Month: June 2010

Kevin’s folks let us borrow Nanny’s (Kevin’s now deceased grandmother) walker. And it didn’t take long for him to try it out.

He walked up and down our hallway twice, then around our house once before he pooped out. He was sweating profusely, but he did it. He almost lost his balance once when he turned around to go the other way, but the wall was behind him so it helped him regain his balance.

I followed closely behind him with his wheelchair in case he needed to take a break. (I needed to point that out so you didn’t think I just wanted to BE in the picture. LOL).

Though he took it slow, I worried. He practiced both on carpet and on our tile and I worried he would lose his footing. Though he was wearing shoes, his feet dragged and it was difficult for him to pick his feet up. But considering it’s been eight weeks (and that’s eight weeks TODAY, as a matter of fact), since the accident and he’s already back on his feet even after three major surgeries to reconstruct his pelvis, the man is doing remarkably well.

He’s also doing leg exercises in bed that the physical therapist showed him to help him strengthen his leg muscles. He plans on walking twice a day for a while and when he gets stronger and more stable, I’ll likely take him somewhere (like the mall, or Wal-Mart – somewhere where there’s a lot of maneuver room) so he can practice even more.

I don’t know if you can see it in the picture or not, but this walker has a seat. This means, when we take this on vacation with us and he starts getting tired of walking, he can sit on the seat and I can use it as a wheelchair.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone! If it all works out like I hope it does, we won’t even have to worry about taking his wheelchair on vacation with us AT ALL!!

Praise God!!!

We also made a trip up to his family doctor today so they could draw blood and check his levels (he’s on blood thinner). Since he’s on blood thinner for preventative measures, they wanted his levels to be in the 2 to 3 range – it ended up being 3.1. The doctor wasn’t too concerned about this. Since Fridays are the day he only takes half a Coumadin, (he takes 5 mg every day except on Fridays when he takes 2.5 mg), he just figured he had built up enough of the drug in his system at that point and taking half of a pill would make it drop into the correct range.

He’ll go back in two weeks to get it checked again. He’s been stable for a month now, so they aren’t looking for it to change any time soon as long as we stay the course.

Kevin is resting in bed now. He plans on getting back into his chair so we can all go and pick Jazz up from Band class in about an hour. Then we’ll go for ice cream. Though he’s been taking it easy, we’re trying to ease him back into a “normal” routine. He can’t stand to stay in his bed, in his chair, or even at home for very long before he starts feeling antsy.

I’m not surprised. I knew we would reach a point where he would start feeling this way. He was such an active man before the accident, I really don’t expect his injuries to hold him back for very much longer.

And as you can see, they aren’t!

May I just take a moment to brag on my husband for a moment?

Thank you.

Nearly eight weeks ago, my husband’s life changed forever. In just the blink of an eye, his life went from ordinary to extraordinary and personally, I find him to be an inspiration.

For the past eight weeks, Kevin has been in traction, has had three surgeries, endured multiple fractures, been confined to a hospital bed and a wheelchair and today … today, this man of mine not only got ON his feet, he WALKED.

Oh yes he did.

The morning started out smoothly enough. I helped Kevin into his wheelchair and prepared a bowl of Frosted Flakes for him for breakfast. (He’s on a Frosted Flakes kick). He drank his orange juice, took a pain pill and together, we got him into the back bathroom, on the shower chair, for a refreshing and oh so cleansing shower. (This too is a milestone – I had been giving him sponge baths up to that point).

After I helped him get dressed (one of my favorite moments of the day, I might add *ahem*), he finished grooming himself while I jumped into the shower.

At 8:15, I hurriedly gathered up our belongings and we headed to the rehabilitation center. (And I grabbed everything but my camera. AARGH! Oh well, I’ll take pictures of him next time).

I parked in a handicap spot (talk about a WEIRD feeling!) and I helped Kevin exit the car and we checked in.

The physical therapist led us to the workout room. This room consisted of numerous flat, cushioned tables, weight machines, cushions of varying colors and sizes, parallel bars and a set of stairs.

We began the process with the therapist asking Kevin questions about his accident, where he had the most pain and what he felt he was capable of doing.

The doctor hadn’t put any restrictions on his range of motion so really, the sky was the limit.

