By Darlene Franklin

“I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places.”
Whoa. Isaiah’s words brought me to an abrupt halt. My life in a nursing home often felt like an empty place.
Literally speaking, my half of a shared room in a nursing home was far from empty. The essence of six decades of life was crammed into a few square feet. Correspondence, presents, toiletries, clothes, doo-dads filled my dressers to overflowing. Family pictures and framed poetry by my daughter brightened my walls. The fifty-plus books I’d written strained my six-foot bookshelf, and my clothes crowded my half of the rod.
When we added a hospital bed, bi-pap machine, oxygen generator, walker, and laptop, my roommate and I could barely wheel through the room. My wheelchair spent the night in the hallway because it blocked my path to the bathroom. My bedtable doubled as work space and dining room.
The crowded room reminded me of what wasn’t here. My beloved cat. Shelves of family photographs. Family recipes. Daily routines varied little. How often did I get outside? How many meals excites my palate? Whom could I chat with, with a speech-impaired roommate and aides busy working?
So when I read that God wanted to give me a full life in an empty place, I jumped to attention. How could I find a full life in this place?
The answer was both simple and complex. I could have a full life because God was infinite. My circumstances didn’t limit Him.
Yesterday I expected a very empty day. My daughter should have celebrated her thirty-second birthday. Instead, she died at her own hand eight years ago.
In my quiet time, I read a quote by Cecil Murphey in Knowing God, Knowing Myself, “No matter how many times I examine the past, there’s nothing I can do to change it.” I needed that reminder to let the guilt go, and to rejoice that Jolene is waiting for me in heaven.
Running late for our mid-week Bible study, I fought the urge to get flustered and agitated-my go-to reaction when I’m stressed. Instead of muttering complaints, I stayed calm. On the way down the hall, an aide asked us to pray for her mother at our meeting. The short contact expanded my sense of belonging. Cheers greeted my arrival, since I’m the pianist. Accompanying hymns has been a life-long joy, something that cheers myself as well as others.
The pastor’s youngest daughter rushed to hug me before the song service started. Of the hymns we sang, I only knew half. But I had developed my God-given talent by playing through dozens of hymnals. Sight-reading a new one came fairly easily, and the fellow musician’s testimony touched me.
My arthritic fingers made more mistakes than they used to, but the congregation loved having the instrument. The piano made the music stronger.
The sermon, on God’s love. spoke to me more powerfully than usual. In a few recent failures, I chose anger over trusting God. Since God loved me, and I claimed to love God, my life should show it.
After the service, the little girl returned with her three sisters and all four hugged me. I returned their embrace, reminded of my own grandchildren across the country enjoying spring break. The love, freely given by the pastor’s children, met my need for human touch.
After lunch, I jumped into work, final edits on my next novella. Recently I sold another novella to a “traditional” publisher, keeping my work schedule full.
Not to mention the fact that I could work at all. There were very jobs one could do from inside a nursing home. Author happened to be one of them.
My latest order from a clothing store arrived and I got to touch and feel the soft robe and see the exact pattern of the pink and white checks. Now I can walk modestly from my room to the shower.
If the day wasn’t already full enough, I had restorative therapy for the first time in over a month. Arms and legs, back and forth, up and down, working for those “firm muscles and strong bones” that God promised in another passage.
If one day could be that full, what about tomorrow? God’s love, flowing in, through, and out of me filled my life even in empty places.
Best-selling hybrid author Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to fame is that she writes full-time from a nursing home. This year she expects to reach fifty unique titles in print and she’s also contributed to more than twenty nonfiction titles. Her column, “The View Through my Door,” appears in four monthly magazines.

