August 13, 2017 9:30 pm
Things started slowly today. At first, Josh was alert but not interested (or capable?) of answering questions or doing much in the way of interaction. But things picked up as the day went on. By the end of the day, he was doing pretty well. He still perseverates when he eats (either pushing his fork around his plate or holding it right in front of his mouth but not able to put it in) and so we still have to help feed him. And he still requires our vigilance in order to stay dry. But he played some games with us, "helped" us with a Scooby Doo puzzle, took a walk (with PT that included a flight of stairs), and half watched the TV for a while. He initiated conversation on one or two occasions, which is still very rare. Mary sneezed and he quickly offered a "bless you."
Josh doesn't understand, despite the fact that we have talked about it 100 times, that we are extremely excited to discharge from Swedish tomorrow and head back to Craig. Swedish is a true hospital whereas Craig is much more of a rehabilitation center. Josh will have better opportunities to progress once he's back in rehab. The folks at Swedish have been good to us, but we are ready to move on. We already made one trip back to his room at Craig tonight hauling a bunch of our stuff.
I think we wrote about this before, but one of the challenges of Swedish is navigation. We've never been in a hospital that is more like a maze. After nearly two weeks, and just before being discharged, we're finally starting to know our way around. Here is a photo that gives you just a glimpse into what I'm talking about. These color-coordinated lines are taped on the floor throughout the entire hospital to help people get from place to place. Paul snapped this photo in front of one of the elevators. These lines quickly separate and diverge as they are followed. Crazy. I don't know what people do in an emergency!
We were both released from our church callings back in our home ward today. We were both sad to have to give up such good callings, and we both really miss our ward and our home. We are currently targeted to head back to Portland on September 22, but our guess is that we'll probably stay at Craig through the end of September since we lost a couple of weeks of rehab. We also had to cancel our planned (and fully booked) trip to South Africa that was scheduled to start on Sep 22! THAT was especially painful!!
Things started slowly today. At first, Josh was alert but not interested (or capable?) of answering questions or doing much in the way of interaction. But things picked up as the day went on. By the end of the day, he was doing pretty well. He still perseverates when he eats (either pushing his fork around his plate or holding it right in front of his mouth but not able to put it in) and so we still have to help feed him. And he still requires our vigilance in order to stay dry. But he played some games with us, "helped" us with a Scooby Doo puzzle, took a walk (with PT that included a flight of stairs), and half watched the TV for a while. He initiated conversation on one or two occasions, which is still very rare. Mary sneezed and he quickly offered a "bless you."
Josh doesn't understand, despite the fact that we have talked about it 100 times, that we are extremely excited to discharge from Swedish tomorrow and head back to Craig. Swedish is a true hospital whereas Craig is much more of a rehabilitation center. Josh will have better opportunities to progress once he's back in rehab. The folks at Swedish have been good to us, but we are ready to move on. We already made one trip back to his room at Craig tonight hauling a bunch of our stuff.
I think we wrote about this before, but one of the challenges of Swedish is navigation. We've never been in a hospital that is more like a maze. After nearly two weeks, and just before being discharged, we're finally starting to know our way around. Here is a photo that gives you just a glimpse into what I'm talking about. These color-coordinated lines are taped on the floor throughout the entire hospital to help people get from place to place. Paul snapped this photo in front of one of the elevators. These lines quickly separate and diverge as they are followed. Crazy. I don't know what people do in an emergency!
We were both released from our church callings back in our home ward today. We were both sad to have to give up such good callings, and we both really miss our ward and our home. We are currently targeted to head back to Portland on September 22, but our guess is that we'll probably stay at Craig through the end of September since we lost a couple of weeks of rehab. We also had to cancel our planned (and fully booked) trip to South Africa that was scheduled to start on Sep 22! THAT was especially painful!!
What? South Africa.....Oh, no! And it's all paid for! How sad, how sad. Well, you're too busy to worry about that now. You take care of your job, and I'll cry for you. Think nothing of it, I want to help, and a few tears is the least I can do!
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa?! That's super sad. I'm so sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe air of sadness in this update made me sad... On the other hand, The hope you infuse abt moving on is good to see... Josh is a very lucky young man...
ReplyDeleteWell, Jenny and I would offer to take that vacation package off your hands but a 20 hour flight each way and the thought of spending another second in Africa makes my stomach turn ... don't feel too bad - I'm not sure how much someone would have to pay me to vacation in Suid Afrika but I can assure you it's a lot. Give me SoCal or Hawaii ... hell ... I'd rather go to Idaho ... send me to Detroit in winter first!
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