So, the therapist wheeled him over to the parallel bars, locked the wheelchair, wrapped a gait belt around his middle and said, “Okay, let’s see how well you stand.”

He stood.

“Great. Now, let’s see if you can take a few steps.”

And though he was shaky, and I could tell it took some effort, he walked.

But he didn’t stop there. He walked the length of the parallel bars twice, then held onto a walker and walked several feet using that while I followed closely behind him with the wheelchair so that if he got tired, he could sit down and rest.

It was truly amazing to SEE him back on his feet. I mean, even though I KNEW he would walk again, I think there was a small part of me that wondered if it would truly happened.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it happened today and it was truly amazing.

When I asked Kevin what he thought about being on his feet again, he said, “I felt like I was floating.”

I think we’re all floating with relief that he’s walking at all.

He’ll go back for rehab twice a week until right before we leave for our vacation. Now that’s he’s taken those first few steps, I have a feeling I’ll be chasing him all over the place.

And you know what? I don’t mind. 😀

Yesterday was a GOOD day.

Even though it’s been great to have Kevin home from the hospital, and he’s certainly gotten much better rest (and dare I say care? At least better personalized care), there is a small part of me that wonders if we did the right thing by pushing him to come home so soon.

I feel like we’ve been forgotten.

True. We have a nurse that comes out once a week and checks him out – his blood levels (he’s on blood thinner), his blood pressure, etc., but the rest of the time? We’re just sort of … existing. We go about our day as usual, we make sure he is wearing his braces, we’re careful about his transfers and keeping weight off his legs and I silently fret over his aches and (stabbing) pains.

Though Kevin has a primary doctor, this doctor really has no idea WHO he is. Kevin is a very healthy man, he’s only gone to this doctor maybe twice in the past ten years. The only reason this man IS Kevin’s (and the whole family’s) doctor is because when Kevin filled out our HMO, he had to list a primary doctor and this doctor’s name popped into his mind because he had gone to him for a minor problem years before.

Since this accident happened, they asked for our primary doctor so that everything could be funneled through him. So now, this poor doctor is getting all sorts of reports on a patient he knows nothing about!

I’m betting that’s pretty frustrating.

But it’s the system, what are you going to do? And SOMEONE needs to be in (semi) charge, right?

Even though this doctor is Kevin’s primary doctor, Kevin has not once been to see this doctor since the accident happened. So, we’re getting instructions from a third party – the home care nurse.

It’s an odd situation to be in.

And as a result, we (or maybe more accurately, I) feel a little neglected. I feel like we’re blindly flying into a pitch black room and narrowly slamming ourselves into surrounding walls. Are we doing it right? Am I taking care of him like he deserves to be taken care of? Am I transferring him correctly? He’s healing, right?

I can only hope so because we’re not getting any feedback.

So, our trip to the orthopedic doctor yesterday was a little … nerve wracking. Only because we’ve been, essentially, on our own these past few weeks and though I’ve followed directions to the letter, I’m not a doctor. I only make decisions on instincts. I was worried that I hadn’t taken good enough care of him and we would get there and the doctor would be all like, “Wow. You’re actually worse. What happened?”

One word: ME.

A wife can only DO so much, right?

Anyway …

We had been working toward this appointment since we came home from the Transitional Care Unit. JUNE 8TH had been the bright light on our horizon. I’m not sure what we expected from this appointment, but it gave us something to look forward to. That would be THE day they took fresh x-rays and would tell us how his fractures were healing.

And then, THE day arrived.

We got up early, I gave Kevin a sponge bath and fresh clothes, and he finished getting himself ready to leave. We had to be at the doctor’s office by 1:30 so they could take a series of x-rays before his actual appointment which was at 2:00.

I put his shoes on him and we started to exit the house, only, the soles on his new shoes are a few inches thick and they weighed enough that it was difficult for Kevin to lift his legs so that I could push the chair and I’m afraid I ended up hurting him a few times. I felt so bad about that!! We ended up taking the shoes off and I put on his swim shoes, which looked a little dorky with his tubigrip socks, but at least he had something on his feet and they were lightweight enough that they didn’t give him any trouble.

