Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April 19, 2011

Jim and I had a pleasant weekend together. Our friends, Laura and Kevin came to visit on Sunday. We played "Password." It's a good game for couples. Jim and I won! We had a great time.

Yesterday I received an email from TIRR's OT, Liza. She said that Dr Wenzel had put in the readmit order. I called TIRR's admissions office and they did indeed receive the order.

The nursing home PT's are doing a great job getting Jim stronger. His OT is very good, too. But, Jim's fingers are still curled up. Dr Wenzel says that he has clonus. It's treatable. So, he especially needs to get back to TIRR for help with his hands. The treatment may be botox injections, progressive casting, etc. If he can move his legs and urinate on his own the part of the spinal cord that controls fingers should be coming back to.

Jim is working very hard and making great progress.

He has a friend at the home now who is close to his age. This guy broke his leg in several places. He was drinking with friends at a freeway underpass. He had climbed up the sloping back wall of the underpass and then fell coming down. He talks a lot about drinking and smoking. He sat outside with us one evening and kept asking everyone who came in if they had a light. The nurses had taken away his lighter.

Last Friday he took his wheelchair down the street to catch a bus. He wanted to go to a store and buy beer. Ernie (the other ex-TIRR patient) saw him going down the road and went in and told the staff. They sent out a posse to round him up. They are trying to keep close watch on him now. One nurse even asked me to help watch him.

I'm sure they are only worried about liability, not the patient. I'm not sure if I would tell on him or not.

Jim and Gary eat lunch together in the dining room. That's nice that he has company when I'm not around. We even got him to play Uno with us one day and to listen some of Jim's oldies cd's.

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