After lots of discussions with insurance, many calls from our hard-working Dr Revivo and the care management team, and a lot of prayer, we have ironed out the rest of our time here. We are being discharged from inpatient therapy on Friday, as planned, then we’ll be starting day rehab on Monday. It’s not at this facility, but actually up the street. Since it’s new therapists, she’ll have to have a big three hour evaluation on Monday, then hopefully will be seen three hours a week for three hours for two more weeks before we transfer to our PT back home. I shadowed one of her PTs yesterday to get some tips on things to work on on our off days.
And in general, Annie is getting better with walking every day. We still need to work a lot on stairs, because she will have to do a lot of those at home, and her back is now reacting to the bandages we were putting on to cover the honey that we put on the incision to heal it, so I will still have a nasty, slowly healing incision to keep an eye on, but we’re not concerned about that long-term. One big improvement I have noticed since her surgery is how easy it is for her to put on her own AFO braces! Before, the extra tone from the brain damage and misfiring nerves made her extend her feet tightly all the time, like she was pointing her toes and couldn’t flex, so we had to force her legs to flex enough to get the braces on, tightly strap them while the heel was in its place, and then get the shoes on over the braces. She was not strong enough with her hands and arms to force her feet to flex, she couldn’t really put her own braces on and therefore couldn’t ever put her shoes on herself. One of us always had to help her. Now, she still needs a little help, but with normally functional feet, she is working with the OTs to be able to get on the braces and shoes. That’s a huge step forward in independence.
Good going Annie!
Continuing prayer over physical therapy and all appointments. Love you guys!