Day 85, Monday Nov 16
Today was good and bad. It started with Jeff's hands tingling and uncomfortable. The sensation spread to all over the paralyzed part of his body and he felt just like he does when he naps. In the afternoon he said his butt was burning as if he hadn't moved for over two days.
Julee came for most of the day. Between therapy sessions Annette was able to go to lunch with her good friend Janene.
In physical therapy Jeff worked really hard. He did transfers, turns, strengthening, and stretching. His sense of humor remained intact through the entire session even though he didn't feel well.
After being praised by his PT Jeff responded, "By the way, I have my turtle shell on today, too!"
In order to pull himself to a sitting position they have what's called a "bed latter" that ties to the bottom of the bed.
Jeff loops his arm through the hole he wants and then pulls himself up. They put an actual mattress on the therapy bench to help him practice a more realistic scenario. It put a lot of strain on his shoulders, but he did really well!
When discussing what he now calls the "nap syndrome" he said, "I feel crappy and I didn't even get the nap. It's not fair!" His voice got high pitched and we all got a good laugh. We are so grateful he can joke about the struggles he's going through.
He worked with long rubber ropes with knots tied in them. They put the first knot over the door and then closed it so he could pull against them in place of weights. This helps save space and money. The different color bands have different amounts of resistance.
Between the knots is where Jeff puts his hands in order to pull the bands. It was difficult for him to maneuver them how he wanted and he said, "It's when I'm doing things like this that I really feel like a handicap. I can't even get my hand in the hole, dude."
For the sake of saving time and because his patience was already tried enough at this point, Julee helped open the holes between the knots for him to put his hands through. He worked out his arms until they were too sore to continue.
Then it was lunch time. This morning's schedule was thrown off by a doctor coming in to discuss Jeff's medications and how to help him sleep better at night. We hope the changes they made will make a good difference!
Because of this delay a few things had to be put off. After lunch he finally got a chance to shave.
The weather was really strange today. We were hoping to have some snow, but it didn't end up doing much in the valley. The picture below kind of shows how the valley was socked in. The mountains and benches sure looked pretty with the low lying clouds and snow!
After lunch was occupational therapy. Jeff worked on several dexterity exercises. The goal was to use any method (with hands only) to do the different tasks. Jeff gets pretty creative and is really patient when doing these activities.
Jeff worked with putting pegs in and out of holes on a foam board and putting foam shapes back in their home.
He had to pick up wooden pegs and clothes pins and put them in a glass jar.
And he even played dominoes with the OT, Annette, and Julee.
After this the OT worked to adjust Jeff's shower chair so it was a little higher. We are hoping it will help so Annette won't have to bend over as far. Jeff knew what needed to be done and was frustrated that he couldn't do it himself. It took the OT and Julee a little bit to figure out what he was explaining and execute his directions. The job was finally done and occupational therapy was over.
Back to the room and Annette and Julee helped Jeff into bed. He worked hard and was ready for a rest.
A guy named Matt, a previous patient with a C6 injury, came with his girlfriend to visit Jeff. They are from Kaysville. It was great to see someone in a similar situation doing so well. He was injured this past March.
Then it was dinner and Bonnie came to stay so Annette could go home. She's been such a help to come spend time with Jeff so often! We are so grateful to her.
Good news for today is the culture from Jeff's urine last week only grew a regular bacteria that resides on the skin and they determined that Jeff doesn't have a UTI after all. They stopped his antibiotic and got a new urine sample to see how it looks now. The CT came back negative for kidney stones, just as we had hoped.
Thank you all for keeping Jeff in your prayers, we know it makes a difference! We hope and pray that the next week is as successful as today before he goes home, but without his nerves freaking out. It was obvious that his muscles wouldn't work at their fullest capacity today because of the nerve issues. Tomorrow will be better!
