Final Drama Story: The Power of Unconditional Love

While there are still minor changes to make, here is my final drama story about two people never giving up on one another even in the toughest of times.

The Power of Unconditional Love

Despite Jim battling health problems, Jim and Theresa McNeile find ways to live life to the fullest

After arriving back home from a trip to China in the fall of 2001, Jim McNeile had gained a lot –new friends, new experiences, and a new appreciation for life. For two weeks, he and his wife, Theresa, traveled along the Yangtze River and saw the Great Wall of China along with other famous tourist destinations. What he was about to lose, however, would change his life forever. After being diagnosed with diabetes years earlier, Jim has had numerous health problems but nothing compared to the intense pain he suddenly felt in his left leg and foot. He had no choice but to see a doctor in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.

As the doctor examined him, he didn’t have a good feeling about what probably needed to happen with Jim. Not wanting to tell him the inevitable news, the doctor stalled several times. Jim anxiously waited with Theresa. He waited so long that he eventually didn’t care what he heard – he wanted to hear something, anything.

After what seemed like days, the doctor returned back to Jim’s room with a grim face. What Jim was about to hear next would echo in his mind for the rest of his life.

“Jim, you’re going to lose your right leg,” the doctor said solemnly. “I’m sorry.”

Jim stared at him. He knew what he heard, but he couldn’t grasp it. He couldn’t accept it. “Do I have to be in a wheelchair?” Jim asked naively. The answer, as he knew, was yes.

Theresa let the words soak in as well; she tried to understand what it meant. She knew she was willing to help him get around, without a doubt. But she looked over at Jim’s bulky frame and wondered if she could. After all, he was about seventy pounds heavier than her.

“Was I cut out for it? Could I handle it?” she wondered to herself. The thoughts raced through her mind, never seeming to end.

Jim did not want to think about it, either. He simply wanted to relax after his trip, to take in the beautiful sights of trees and flowers in his own backyard. A lover of nature, he always found beauty and tranquility in the mere sight of it. He wanted to come home to his apartment, in Elkhart, Ind., and appreciate what most people overlook – life.

Both Jim and Theresa have certainly learned to appreciate life over the years, with going on many other trips since 1989. Being the managing editor at The Elkhart Truth for 43 years, Jim went on many free cruises in order to promote his business. He and his wife traveled to Greece, London, Ireland and many other places around the world. Being born, raised, and married in South Bend, Ind., both Jim and Theresa have always made it a point to expand their horizons and see the world.

“By the time most people retire and think about going somewhere like Hong Kong, we have already done that!” Jim happily said with a smile.

They simply chose to live life.

Despite being fortunate enough to go on many trips, Jim has had to deal with numerous health complications. His leg amputation and most of his other health problems trace back to his diabetic condition he developed in the 1980s. High blood pressure and cholesterol was something he had to live with every single day. These risk factors eventually led to him undergoing surgery for a carotid artery in 2000 which was almost completely blocked. Many of the doctors said he was lucky to be alive; Jim counted his blessings.

Shortly afterward in 2001, Jim was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After twenty eight days of radiation, Jim bounced back easily. He was a fighter. And once again, Jim counted his blessings.

While Jim remained hopeful and determined through these health complications, the leg amputation was something that he couldn’t quite grasp. He suddenly didn’t feel like the same guy who survived a blocked artery and prostate cancer. Theresa also knew she couldn’t be the same person as before - she had to be a constant care giver, something she was nervous about.

While Theresa didn’t yet know what assistance she would need to provide, she did know one way to help – keep him company at the hospital. She was there during the amputation and for the couple months of recovery.

When Jim woke up from his amputation, with Theresa by his side, he looked down at what was left of his right leg. His upper right leg was wrapped in a light brown bandage down to his knee. He wasn’t in immediate pain, and didn’t feel much of anything. Three weeks later, he was to get his bandage removed. As one of the doctors slowly pulled the bandage off, Jim stared straight ahead. He was nervous about what he might see. Yet when he finally looked down, he saw a much more comforting sight.

“I thought I’d be shocked, but I wasn’t at all,” Jim recalled. “There was no blood or gaping hole – just a smooth spot of skin that felt like the end of your thumb.”