story and photo by Traci Chapman

Outreach Health Services might be new to the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, but it’s a company that brings with it more than four decades of caregiving for seniors and individuals with disabilities.
“As the company has this depth of experience, so do we,” said Karen Mangan, Outreach Health RN director of patient care. “We have bonded over our shared outlook of patient care and service.”
Mangan forged that bond with Outreach Administrator Ginger Meyers, a home health administrators of more than 30 years’ experience, the last 20 in Oklahoma City, she said.
“I’ve just always been in the business of caregiving,” Meyers said.
Mangan has been in nursing for about 40 years – 10 as an LPN, 30 as RN, working in virtually every aspect of healthcare.
“I was at my doctor’s office and they offered me a job as a file clerk, and it just went from there,” she said. “It’s always just been my calling, what I knew I was meant to do.”
Their backgrounds were a natural fit, then, for Outreach Health, Meyers said. Founded in 1975 in Texas by William Ball, Outreach was one of the first home health agencies in that state, according to company literature. Today, more than 8,000 employees across Texas – and now in Oklahoma City – provide home care, self-directed and personal emergency response services, assistance to women, infants and children, pediatric and behavioral health services.
“We have some really significant differences to other companies in this field – not only our long-range track record, but the fact we are both family owned and operated and our philosophy is faith-based,” Meyers said. “That’s something that really called to me, and it’s illustrated in everything we do.”
That includes not only patients, but employees, Mangan and Meyers said. Outreach makes how staff see themselves as a part of the firm’s crucial mission a priority, helping them to reach new professional levels while empowering patients and their families, Meyers said.
“It truly is a positive, supportive environment,” she said. “We support each other while we support those we work to help every day.”
“That kind of environment is positive for everyone,” Mangan said. “When you have the right people, dedicated employees who really live for this kind of service, you want to make sure they’re happy.
“That, then, makes the care they give even more significant – not just technically superior, but with a kind of care that comes from the heart, as well as through skills,” she said.
Outreach Health works hard to ensure just that, Meyers said. In addition to standard benefits like health insurance, the company offers emergency assistance funds, scholarship and loan programs, as well as counseling and outreach programs that include a library for employee growth, chaplains and Bible studies. That type of care extends to Outreach’s patients, Mangan said. Beyond physical care and assistance, caregivers provide friendship and companionship, a sense of safety and a symbol of faith. Chaplains are also available to those clients who need or ask for their services, while caregivers fulfill duties ranging from bathing and hygiene, mobility assistance, home safety assessments, shopping, housekeeping and meal preparation, transportation and escort to community events and other activities, medication and doctor’s appointment reminders and more, she said.
“Of course, there are so many other things we offer, including RN visits and assessments, pre- and post-operative care assistance, hospital sitting and much more,” Mangan said.
Many of those Outreach Health seeks to serve are older individuals, although some might be dealing with disabilities at a younger age, chronic conditions and the like, Meyers said.
“Normally we’re looking at geriatric, multiple diagnosis patients unable to care for themselves,” she said.
Beginning July 1, Outreach will begin its ADvantage Waiver contract, a program designed for “frail elderly and adults with physical disabilities age 21 and over who do not have intellectual disabilities or a cognitive impairment,” according to Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
Services available under ADvantage Waiver include: * Case management * Adult day health, including personal care * Skilled nursing in a home health setting; * Physical and respiratory therapy * Hospice * Speech/language therapy * Specialized medical equipment/supplies and environmental modifications * Respite and Restorative home delivered meals.
As Meyers and Mangan count down to the July 1 ADvantage kick-off, their first focus is to continue their efforts to build up their staff, individuals who will bring the care and commitment that has been a way of life for each of them.
“We’re very strong advocates for people having their own choice, and we like being a part of making that possible,” Meyers said. “Having the right staff is how we do that.”
For more information about Outreach Health, go online to its website at www.outreachhealth.com or contact Mangan or Meyers via email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-256-2998.

