Thursday, 4:30PM

Ok. Man, what a day so far. Allison is amazing, she really looked great without all those tubes, what a difference. My dad said he thought she looked like she was both pouting and smiling at the same time, hah.

I left the hospital right after I wrote my last update so I don't have much else on Allison. Its really important for her to be able to cough without being told to do so and my dad also said he saw her do that once as well. They are monitoring her breathing and want her to take some big breaths on her own. She's going to be getting better all the time now, but it will be a long journey for her.

Jon is at Mary Free Bed Hospital.

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
235 Wealthy SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA) 49503
Phone: 800.528.8989

He's in room 306. If you want to contact him you can email patient@maryfreebed.com In the subject line write "Jon Turner". They will print it out and bring it to him.

It seems like a really nice place here and that he will be well cared for. His day (starting tomorrow, letting him rest today) will be very structured and tiring for him - his visiting hours will be limited. He'll be able to have visitors between 5:30PM and 8PM every day. He will also at times have his cell phone, and he has a room phone. I think no calls tonight, it was a big day and he slept very poorly last night. Close family can come 8AM to 8PM but know that he will be busy for most of that time. He has 3 hours of PT every day plus meals and rest and checkups and such.

The goal for him now is to get him strong enough and get the tools for him to function mostly on his own. They expect him to be here somewhere around a week, but it could be as long as two. We'll know more early next week about his progress and what will be happening in the next few weeks/months. He's not going to be able to do a whole lot for a while, but he's anxious to start and is telling everyone that they will be impressed. I think the only problems that they will have with him in rehab is holding him back from doing too much too fast.

As we were leaving we got a CD with all his xrays on it, its pretty wild. We counted one plate and 8 screws in his Clavicle. In his ankle we saw two plates and I think around 12-15ish screws? His elbow was definitely 2 plates but we think probably 3, and we couldn't really count the screws. There were 2 large anchor screws and we could count some around the outside of the break, but right on the elbow it was so thick with screws that it pretty much looked like a solid mass of metal without being able to see it in 3d space.
When I talk about his injuries, obviously his elbow is a pretty impressive. However, due to the nature of the break he should have fast progress with it, bending it and doing PT with his arm will start almost immediately I think. It will still be non weight bearing for 6 weeks but I think it will be healing fast. His ankle is going to take a lot longer. The doctor said that how it was broken was not very good for recovery speed. His ankle is immobile in his cast for 2 weeks and non weight bearing for 6 or more. He'll also probably need to have surgery on it again at some point.

Updates on Jon will be more infrequent now, I'm not going to be with him as much anymore. I'll try to keep up to date on both he and Allison and let you know what I can. Thanks again to everyone for everything.


Dave