Vertigo and the Healing Power of Books

I thought I'd had a stroke at 49 years of age but turns out that wasn't the case. After a battery of tests, my doctor's and my best guess was that I had a whammy of a case of vertigo.
He gave me a medication called Serc, which we both thought was working the first month. But then it wasn't, so I figure, it didn't the first month either.
I stayed on Serc for three or four months, just in case. But I finally realized it wasn't helping any, and quit taking it.
I spent alot of time in bed. Alan took care of everything, again. He cooked meals for the family and brought mine to me in bed.
I was a sorry mess for many months. I lived in my nightgown and housecoat. Had bedhead all the time.
After I don't know how many months -- maybe one? maybe two? -- I started reading some books I had in my bookshelves, everything by L.M. Montgomery. All the Anne books, all the Emily books, all the Story Girl books, the Pat of Silver Bush books.
I've read through this author's books many times since I was 11 years old. This was the first time though that I noticed in the Pat books, that Pat's mother was sick for a long time.
She spent most of her time in bed, and the family knew she could not be taxed or she would become more ill. After some years, Pat's mother got better to the point that she could join the family most of the time, though she never became really strong again.
Hmm. That struck a chord.
And there was one passage in particular that stayed with me. Pat had been really ill, and eventually was well enough to sit up in bed and see out the window. Then she could sit in a chair and look out the window. But it was a painfully slow recovery.
Old Judy said to her, "Patsy, darlint, ye must be going careful. There's to be no running all over for a while yet. Just sit ye still and listen to yer hair growing."
That is what I did that winter. And I related to what Old Judy said in a way that I never had before.
I finished the L.M. Montgomery books and found a Bobbsey Twin series in my bookcase, which I'd read as a child, and which all my daughters had read. I went through them all.
I moved on to the Nancy Drew series, which I had actually never read before. My mother had gotten them for my daughters, over the years. I was very thankful at this time to have all these books in my own bookshelves.
Going to the library ... impossible.
These books got me through those bleak winter months of illness.

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