Craig: Week 2

Tuesday

Well, today they ordered Josh to get a 'post chest tube' MRI. Since he had one when he first got here, not that he remembers, they figured he would be just fine. Well, he wasnt. He lasted not even a minute! I guess they didnt realize how much valium he still had in his system. Haha. So they rescheduled it for tomorrow. :/ This time they will sedate him. But he still got to do stuff with his therapists afterwards.

He got hooked up to this FES bike for the first time. That was awesome! They put electrodes on different parts of his leg muscles to stimulate them and after a while they actually get to where they are pedaling on their own! It's a great workout and it helps keep his leg muscles so if he does regain any feeling, he will not have to start from scratch.

Oh, and Chase left today. So it just got a little more lame around here:/

 

Wednesday

Josh got his MRI done with no problems. ;) By the time he got done and the sedation all wore off, he just had time to work with Joe, his PT, and Makenzie, his OT. They had him work on car transfers. And even though they don't usually introduce that until much later, they felt he could do it. Well, it was super hard for him, but with a little help, he surely impressed them!

Thursday

Today was Josh's first fit class. He got an hours worth of total upper body strength training. Since that is what will be getting him around for now, he's gotta get it stronger than ever!

After fit class, we met with our psychologist, Lester Butt. Lol. But, we call him Les for short ;) His job is to make sure we don't lose it while going through all of this, and to have someone to yell at if we do lose it. Haha. He's been here at Craig for 33 yrs! Josh said he will probably go into retirement after a few private sessions with him. Hahaha!

After our visit with Les, we ventured outside for the first time with Joe. He's having Josh try out a different wheel chairs, so we took it for a stroll around the hospital. It was so nice for Josh to get some fresh air! And real sun! :D The wheel chair was real tippy, but after some adjustments, it was perfect! Way better and lighter than his last one. He will be trying out a few more before choosing the one they will make for him to take home. Well, we got back to our room and they did an ultrasound on his right leg because this morning it measured 2 cm bigger since he's been here. That is how they check for blood clots. Well, the ultrasound found a small blood clot in his right femur, so he was put on 24 hr bedrest with restrictions like keeping that leg straight, no blood pressure, I.V.s, or labs! And he was put on some serious blood thinners. What happened was when he got here, they took him off blood thinners because they were taking out his chest tube and stuff. Well, the Dr. ordered him to go back on them two days after, and the pharmacy totally dropped the ball. SCARY! So glad they found it, but another minor setback:/ So that ended our day at 1pm.

Friday

Josh had been sleeping better lately, so I sleep in my own bed at my apartment last night for the first time since being here!!! Soooooo much better! I honestly don't know how in the hell I had been able to sleep in this fold out chair for the last 10 days!? I guess you do what you gotta do...

So bed rest in the morning. Lame. But they let him get out of bed at 1pm so they were able to fill up his afternoon real good. That way he will go into the weekend stronger. :D. He got to get into this contraption that let him actually stand up straight. Josh really liked that.

It's not a high chair....

They have some really neat stuff here. Especially for those who start to get ANY feeling back. They say it is so critical that you start "walking" as soon as that feeling hits your legs. I took some pics of other people in those walking contraptions. So don't mistake them for Josh...

 

The Long Weekend...

So we had to watch some videos and take tests on them before they would give Josh an off-campus pass. Well, we just finished them up last night, so now he gets to go outside or over to my apartment or around the block if we wanted, etc. So, we spent most of the weekend at my apartment, which is a lot more cozier. That was so nice. :) The Gordon family came down to visit Saturday. :) Their little guy was totally making me miss my baby :'(. Hes the same age as Jaxyn. We were so glad they stopped by though.

Sunday I should have found a church to go to, but didn't want to leave Josh just yet, so we just watched a few more LDS conference talks that we missed last week and called it good. Later that day we had a few more visitors, which was super nice. It makes the long weekends go by so much faster since there is no therapy. We got our schedule for next week and it is jammed packed! Hopefully there are no more setbacks...

Monday

Josh had a full schedule today. This morning he had FES bike and mat class, which was tough! He had to stretch on his own and the worst was balancing. Lots of different balancing moves that are very hard when you don't have the strength of your abs:/. It'll be amazing to see him improve on that!

Then we had a conference meeting with all of Josh's team. They showed us CAT scans and MRIs they had taken. Went over his rapid progression. Told us mostly what we have already been told, and gave Josh a discharge date of June 6th. But it was so nice to hear all the good things they had to say about Josh.

This is an MRI of Josh's spine right now. The metal kind of distorts it, but you can see where the spinal cord is damaged. :/

Then this afternoon Joe had him practice bed transfers, toilet and tub transfers, and another car transfer. He did awesome! It's amazing how much improvement he has had in 1 week!!! He got in and out of that car with pretty much no help! We will be out on the town in no time! ;)

After that Josh had his first wheelchair class. They really stress the importance of learning and mastering wheelies! He was not excited about that. Even though he's probably super good at wheelies on a quad, this is way out of his comfort zone. So they want them to be able to hold the wheelie for at least 30 sec., then work their way up to 2 min! They said it usually takes a couple of days to get up to that. At first, he could barely do 15 sec. Then after 20 min of trying, he had held it for 3 1/2 min! Show off! :P Then he had to pass off 3 full circles while in a wheelie. That was tough too, but he passed that off also before the end of class! What a stud!!!

Well it has been snowing most of the day, with more to come:/. It's SPRING! HELLO!!! This is so why I live I the desert. I need some vitamin D so bad!

 

 

 

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