As those who have tried endless diets know, there are no easy fixes when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off. Even with dieting and exercise, many don’t succeed. Brandi (last name withheld), a 35-year-old mother from Ardmore, Oklahoma, thought she found her answer when she discovered weight loss surgery at cheap prices was a booming business in Tijuana, Mexico.
She knew people from her small town who traveled to Mexico for successful gastric sleeve weight loss surgery, and in her research she found numerous clinics there advertising their services on YouTube with slick patient videos. Those Tijuana clinics charge as low as $4,000 for the whole surgery plus anesthesia. The clinics woo potential patients by marketing the experience as more like a vacation than a possible life-threatening surgery.
In gastric sleeve surgery, which is usually suitable for patients who have 100 pounds or more to lose, the structure of the stomach is changed to be shaped like a long, skinny tube, which restricts the amount of calories the body absorbs. The new banana-sized stomach, or “sleeve,” is about 1/10th the size of the original stomach.
Brandi traveled to Tijuana to have the surgery on March 11, and one day later “they put me on the plane while I was still hurting really bad, with no instructions on after-care,” she says.
Once Brandi returned to Ardmore she ran into more problems. “I ran a low-grade fever for days and my back pain was horrible and getting worse. It got so bad after several days that I had to go to the ER. They told me I had a softball-sized abscess and leak from the surgery,” she says. “Right away, the local ER rushed me to INTEGRIS in Oklahoma City for emergency surgery to repair the leak.”
Brandi’s story doesn’t surprise Hamilton Le, M.D., who performed that emergency repair surgery 10 days after her failed surgery by the other doctor in Mexico. Le is medical director at the INTEGRIS Weight Loss Center. “In just the last eight weeks or so, I’ve had to repair four people who had life-threatening complications — in some cases, critically ill and almost dead from sepsis — from gastric sleeve surgery by doctors in Mexico,” he says.
Dr. Le points out all four patients are from smaller, more rural towns such as Ardmore and Woodward. He believes the clinics in Tijuana are targeting small towns with their advertising, since those potential patients aren’t near the bigger cities that offer weight loss surgery locally. “The patients I’m seeing with complications aren’t coming from Edmond, they’re coming from Elk City,” he says.
In Brandi’s case, “Dr. Le thinks the infection came from the way they did my sleeve,” she says. “It should look like a banana, but there is a big kink in the middle. When you look at the X-ray it doesn’t even look like a gastric sleeve.”
Although the price for weight loss surgery usually starts at $10,000 in the U.S. and can run up to $25,000, “you get what you pay for,” Le says. “Any money people save by doing the surgery in Mexico could go down the drain. If you have complications once you get back to the states, often insurance won’t cover care from an unapproved surgery, and many hospitals won’t work on the patients without their paperwork.”
Brandi says, “When I was so sick at the ER in Ardmore, I called lots and lots of doctors, but nobody else in the state would take me because the surgery was done in Tijuana. Thank God for Dr. Le. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”
She stayed in the INTEGRIS hospital for a week and continues to make bi-weekly trips to Oklahoma City for follow-up care. She says she might need additional surgery in the future to do further repairs on the sleeve. Still, Brandi feels like one of the lucky ones. “My medical bills (from treatment of the complications) run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars now. I’m lucky because my insurance is helping me pay. I can’t even imagine how the others with no help from insurance will make it,” she says. Brandi advises, “Don’t go down there and do it. It is much safer to pay for it here, and know what you’re getting. I didn’t even get the right kind of sleeve… it didn’t even look like a normal sleeve.”
Dr. Le says long-term outcomes of having weight loss surgery in Mexico aren’t good. “The surgery is just the tip of the iceberg. When you have the surgery in the U.S., there are extensive pre- and post-surgery requirements and after-care, like getting an EKG to check heart health, meeting with a psychologist to make sure patients are emotionally ready for the surgery, and having a nutritionist teach them how to re-learn to eat.” Without this coaching, patients are much less likely to maintain any weight loss, he says.

There is no guidebook or manual covering all the complexities associated with getting older. The self-help section of every bookstore boasts several topics ranging from helping aging parents and financing retirement, to health and wellness advice or dealing with those ever returning boomerang kids, but there is no one-size-fits-all model for aging successfully.
It is with this in mind that Nikki and Chris Buckelew and their real estate team’s mature moves division launched the “Senior Living Truth Series” back in 2016. The series includes a monthly educational program made up of seminars and expert panels dealing with topics important to mature homeowners.
“Because our team specializes in helping people who have lived in the same home for many years, we field questions daily on a range of topics. It’s important to be aligned with highly competent professionals we can recommend,” says Nikki Buckelew. “We introduce seminar attendees to these professionals through our expert panels.”
Seminar attendees are often either looking ahead to prepare for their own post-retirement lifestyle or are caring for an aging relative or friend. They are seeking answers to questions like what types of 55+ housing options are available, where to get support, how to pay for long-term care needs, ways to simplify and de-clutter, and more.
“Our attendees are smart people and when they have the resources they need, they feel more capable of making decisions. We all feel that way and that’s why we developed the series,” adds Buckelew.
Those attracted to the seminars appreciate the professional and organized fashion in which the seminars are delivered.
“The seminars are well-organized and well presented,” said Frank Andrews, a retired corporate trainer.
Frank and Carol are familiar faces at the truth series events and began attending after seeing an article in the paper.
“It’s about learning that you have to plan early and about understanding what you need and what you don’t,” added Carol. Jennifer Forrester, Community Relations Director with Oklahoma Hospice Care, a regular sponsor of the event, said the series has a way of helping people deal with the hard questions a lot of people tend to avoid.
“Nikki is the only Realtor I know who has a background in both counseling and gerontology, and as the moderator she has a way of taking hard topics and making them lighter and easier to talk about,” Forrester said. “She just says it like it is and doesn’t apologize for it.”
The Buckelews and their specialized team have made it their personal and professional mission to educate and guide consumers about best practices related to post-retirement living.
“People are doing the best they can and credible information is hard to find. Our attendees tell us they appreciate meeting local people with whom they can have a personal conversation without feeling pressured or rushed,” says Chris Buckelew.
James and Joan DonDero began attending the seminars a year ago.
“We attend frequently and chose to meet with the Buckelews personally to talk about downsizing in the future. It was just what they said – no pressure and no sales pitch,” said James.
The seminars serve to empower, equip, and educate by providing information to help people think about what their next steps might be and the timing to begin taking them.
“Going to the seminars helped us realize we had some things to think through,” added Joan.
The next event is titled “The Truth About Successfully Aging in Place” on July 13th from 10:00am – 11:30am and from 2pm – 3:30pm. The morning event has reached capacity and reservations are being accepted for the afternoon event.
“We know that people prefer to remain in their own homes and neighborhoods for as long as possible. The challenge is many have not prepared and need information on best practices for ‘staying put’,” Buckelew said.
The August event is titled “The Truth About De-cluttering Your Home.” With morning and afternoon sessions starting at 10am and 2pm.
Events are held at the MAPS3 Senior Health & Wellness Center located at 11501 N Rockwell in Oklahoma City. Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Admission is free for those 55 or older and their guests. Professionals pay $25. Go to www.seniorlivingtruthseries.com or call 405-563-7501 to register.

