Today went really well.
The family meeting today at Sojourner's went fine, nothing too surprising. They are going to have her there still for at least one more month, we will have another similar meeting at that time. We heard from her Recreational, Physical, and Occupational therapists, as well as her Social Worker and her Psychologist. One common theme amongst them all is how hard she is working and how much of a willing participant she is in all of her therapies. They are all very pleased with her progress so far. They even commented on how much a positive influence she is on the other residents there in that program, due to her attitude and determination. She is at the best place for her recovery right now and they all have the goal of getting her back as much as possible, with the ultimate goal of getting her back to work as a Doctor.
Everyone was very optimistic about her progress so far and we didn't have any bad news, but we do realize that she has a long way to go. Her Psychologist especially had some interesting information to share. He talked about a lot of the tests she is going through and I don't recall it all, but she is testing quite low in certain areas and higher in others. She can solve some very complex puzzles and has good strategies in place for her memory retention, but in other areas will need a lot of help to get her full functioning back and re-develop what she is missing. They will continue to work with her for a month then see where she is at at that point. They are talking about getting her out into the community more and will be doing a full battery of neurological tests sometime next week. The physical and occupational therapists were waiting for some of her physical restrictions to be lifted to do more things with her, which leads me to....
Allison's orthopedic appointment went great today! She is now approved to be full weight bearing on her broken right arm. They will be working with her now to regain more strength in that arm and to help with her pronate/supenate range of motion. She is also now full weight bearing on her right leg. Given, these restrictions are limited by range of motion and pain. The right leg is actually the one with the broken ankle, but it has been healing well. She is not weight bearing yet on her left leg due to her pelvis - most of her pelvic injuries were on her left side and that will take a while yet to heal. Because of all this, she will work on not having to use a slide board for transfers, and will be graduating to a regular wheelchair or walker soon (she had a handle-driven wheelchair that was very exhausting for her left arm, her only way to both propel and steer).
Her orthopedic surgeon is very pleased with her healing. Allison does not need to take the blood thinning Lovenox shot now anymore since she will be much more active, which she is elated to hear. She's been approved to start some aqua therapy now in the pool. I think her Physical and Occupational therapists will be happy to hear that they have a lot to work on with her now. Her pelvic pain the Doctor said was pretty normal and a sign of healing. We were worried about her pain in her pelvis, but it sounds like it is pretty normal and somewhat expected. There's nothing wrong with her healing at any of her sites. She will be in some decent pain now, but will be making good progress we hope.
As far as her neck goes, that is being referred to Dr. Jones, who saw her about that initially. She has an appointment with him next Tuesday so we'll know more then, but she still may need to keep her neck collar on for a while, I'm sure that's not something they want to mess with.
Jon is very happy with this news. Once again its a waiting game, but they are both healing and getting better by the day. We all hope that it continues.
One last quick note. Allison's brother, Ian, is going in for surgery on his heart tomorrow. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Dave
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