Getting him into the car was sweaty work. It was going on 90 degrees outside – it was about 95 degrees inside the garage. But once he was settled, the drive to the doctor’s office went pretty smoothly. In fact, Kevin says that being in motion is actually better for his pain, as opposed to just sitting still.

Go figure.

I had to park a ways from the front door. I hadn’t gotten his handicap placard for the car yet (though I did pick it up today so that will be nice being able to park so close), so I had to push him some distance to get into the building. We found our doctor’s floor and made it to his office without mishap.

When Kevin got back into a room, the nurse called me back and we looked at his x-rays. Everything looked great!! He showed us the thin strip of new bone that was beginning to develop around the fractures in his pelvis and his wrist and knee fractures looked nearly entirely healed. So much so, in fact, that he no longer has to wear his wrist splint or his leg brace!!! (Well, he has to wear his leg brace when he starts rehab, but if he’s just sitting or lying down, then no).

(Here’s Kevin’s pelvis. The doctor laughed and said that it looked like he was stowing an Erector Set. And the nurses said it looked like he had been shopping at the hardware store. One of my nephews, when he saw this on Facebook, said he looked like he was part robot. Personally? I call him my own personal Iron Man. *wink*)

We. Were. Ecstatic.

But wait, it gets better…

To our complete and utter surprise, the doctor told Kevin that he could start putting weight on his legs and that he was giving us the green light to begin outpatient therapy!

WOO-FREAKIN-HOO!!!!!!!!

SO, Kevin goes in for his very first rehab appointment tomorrow morning!!! We have to go in thirty minutes early for paperwork, and then they will work with him for an hour. After that, he has to go in twice a week for thirty minutes for one month, or longer if they deem it necessary. The goal? To get him back on his feet and walking again!!

We are BEYOND excited about this. Neither one of us had been prepared for this step for at least another three or four weeks, but the doctor said everything was healing up nicely and he didn’t see a reason to hold him back. He just cautioned him to take it slow and easy.

I still can’t believe this is happening so soon, but OOOOOKAY! I’m not going to argue. I do worry how his leg muscles will react with him being on his feet tomorrow. I know he’ll be weak, how can he NOT be? But I hope we don’t discover some hidden nerve damage or something equally serious that hinders him from making a full recovery. We’re not expecting any problems, but you never know.

Speaking of nerves, Kevin has been complaining about a burning sensation in his right thigh and foot. When we asked the doctor about this, he simply nodded and said that that feeling was normal. He had damaged some nerves and the burning sensation was actually a good thing – it meant that they were healing and he was regaining feeling. However, while that was happening, it could be quite uncomfortable, so he prescribed some sort of nerve medication that would help him tolerate the burning until it subsided on it’s own.

He said the same thing about the stabbing pain Kevin periodically experiences whenever his left hip is out of alignment with his left leg. It would just take some time, and some work, before his muscles and his nerves returned to normal.

Kevin has given me permission to tape his therapy (this is assuming it’s okay with the physical therapists), so that at some point in the future, we can look back on this time period and comment about how FAR he’s come in a relatively short amount of time.

We’re also revamping our vacation plans – because if he’s starting therapy now, there is a very good chance we WON’T have to take the wheelchair with us, although, the occupational therapist did warn us that though he might be walking with a walker or a cane, he most likely won’t be able to tolerate walking for long distances, so we may still have to rent, or use a wheelchair to say, get him around the airport, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The bottom line is: Kevin can put weight on his legs again!!

Thank you, God!!

Now that he’s starting outpatient care, we will no longer require in-home care. So, the occupational therapist and the nurse will not be coming out to our house anymore. Since Kevin is still on blood thinner and requires monitoring, we had to call his family physician to set up an appointment for him to visit the office so they could draw blood.

And of course, the appointment is the exact time that I have to drop Jazz off for summer school. This means that Dude will have to take Jazz to school AGAIN. He’s been doing really well, driving on his own. Leaving our house, by himself, and picking Jazz up from school the other day was THE first time he had driven by himself without me anywhere close (the first time he followed me to the hospital). He’s still a little freaked out by the whole thing, but the more he does it, the more he’ll be used to it because there is about a 95% chance that he will have to drive them both to school this fall whenever I get a job.

Sometimes, it really pays to have teenagers. 😀