While a doctor was explaining the procedure to him, he called what was left of his leg a “stump” – a common term for an amputated leg.

Jim stared at him and said, “That’s not a stump. That’s my leg.” He wanted to be treated with dignity, with respect.

And so the doctors made sure to never use that word in front of him again.

FINDING DETERMINATION

About a week after the bandage was removed, the doctors gave him a prosthesis to use on his right leg. The doctors warned Jim to be careful since he was an older patient, at 73, and since he was overweight. This didn’t stop Jim from being determined to learn. When he heard their warnings, he could only laugh. “I’m not going to waste away my life!” Jim lightheartedly told them. And Jim made sure he didn’t.

Shortly after he was fitted for his prosthesis, Jim knew that he had no choice but to try to live with the circumstances. He began going torehav sessions twice a week for the next two years, with Theresa by his side. The sessions paid off; Jim eventually learned how to walk with a walker and a cane.

Theresa’s strong desire to learn also paid off - she eventually was able to help Jim get around, whether it be in a car or in their house. In March of 2002, Jim and Theresa were invited on yet another cruise for The Elkhart Truth – this time, to the Danube River in Germany. In the early morning of their flight, Theresa wheeled Jim outside to their navy blue Pontiac minivan. At the push of a button on a remote attached to the passenger seat, a “sit and lift” chair slowly made its way down to the ground. With the supervision of Theresa, Jim got himself up from his wheelchair while using his cane. Though heavier than her, she was able to stabilize him from falling. He sat down on the canvas seat, and they were suddenly on their way to the airport.

When they arrived at the airport, Theresa wheeled Jim into the boarding area.

“Children may now board!” the flight attendant for their plane shouted. Theresa and Jim slowly made their way to the boarding gate. The flight attendants stared at them confusedly.

“We are supposed to board with children; he has a disability,” Theresa said, pointing down to Jim.

The man nodded and put Jim on a canvas-like wheelchair, made specifically for airplanes, and told him he could sit in an isle seat – all while not seeming to really pay attention to him.

“It seems like flight staff just aren’t prepared to help people with disabilities,” Theresa said. “It is already a challenge as it is; we don’t need anymore.”

Nevertheless, ten hours later of constant sitting for Jim finally served a purpose – they arrived in Germany.

Though Germany had its struggles with transportation, they were able to overcome them. They were once again able to get out and live life.

Once back from their trip, Jim continued his therapy with Theresa there every single day of it. Each time he participated in rehabilitation sessions, he had to use his wheelchair, walker, parallel bars and a prosthesis – all of which require an extensive amount of work. The strain on his body became too much; he needed rotator cuff surgery in late 2002. While this surgery didn’t have the same implications as the leg amputation, Jim couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. He tried to help himself recover from the leg amputation only to cause another complication.

Thinking about his efforts sometimes caused him to be frustrated, confused, and just all-around tired. This would cause him to think about not only what he had been through, but also about what he had put Theresa through.

On a cool, rainy day in 2004, Jim sat in his wheelchair and stared out his window from their apartment. His thoughts started running like a steady flow of water from a faucet; they wouldn’t stop.

‘I wonder if Theresa would have married me if she knew she would have to endure all of these burdens,’ he thought to himself. To make matters worse, he felt that he, himself, was the “burden” every single day of her life.

He didn’t have much time to think about it, though - he felt a pain in his left leg that was all too familiar. He knew he had to get it examined.

On November 24, 2004, Jim was admitted once again to Elkhart General Hospital. It was time for his second leg amputation. When learning the amputation had to be above the knee, Theresa panicked. “Are you sure you have to do it above the knee? Can’t you save any of the leg below?” she frantically asked the surgeons.

“There is nothing we can do,” the surgeons told Theresa. “We have to remove his knee as well.” The operation was performed on Thanksgiving, and Jim was thankful for many things on this day - the most important being that his wife was still by side. She went through the whole rehabilitation process with him again; but this time, she had to learn a lot more. Now a double amputee, Jim would need much more daily assistance.

Watching intently at therapy sessions, Theresa learned how to use a sliding board – an essential part of everyday living for a double amputee. Now unable to get up from his wheelchair on his own, Theresa had to transfer him to and from the wheelchair with the sliding board. Every time Jim had to get up to use the bathroom or to get in bed, Theresa lifted his heavy body onto the sliding board and placed him comfortably onto the new surface. It suddenly became much more physically demanding not just for Theresa, but also for Jim.