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation recently awarded $97,500 to six charitable organizations in central Oklahoma providing services for elderly citizens.
“Seniors are in need of programs that help them to live happy, healthy lives,” says Whitney Moore, development director for recent grant recipient Oklahoma City Ballet. “Remaining active as seniors age is very important in maintaining their independence and health.”
The Community Foundation’s Services for the Elderly iFund program supports organizations that provide direct services for our community’s older citizens who still live in their homes. By supporting wellness and exercise activities, this program helps to allow independent living to continue and provides positive social and recreational opportunities improving their quality of life.
“Oklahoma City is continually listed as one of the nation’s least healthy cities. The Oklahoma City Community Foundation is actively working to change this by creating a culture of health and wellness in central Oklahoma,” Oklahoma City Community Foundation President Nancy B. Anthony said. “We are pleased to work with charitable organizations that share our vision and provide creative solutions to improve the lives of citizens in our community.”
The following grants were awarded through the Services for the Elderly iFund:
American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma – $12,500 for a campaign to prevent home fires among elderly residents.
NewView Oklahoma – $20,000 for a medication management program for seniors who are vision-impaired.
Oklahoma City Ballet – $10,000 for the Golden Swans program providing ballet classes to help improve senior mobility.
Rebuilding Together OKC – $20,000 to provide critical heating, cooling and electrical repairs to low-income seniors allowing them to remain safe, warm and dry in their homes.
Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma – $20,000 to provide nutritious food and healthy living resources to low-income seniors.
The Salvation Army Central Oklahoma Area Command – $15,000 to support the Senior Watch program that provides immediate, short-term assistance for seniors in need of additional household, emotional or spiritual support.
An initiative of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation Trustees, the iFund program utilizes gifts from donors to support services for children and elderly, as well as provide access to health care. Since 2011, the iFund program has awarded more than $2.5 million to charitable organizations serving central Oklahoma. For more information, visit www.iFundokc.org.
Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works with donors to create charitable funds that will benefit our community both now and in the future. To learn more about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, visit www.occf.org.

A local art show raised more than $3440 for Mercy’s stroke education, treatment and prevention programs. The benefit, which was organized by Oklahoma Artists Invitational (OAI), featured original works from 24 artists, including Mercy’s Dr. Dustan Buckley. To date, OAI has donated more than $16,617 to Mercy’s stroke center.
Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City is currently home to the state’s largest group of neuroscience specialists in the southwestern United States, and the state’s largest number of neurohospitalists – physicians dedicated solely to providing neurological care for patients admitted into the hospital. In February, Mercy was named a top stroke center in the nation.

