Editor's note: This is part two of a two-part story about the victim of a burglary struggling with daily life in the wake of the attack. Part one ran in Sunday's T-R.
It's Tuesday, and Sarah McGuire has an appointment at Primary Health Care Inc. The appointment is unrelated to her PTSD, unrelated to her ataxia, unrelated to her post-concussive disorder. In fact, most of her medical appointments are unrelated to her condition.
"I don't like to say I am disabled," she says. "People look at me different. Can't they see I am a normal person, just in a broken body?"
T-R PHOTO BY DAVID ALEXANDER Sarah jokes with her favorite People Rides driver, Tom, before heading to a doctors appointment.
T-R PHOTO BY DAVID ALEXANDER Sarahs shower nurse, Bonnie, a registered nurse from Home Care Plus, takes her blood pressure before Sarahs Friday shower.
There is not much local doctors can do for her anymore. It is part of the reason her mother, Sharon Olson, has organized a fundraiser to help pay for Sarah to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. To cover the $10,000 cost of her treatment there, her mother is trying to sell 5,000 tickets to raffle off a 2013 Ford Fusion.
The buzz of Sarah's electric toothbrush fills her bathroom as she waits for People Rides, a free transit service for people like Sarah who are unable to interact with the fixed route of the Marshalltown Municipal Transit system. She runs a pink plastic Conair brush through her golden hair. Although she doesn't know it yet, her favorite driver, Tom, has returned from his three-week respite to deal with some chronic health issues. He's a "cool dude," she says.
Once downstairs, Tom helps Sarah from her walker to a wheelchair and guides it over to the lift that will elevate her into the van. But before he does, Tom begins to wheeze slightly.
"Sit down for a minute," Sarah tells him. "I don't want you to have an asthma attack."
The trip to Primary Health Inc. is a short one, and inside, the lobby smells of hand sanitizer. Sarah wheels up to one of the kiosks. The clerk greets her by name before asking Sarah whether her address and phone number is still the same.
Read the original post:
Life in the aftermath