Once again, Jim tried to not be discouraged despite even more doctors’ warnings about using another prosthesis.

“Jim, you better be careful this time around,” one of the doctors told him. “Using this prosthesis could lead you to a heart attack - it’s larger and heavier.”

“I appreciate your honesty, but I think I’m going to try anyway,” he replied with an eager smile.

DISCOVERING PATIENCE

Though more difficult than after the first amputation, Jim continued with his therapy sessions. As tiring as it was for Jim, Theresa also grew very weary at times – and impatient.

One morning, in early 2005, Theresa was getting ready to give Jim his shot for diabetes. This was just one of many shots Jim receives daily; he has medicine and shots for his heart, blood pressure, stomach, and Parkinson ’s disease. Theresa makes sure he takes each and every one of them at the correct time. With Jim being on a specific routine, Theresa sometimes was too eager to start it. She hardly ever got time alone to herself, and she wanted to schedule a hair cut for her today – the one thing she makes sure she does each month.

“Time for your shot, Jim,” Theresa said, getting closer to him as he laid on the bed.

“Time for your shot, Jim,” Jim repeated, mocking her.

Theresa glanced at him, confused. She did not need this from him; he needed to take his medicine. She had to get on with her day. “Don’t do this to me!” she suddenly exclaimed.

Jim continued to ridicule her, repeating everything she said.

“Just.. just work with me!” Theresa said as she broke down in tears.

She eventually called the doctors to take him off of his current medicine; it wasn’t working as intended. Of course, Jim never meant to act that way and Theresa knew that.

A few weeks later, she peeked into Jim’s room at about 9 a.m. with a shampoo bottle in one hand and a washcloth in the other. She was ready to help Jim wash his hair, but he seemed preoccupied. He was watching “Regis & Kelly,” one of his favorite television shows. Just as she was going to tell Jim to get ready, she paused. Jim calmly sipped on his iced tea, softly laughing at the show. Setting the shampoo bottle and washcloth down on the bathroom counter, she let him enjoy himself. His routine could wait; she could be patient.

“Let me know when you are ready, and I will be here,” she told Jim.

UNCOVERING HOPE

In the midst of attending rehabilitation sessions and learning to be patient with one another, Jim and Theresa found themselves back at Elkhart General Hospital. On June 4, 2007, he suffered a heart attack due to congestive heart failure. As always, Theresa stayed at the hospital with him all throughout his stay, which lasted five weeks.

While talking with Theresa about his condition, a doctor looked at her sadly. “He is probably not going to make it, so you may want to prepare yourself. We just wanted to let you know,” he told her.

Theresa tried, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Going back over to Jim, she stared at him as he lay weakly in his bed. Before she could say anything, he began to speak.

“Well, it’s been a good run,” he said tiredly.

Theresa held her piercing gaze with him. “I don’t know why you are saying that because you are coming home with me,” she said.

On Father’s Day, Theresa received a call at 8 a.m. from one a doctor saying Jim was not responding. She rushed over and saw Jim lying completely motionless on his bed. For once, Theresa felt helpless. After looking at him for a while, she sat down in the corner of his room. She waited. She prayed. She continued waiting for many long hours into the night. About 24 hours later, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Jim was awake.

“I just didn’t believe that anything was going to happen to him,” Theresa said. “I refused to believe him.”

And Jim refused to die.

Doctors were stunned. No one knew how Jim came out of his unconscious state, but that didn’t matter; he showed people once again why he was a fighter.

Ever since that day, Jim has been especially thankful for every breath that God has given him. Even though he is confined to a wheelchair, he still does what he loves to do - live life with Theresa.

As Jim sits in his wheelchair outside on his apartment’s patio every day, listening to birds and enjoying the greenery, those thoughts sometime come back – those thoughts about his wife possibly not marrying him.

But his thoughts are usually interrupted by a familiar sound – Theresa’s voice.

“Jim, are you hungry? Are you doing alright?”

A smile suddenly spread across his face. “Honey, I have never been better,” he replied. “I love you.”