Yesterday, John & I went into the city to see his physiatrist (at RIC), which meant I got to have lunch in Chicago a day late for our 9th wedding anniversary :)
Dr. Chen is very pleased with John's progress and again told us to just keep on doing what we've been doing -- 2 days of PT/OT and 1 day of aquatic therapy. We discussed going back to work, and everyone agreed that it's too soon for John to try that, so the classroom will wait. That will give him time to finish recovering and building up his strength. As one of his therapists told us, it takes an average of three days to recover and regain your strength for every one day you spend in the hospital. And at over 8 weeks of hospitalization, that's a lot of weeks for recovery. So while John's disappointed that he won't be back in the classroom next month, it's really for the best since he doesn't yet have the stamina for it. His principal Susan has been fabulous to us, and we're grateful for her support.
So it's reunion time -- while we were at RIC, we went up to the 9th floor to see Piper (OT) and Mike (PT) and show them John's continued progress since we last saw them in mid-October. The best moment was when John was able to shake hands with Mike, thereby showing Piper how much his hands have recovered -- such a cool moment to witness!
And today we talked to Dr. Radcliff, the surgeon who operated on John in Atlantic City. He was thrilled to get our update and hear just how well John's doing, since the last he knew was when John was transferred to RIC for inpatient rehab. It's a little overwhelming to remember now, but at that point, John could squeeze my hand and push his toes down an inch -- and now he's climbing stairs and "running" in the water! Hopefully the conversation was as gratifying for Dr. R as it was for us -- as he reminded me, John had a 5% chance of recovery, and I savored the opportunity to thank him for his skillful treatment that put John in that 5%.
Our own Christmas miracle...
What a special Christmas this one is!!
ReplyDelete