It is Wednesday the 24th of March and the entertainment area at the new Algoa FM building has been cordoned off for the annual DJ photoshoot.
When I was still a jock I used to love and hate these assignments; we all get to dress up, have our make-up done and then go for photoshoots which will be used online and in various marketing collateral including our annual calendar. The pressure to look perfect and feel fabulous felt like being back at school and my anxiety levels used to go through the roof.
But, at this year's shoot, one member of the on-air team was not available.
Queenie Grootboom who has been part of the Algoa FM family for many years is technically paralysed, suffering from a life-threatening bedsore, and is wheelchair-bound.
This might come as a shock to many of our listeners who just hear her bubbly voice on-air every night as she broadcasts through her pain but from the comfort of her own bedroom.
Queenie and I have spoken a lot over the last few months since we both underwent back surgery when Nelson Mandela Bay was at the height of the second wave of Covid-19.
We shared our fears and encouraged each other via WhatsApp voice notes, which were often a combination of highly medicated conversations and tearful confessions about not coping.
But after eight (8) weeks I was completely mobile, recovering at home, while Queenie's world was falling apart.
I went to visit her on Wednesday and found her in her bedroom where she also broadcasts her radio show, every evening between 7 and 10 pm.
Bedridden and still wearing a catheter, she showed me how the Algoa FM technical team had created a "little studio" for her, from where she has been working since the commencement of the hard lockdown, almost a year ago.
I have not seen Queenie face-to-face in over a year and was humbled that she was finally willing to open up to me about her struggles, following her spinal surgery.
Her nightmare began on the 10th of August 2019, a day she clearly remembers, as she went to the beach.
As she entered the water, her feet started burning and over the next couple of weeks, she would continue to struggle with “strange sensations” in one foot accompanied by back pain.
For the next year, Queenie's symptoms became more bizarre and included spasms, pain, numb and tingling hands and general discomfort.
When X-rays, blood tests and an ECG could not solve her mystery, an MRI scan was her last hope.
Almost exactly a year after her day at the beach, the MRI scan confirmed that she had a growth on her spine in the region of her L7/L8 lumbar vertebrae.
Two months before her diagnoses, Queenie drove her car for the very last time.
She told me how she got stuck, just outside her complex on her way to the shop, when her right leg just gave in.
Queenie had to pull over to the side of the road where she physically had to lift her leg to put it back on the pedal.
She says she just knew right there and then that she could not drive again.
As she came to terms with the news of the growth on her spine, she received a phone call that would jumpstart her process of deterioration.
"Your father has been shot!"
The ever-strong Queenie, whose father was a Sergeant in the South African Police Service, thought he was just wounded and in hospital. After all, she had spoken to him on the phone just earlier that day.
On the 9th of September 2020, the 64-year-old, retired Sergeant Mxolisi Amos Zwide, was killed in a house in Motherwell by a suspect who called him by name.
Zwide, who suffered from diabetes and was on crutches, was shot, execution-style.
At her father's funeral, Queenie recalls "shuffling" to the grave, a term she used to describe the way she was walking. Her legs felt heavy as lead and she needed support from both sides.
Queenie later found out that her father had ordered a wheelchair for himself, shortly before being killed. Ironically it would be Queenie who needed urgent access to a wheelchair herself.
About a month after the funeral she started experiencing fits and seizures, which were caused by the growth blocking her spinal fluid.
Her doctor at the time told her that she would never walk again. However, after doing a specific test, he changed his diagnosis and encouraged Queenie to make contact with another doctor, who would be willing to remove the growth on her spine.
She was instructed to call him to request the surgery be performed before he went on leave.
He agreed and 48-hours later a bed had been organised at Livingstone Hospital, a Covid test done and the surgery booked.
Queenie felt great but on the 4th-day post-surgery, she realised that something might be wrong. Her legs were still not moving.
She told me how a fellow patient, Natasha Martins, had made a video in which she had scratched Queenie’s feet and she could see her toes respond. There was life! Queenie fondly remembers this patient who shared her joy.
Queenie says even when Natasha was moved to another room, she still checked in on her, feeding her and moving her if needed.
But since she was technically paralysed, she had to be moved, in her hospital bed every 2 to 3 hours. This, according to Queenie, hardly ever took place unless she specifically requested to be moved.
For the eleven (11) days that Queenie spent in hospital, there was only one entry in her records, noting that she had been moved regularly, and this was on the 13th of December.
By now Queenie had developed a bedsore and discharged herself from the hospital.
When she arrived home, her mother took a video of the sore and raised the alarm.
A month later, in January, the wound had grown to 25mm x 20mm and was 150mm deep.
Queenie's mom recalls how the doctor managed to put his entire hand inside the wound. Her spine and intestines were also now exposed.
Queenie's biggest concern was her lack of mobility and access to physiotherapy, but soon she would learn that the one thing blocking any kind of progress, was her bedsore.
Nurse Jeanette Bowls, who has been helping Queenie dress her wounds, free of charge, showed me a photograph revealing how the deep wound, now only held space to fit a few fingers, as opposed to an entire hand.
As I was sitting with my friend, still in her pyjamas, I noticed her feet and how she was developing "drop foot", a medical term used to describe the front part of your foot ‘dropping’, similar to a ballerina pointing her toes.
This will make her rehabilitation more challenging and friends, as well as loved ones, want her to go to Aurora, as the last hope for Queenie to regain mobility.
So the next time you listen to Queenie, you can possibly appreciate just how deep she is reaching, broadcasting from her bedroom while smiling and enjoying every moment she shares with her listeners who she loves dearly.
"Algoa FM has been amazing during this trying time, I have never felt left out or made to not feel a part of the team," a tearful Queenie said.
She then smiled and said to me, "You know Doreen if I don't get through this walking again, I will be the first Algoa FM DJ in a wheelchair."
This gives her hope as Algoa FM’s building is 100% wheelchair friendly and accessible.
One of Queenie's friends, Kaylin Nesemann, has started a ‘back-a-buddy’ campaign to raise the funds required to provide her access to Aurora and any other urgent medical care she may require.
Nesemann is so positive, she says: “Queenie will walk again!”
Queenie doesn’t hide the fact that she loves every living creature and will go out of her way to help others. Perhaps it’s time to give back?
At the time of writing this, the fund-raising campaign stood at R7 500, with people from as far as the USA contributing.
Nesemann says the campaign aims to raise R120 000 to cover all the costs.
If you would like to join the campaign follow this link:
https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/algoafm-queenie