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has received a pair of grants totaling nearly $2.1 million from the National Institutes of Health. The projects will focus on mechanisms that underlie proper blood coagulation and ovarian cancer.
OMRF scientist Ray Rezaie, Ph.D., received a four-year, $1.74 million grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that will allow him to continue research on a protein called antithrombin, which inhibits coagulation of blood.
Rezaie joined the foundation’s Cardiovascular Biology Research Program in 2017 from the St. Louis University School of Medicine. He studies blood clotting and inflammation, including how clotting factors work together to stop bleeding and how they regulate inflammatory responses when blood vessels are injured.
Antithrombin, which is located in blood plasma, is an inhibitor necessary for regulating coagulation and inflammatory pathways that are essential for maintaining healthy processes in blood vessels. “We know that antithrombin binds to molecules in the vascular system to initiate an essential anti-inflammatory response to keep vessels intact and healthy,” said Rezaie. “But we still don’t know how it works.”
Through better understanding this process, scientists ultimately hope to develop new therapeutic agents to control thrombosis, clotting and inflammatory diseases, primarily heart disease and atherosclerosis.
The second grant was awarded by the NIH’s National Cancer Institute to Magdalena Bieniasz, Ph.D. Over three years, it will provide $339,000 to study the underlying mechanisms of a receptor called sfRon, which has been implicated in aggressive ovarian cancer progression.
“This sfRon receptor actually makes the cancer aggressive and resistant to standard treatments, and that’s why we need to know how it works,” said Bieniasz, a scientist in OMRF’s Functional and Chemical Genomics Research Program.
She will also be testing drugs that inhibit this receptor in order to search for therapies that will work in targeting the receptor present on cancer cells.
Bieniasz became a principal scientist at OMRF in 2016 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah. She receives funding support for her research from the University of Oklahoma’s Stephenson Cancer Center, where she is also a member.
In her lab at OMRF, Bieniasz studies how ovarian cancer grows and spreads in the body, as well as the genetic changes in cancer cells that can lead to chemotherapy resistance.
This grant from the National Cancer Institute is tailored to provide new investigators with the early support to help them generate more data to be highly competitive for future grants.
“There are not many grants out there that do this,” she said. “Now I have assets to hire people for my lab and do more experiments. It’s a really great boost for this research in its early stages.”
Rezaie’s NHLBI grant designation is 2R01 HL062565-19A1 and Bieniasz’s NCI grant is1K22 CA207602-01. OMRF Vice President of Research Rodger McEver, M.D., said these grants speak volumes about the quality of research being done by these scientists in an increasingly tough climate for funding.
“The NIH is the major funder of biomedical research in the U.S. and applications for NIH grants are rigorously reviewed and highly competitive,” said McEver. “Awards like these are a testimony to the rigor and creativity of their research.”

The Fountains at Canterbury, in northwest Oklahoma City, is known for its thriving campus of residents keeping busy with new, exciting activities and programs.
While brainstorming fresh, extraordinary outings for her residents, The Fountains at Canterbury associate Kaitlan Kenworthy came up with an idea for a delicious notion to add to the group’s famed bucket list outings, something she fondly calls ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Canterbury-style.’
“I wanted to create new, exciting, fun excursions for residents,” said Kenworthy.
The inspiration for her delicious idea was derived from the hit Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” with host Guy Fieri, and specifically the nine locations he visited in Oklahoma. The group has been to nearly all of the featured locations, including Clanton’s Café in Vinita, Eischen’s Bar in Okarche, the Rock Café in Stroud and Oklahoma City culinary legends Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, Ingrid’s Kitchen, Leo’s BBQ and Mama E’s Wings and Waffles.
Their most recent excursion was to Nic’s Place Diner and Lounge. The new location offered natural light cascaded into a large, dark-wood room as several residents waited eagerly to order. They commented on the lovely décor, discussed who wanted to split the large portions with whom and reminisced on their previous outings.
“I’m excited to try [Nic’s]. We’ve been to a little bit of everything,” said Ann Forester, resident of The Fountains at Canterbury. “I have not missed a trip since we started making them to various restaurants.”
As Forester finished the first bite of her ‘Old School Burger’ she remarked, “It’s very good.”
Kenworthy said the program has been a hit with residents and she hopes to continue taking them to new places, even after they’ve completed the current series of outings.
“I think the residents have really enjoyed getting out, visiting new places and trying new food.” said Kenworthy. “It would be amazing if Guy Fieri would come back to Oklahoma and go to a restaurant with our group to give them a live rendition of his show!”
As the residents of The Fountains at Canterbury are approaching the last outing in their ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Canterbury-style’ series to The Diner in Norman this July, they are excited about the location, but sad to see the series come to a close. However, residents should not fear boredom as Kenworthy is already planning their next adventure.
The Fountains at Canterbury is dedicated to being the first choice in senior living, providing a continuum of care including independent living, assisted living, memory care, innovative rehabilitation therapies and skilled care. The Fountains at Canterbury is managed by Watermark Retirement Communities and is committed to creating an extraordinary community where people thrive. To learn more, please call (405) 381-8165 or go online to www.watermarkcommunities.com.