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The Central Rehabilitation Hospital.
OK, let’s go... these 45 days I had spent away I was in one very special place, Central clinic rehabilitation hospital (http:/www.ckbvl.redline.ru is his site). This place is unique in Russia.
Since from its very foundation till recent times it used to belong to one very special place - the Ministry of Nuclear Energy and used to be closed for common public, no outsiders were allowed to come. It is located in the Moscow town-satellite Zelenograd, which is unlike Moscow, is rather quiet and green settlement.
A lot of people with disability live in it.
During the Soviet times the Ministry of Nuclear Energy was a rather
powerful organization, hence this hospital is still keeping rather high
tech equipment as well as experienced professional staff that needs no
«team building» training.
The most of them are somewhat relicts of Soviet era (the young once are not Muscovites, they had come from far away, so they are a bit relict too...)
That was the reason behind the absence of the Internet connection on premises - the staff is not bothered by this, and the patients - some, the richest, the «middle class» ones, could afford the personal notebooks with mobile phone, others have to stand Internet-obsession syndrome like the drug addicts. Despite this and some other negative points I'll tell later life there was not that bad.
Around the hospital building there is a wide beautiful park with some small lakes.
Though its landscape designer was too enthusiastic with planting trees the flower-beds are picturesque indeed, as well as blue spruces and willows.
Unfortunately their abundance makes this park too shadowy to take the sun baths.
The hospital building inside was... well, certainly there was nothing common with those in Germany, but not that bad. Here is the main entrance.
It is rather impressive, isn’t it? But no wheelchair people are allowed to use it. «For the white people only». Those on wheelchairs could use the other door, this one.
The building has 4 floors; each couple of floors has one dining room. Thus sometimes it is a bit overcrowded.
The food quality ... well, not that bad, but it could be better. Twice a week there was disgusting fish. Rather characteristic trait -there were two kinds of patients there: the private and the public. Certainly they got different menus; sure the private patients have much better food. But due to the lack of space both kinds of patients had to share the same one table. You could imagine the emotions.
Another «new Russian feature»: at this picture you see the Very Important Persons General Therapy Department.
Sure no outsiders are allowed to enter it too. I could not enter but I was told rooms there are wider than common ones, each one has separate sanitary room (at yours we used to have one for the department) and the dining room with 15 cooks staff. Anyone able to pay twice the price could live there - and it was overcrowded. Though the treatment methodology is the same for all. The hospital (except its VIP-department) experiences serious lack of nurses to maintain the patients, especially the wheelchair bound. Each nurse has about 10 people to look after - and after 4 PM they leave, so the wheelchair patients have two toilet options - either to use pampers or to pay the same amount for a relative to live with them occupying the second place. Despite the therapy would be paid too, there is almost no option to use it! This is the example of a common room.
Well, at least there is a TV-set there. As for fridge - there is one for several rooms, but there was no need of it.
Despite this entire regrettable negative this hospital is still keeping a lot of pluses. There for the first time I was made the full-scale investigation. Its results you are welcome to see in the «Medical references» section. That was: 1) biochemistry blood analysis 2) Ultrasound blood vessels analysis 3) miography 4) enervation conductivity 5) encephalogram 5) stabilogrohy and stabilotreining - that is a special toolkit to exercise your vestibular apparatus. (p. stabilotreining, stebilotraning 2) Highly useful thing for the one having stayed laying for that long I do, it makes possible to establish a link between the visual picture and your position coordination. And some more staff, not that important. Ophthalmologist, Dentist etc. As a result of this investigation I was prescribed a pile of drugs. Thus my breakfast got looking a bit thrilling - just like the meal of a drug-addict.
The general body massage was being done all my staying there long.
But the main plus of the hospital was the big water pool. There were two pools united in one room - that for walking patients, the bigger one, and that for the wheelchairs. It was shallower and it had the elevator.
That was the main pleasure that covered any negative! I was not swimming since my first visit to Germany in 2001!
Beside the water pool another big plus of the hospital was sport physiotherapy lessons we call "physcultura" in Russia. I was taught to walk. That happened everyday. During daytime we used to walk inside the building and after evening meal we had to run outside to get start at skids.
Since there was only one set of skids outside (though it was large) you’d have to outrun the rushing in crowd.
So first half of my staying in hospital we had that much medical races that by the evening we were just falling down dying. You are to be very healthy to be able to get the treatment procedures!
