Settling in to RIC

I've told a lot of you these stories already, but somehow never wrote them up. And someday, I'd like Nora to know about Daddy's first days at RIC, so here's a very after-the-fact post ;) [written 8/12/13 -- yes, you're reading the year correctly!]

On the list of frustrating things for John at AtlantiCare was the fact that when the nurses turned him and shifted his pillows every 2 hours, he would end up too far down the bed with no room for his feet (a frequent pre-accident problem, too). I spent a lot of time helping his nurses and techs shift him up higher. This afternoon, after John was assigned a room on the 6th floor, his nurse, Bruno, came in to help us get settled. John had been transferred from the gurney to his new bed, and when Bruno asked if there was anything else we needed, one of us told him John needed to be shifted up higher on the bed. Bruno's answer? "Or we could extend the bed." Very funny, Bruno, very funny -- except he really could extend the bed! He showed us the button to push that gave the bed an extra 6 inches at the foot of it. Finally, John was in a bed that fit him!

With the bed issue resolved, I made my request, telling Bruno that John needed a shower and a shampoo. I don't think he believed me when I told him John's scalp was still full of sand, because when I saw him the next day, after John had gotten his shower, he asked me why they hadn't tried to get the sand out in NJ (!). When I told him that several different people had tried every day he was in PCU, Bruno was shocked. But I'd warned him that John brought half the beach with him to Chicago...

This attempt was successful because they were finally able to give him a real shower. They put him in a "boat" (this sounded scary to me, given the reason John had ended up in the hospital) that they could wheel into the shower (like this):

and they FINALLY got all the sand off his scalp!

Third highlight (as if the plane ride wasn't also a highlight): we met with his physiatrist, Dr. Chen, who tested John's muscles' response and sensory reactions to light touch (see the ASIA score worksheet below):

 

Dr. Chen was very encouraged by the sensations he was able to detect and he told us he thinks John is an ideal candidate for the 9th floor ability lab!!!! (John will tease me for the multiple exclamation points, but they are DEFINITELY called for here!) The 9th floor is where the patients most likely to achieve a highly favorable outcome go -- this is HOPE! This first night (Friday), John was in a private room on the 6th floor, and they brought me a pull-out chair-bed, so I was able to stay with him. Saturday morning, they had a room ready for him on the 9th floor, so we made the second happiest walk/elevator ride of my life Saturday morning, where I got him settled into his official room and met some of his therapists, before heading to Millennium Station and South Bend, where Nora would be joining me in the morning.