Curve Ball

Hello friends!

Our next post was supposed to be about a day in the life for David at rehab, and while we’ll do that, first, some breaking news. 

On Tuesday, I made a tragic mistake of being hungry for the first time since David’s accident - and then picking up a grill cheese sandwich from the cafeteria. While that childhood/ comfort food staple may have sounded like a good idea at the time, it set off a whole chain of regret: apparently the grilled cheese knocked loose a gallstone that was just happily minding its own business, and send it around the bile ducts & liver and inflamed the hell out of everything.

At first, I just popped some Tums and figured that the stress of everything was getting to me but by Thursday/Friday it was clear it was something more serious. Conveniently, between the Shepherd Center and my apartment is Piedmont Hospital, and on Friday night, I came into the Emergency Department. Lots of tests later, I was admitted and am presently waiting on the advanced GI team to come to work tomorrow morning to determine if I’ll end up with 1 or 2 different procedures (one of which will be removal of the gall bladder) before I am FINALLY allowed to fly home to the boys. 

This was definitely a curve ball we didn’t need, but I’m so thankful that once again, everyone is stepping in. One of our closest friend’s sisters who lives in Atlanta visited us yesterday and brought me over a few things from the apartment; my step-sister drove in today from Alabama to be with me and David here in Atlanta through Wednesday; and my college roommate is flying from Kansas to our house on Tuesday to be with the boys and me through next weekend. While I’d really hoped to return to work tomorrow, my boss and colleagues are being incredibly supportive of yet another delay in my return. I know there’s a lot of other paddling behind the scenes too - for which we are both so grateful. 

Now onto the main show…as I mentioned last week, they’re working David hard - which is something he’s immensely grateful for. I just looked at his schedule for Monday and this gives you a good sense of it all: 

8 am - Occupational Therapy (60 minutes) 

9 am - Physical Therapy (90 minutes)

1 pm - Psych Individual Therapy (60 minutes) 

2 pm - Voice & Respiratory (60 minutes)

3:30 - OT/PT Therapy Aide (30 minutes)

David’s primary doctor is whip smart, extremely experienced. He is a paraplegic, which brings some unique insights to David’s treatment. David sees the same team each day, and they have weekly meetings about each patient across all of the different team members to talk about ongoing goals and progress. His team also includes a dynamic case manager who helps guide us through this entire process. The nurses that take care of him are also consistent so that they get to know him, can spot if something is a bit off, and develop a relationship with him. Based on suggestions from another family, I left a candy basket for the nurses and other staff who come to his room - as we know, chocolate makes the world go round. 

Shepherd also has an extensive recreational therapy program, which is mostly focused on finding new, adaptive ways to do the things David has always loved - like hiking, strength training, swimming, and maybe even climbing again. TBD on that. Rec therapy is a great way to continue with all of what they’re doing in OT/PT but in a more fun way that will transfer to when he comes back home. He just had his intake last week, but once this week’s session is done, I’ll talk with him more about that and share. 

Closing note…Piedmont Hospital, where I was admitted, is the level 1 trauma hospital that Shepherd Center partners with for any major surgeries or other CT/MRIs that Shepherd patients may need. There is a tunnel connecting the two facilities and one of David’s nurses brought him over for a visit today so we could just see each other and be together. It helped us both a whole lot. When I told my nurse (who was here yesterday too) that a trip from David was in the works, she shared that she’d started to get approvals to bring me over there. Three cheers to all the romantics out there. 

In gratitude, 

Erika