse guides her through cooking and cleaning and also tests her “mental acuity,” Lerandeau said, with small, gamelike tests. “I bested it so many times, she said, ‘We’re not doing that anymore,’ ” Lerandeau said. “I was just having a good time.”
Beardsley said his patients usually stop physical therapy after three months. Then they work on basic exercises by themselves. “And (their shoulder) usually just gets better and better, and they’re just happier and happier with it,” he said.
Full recovery usually takes place by one year after surgery, he said.
Lerandeau said she is looking forward to being able to wash her hair with both hands again, as well as hanging a couple of framed pictures currently leaning against her living room wall.
BIG SUMMER PLANS
Lerandeau was born in Canada but raised in Maine, Mass. She has lived in Orofino for the past 37 years, but she has spent some time traveling the world. She has seven children and a handful of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She worked as a psychiatric nurse at State Hospital North, then in a nursing home before retiring in her 70s.
Lerandeau said she has a busy summer planned. She will be going hiking with her children and their children late this month in Utah. She also plans to visit her 78-year-old brother in Cape Cod, Mass. In the meantime, she said she plans to “putter around” her house and garden, streaming TV shows in the evening and chatting on the phone with her friends and family. “Take care of your body; it’s gonna have to last you all your life,” she said. “They haven’t found the new replacement bodies yet. Soon, probably ... but I don’t think we’re there yet.”
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