Another day without news from Shirley Ryan Outpatient. I assume our insurance is being difficult.
After feeling close to despair yesterday morning, I determined to work with Annie on home exercises as much as possible at RMH. And yesterday volunteers brought Pizzaria Uno for dinner, so we had a meal she was (mostly) willing to eat.
We’ve explored all the lounge areas of RMH and have tried to work on side steps, sit to stands, high kneels, and climbing stairs in between bribes of Curious George episodes (the hospital stay seems to have exhausted Annie’s interest in Daniel Tiger for the time being). I thought we’d surely hear something today, but I had to get us out of this building, so we walked over to the bus stop and took the bus down to Museum of Science and Industry to go watch chicks hatching. Annie was a BIG fan of riding sideways on the bus, though the loud traffic noises had her pretty concerned.
And there weren’t any hatching chicks today, so instead we wandered all over the museum (with her walker but no stroller) for a couple hours. She didn’t complain once about being tired of walking, probably because there are so many interactive screens to touch there. I’m not sure that she has a better understanding of anything science or industry-related now, but it was nice to get another use out of our family membership. I tried to be really strict about correcting her gait to avoid the swinging step, so I guess if I had nothing else to worry about and could devote 100% of my attention to her all the time, maybe she wouldn’t regress so much.
Annie said she had a great day, though she did tell me her favorite part was riding back and forth in the city bus, so I guess I could spend $2.50 to just ride around on one tomorrow for some cheap entertainment before we head over to the Art Institute.
It’s after work hours, so at this point, it feels like another wasted day sticking around here when Derek and the big kids need me so much at home. I’m going to give it one more day here, hoping to hear that we can come in immediately for rehab and make this time in Chicago worth it, but if we don’t get word from Shirley Ryan by tomorrow afternoon, I think Annie and I are going to take the South Shoreline train home and wait in South Bend to hear from the Shirley Ryan scheduler, and we could be back over here in two hours, if necessary. Every day that we don’t have therapy makes me so frustrated–the only reason we’re sticking around here rather than at home was that we were supposed to have smooth continuation of care. I guess being here without the distractions and responsibilities of home does make it easier to spend several hours a day focusing just on exercises with Annie… Sigh.