Never the less in course of the second part of my staying I had found time to read some books. Some of them were usual popular novels, some were more significant.
There was library, the old one, of Soviet times too thus not that bad. Here I got a big Somerset Maugham’s autobiographic novel «Podvodya itogy» - somewhat like «Coming to the end» or just «Finalizing»; there was no original bibliography unfortunately. I like Maugham a lot and that book. Being more literature- and cultorological was highly interesting. But it seems that the «Razor’s edge» was written at approximately the same time, or life period at least, many general ideas are the same.
Moham moved me to get reading Servantes «El ingenioso hidalgo Don Kijote de La Manche». That was not that easy-reading a thing; it occupied the most of the second part. That book made me reflecting a lot. Many respectable people around are highly valuing its literature quality - well, if saying on literature quality - either I’m just blind or others are wrong. Because I read a lot of things, that are not worse in literature styling at least. For example my favourite Maugham appreciates this book as just an example to follow, but I like Maugham more...
At the very beginning I was reading the Shalom Aleichem's novel «Bad joke» on Jewish question in Russia. Together with anti-Semite wows of the Euronews channel and main political leaders (the Europeans, as French ones, so Italian, Muslims of the GB etc - oh, don’t forget about the Russian leaders, the best friend of Hezbollah and Hamaz!) Hey, I wonder what was Don Kijote’s attitude toward Jewish! On the one hand - that time common opinion was rather anti-Semitic too but not to the level of 20th century. I found no mentioning, as well as few mentioning on Arabs. However that was the time when Arabs were finally expelled from the Catholic Spain. That became the reason of the current fundamentalists upraising. That was the down of the brilliant middle-eve Persian Empire. Then it was the same time with Charles de Coster’s «Thile Ulenspiegel» events in Flanders. That book was read by me first, at very early childhood, thus it formed my attitude toward the Spain of that time.
In the meanwhile this character (the Don Kijote’s one) lies in the very root of the current European liberalism crisis. Does anybody notice that the author was ironing on him, no matter noble his ideals were he brings mainly troubles? Recall the case of Andres, the shepherd-boy, «saved» by Don Kijote in the Chapter 4. Later he occurs again. The words of him addressed to Don Kijote I could repeat addressing MY Don Kijote. My disillusionment got confirmed. The only thing I could notice was that unlike my Don Kijote the original was highly asexual. I wonder what were if that real Aldonsa Lorenza, Dulcinea’s prototype, would meet any real problems?
Back to the current liberalism crisis - the disregard of Don Kijote toward education explains a lot. That time was very candid, not spoilt. Imagine among the convicts he had liberated in the very beginning of his adventures got one that got experienced enough to manipulate him in secret - and that was very simple! I’m afraid my own Don Kijote got manipulated too. Modern word is not that candid at all.
Besides that «deep reading» I swallowed some currently popular «pocket books» of Dontsova, Ustinova and Sidney Sheldon. The books of Russian ladies I used to consider as Amazing fairytales only, as just the amazing stories they actually are, but their mood seemed me false too. After the hospital staying I got I was wrong. Since that place was rather expensive - about 100 USD per day, it was half-filled by «commercial» patients, the representatives of the upraising middle-class. For me it was a kind of somewhat «social periscope» to see how this middle class lives. Nobody would give us an option to lift up to there, but at least it was interesting to see. There are a lot of them and their life is easier to stand - even if it is the spinal patient. I remember one conversation of young guys discussing their disaster. «Oh, that was when I brought my third car...»-that means there were two more which he had already broken. Sometimes I think that I would be glad to exchange our fates, for to die anyway and never to recover to get that walking by own foot - but the death-waiting time would be more comfortable... I was told by so many people that «everything will be well», that I can't hear these full words anymore. Till now no trace of it. So for that people the pocketbooks of our detective ladies are fairytales just partly. By the way these ladies form «public myths». Their myths are rather nice and I believe they play significant role in social psychology long-term forming. I wonder if Sidney Sheldon is something the same. Apparently he is - for the USA. One may like or despise American lifestyle, but legal background there is somewhat of the national psychology myth too. And my JURIDICAL case is still undone. So it’ll still be, for nobody cares. And for my broken life I got no compensation at all.
Well, that was very interesting and highly useful time. All around say I look much better and certainly I got a lot during that time. But now I’m awfully tired.
At the very last day we had invited my physiotherapy trainer to our room to chat for a while and to say good bye. Isn’t she nice?
