It was a very busy day in Dwaine-land today. We made a move to Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital at 900 Potomac Street. Dwaine is now ensconced in room 203, and last I saw him, he was lying on his side, snoozing away. Damn that guy can work hard.
I worked with Kaiser and University Hospital yesterday to make sure Dwaine didn't have to make an interim transition to St. Joseph's, but could go directly to Spalding. Kaiser was very good to work with and made the fix with a phone call to the patient advocate at University. It's so easy to feel so helpless in these situations. They don't really have a step-by-step diagram of how to maneuver the labyrinth and you end up calling people until you find the right path. But thankfully, it was a well-lit, amenable path and everything worked out perfectly. We're both very happy with how it's worked out.
This morning while we were waiting for the transfer, friends Ron and Deb came by for a visit. Dwaine had slept really well last night, so he was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and more ornery than I'd seen him in a week. His humor was back in aces - smiling and actually laughing as he recounted his Zoomba dance down the hospital hallway on his first walking excursion the day before. "I had Julie on one side, and Alvin on the other, and every time one would say something to me, I'd veer off in that direction, then back again. I'm sure it was quite a sight." He promised as official Zoomba instructor, he'd teach us all his moves at a date to be named. His physical therapist was not so amused, and said he'd have to knock off the conversation next time so he could steer straight (and I'm not even going to touch that one).
He had another walking excursion today at University, which was cool. Even though they knew he was being transferred, they still kept up with his PT work. He took another long walk down the hallway at University and did spectacularly well.
To get into Spalding, you have to be able to demonstrate that you are committed to rehabilitation work, that you have goals you want to reach, and that you are strong enough to work for at least 3 hours per day. And you have to be off any IV drip systems. As you know, he'd been on heparin to keep his blood thin and free from clotting. So we had to wean off the heparin and move to a pill-form of coumadin or warfarin. He'll probably have to be on this for the rest of his life, so that's a life change we will be dealing with. Dwaine's never been on any regular medication, so we'll have to work on him to make sure he's being consistent with it.
About 1:00, the ambulance fellas rolled up with their gurney and away we went. I packed up the room and the dozens of cards, numerous vases of beautiful flowers and plants, balloons and even a large poster made by a group of the kids at York. He got into his room and settled in bed for a bit, but not for long. A therapist was in to begin meeting with him within a half hour. She went through an inventory of questions about his work, life, living situation, and ultimate goals for therapy. Then he got to work. She was very, very impressed with how far he'd already progressed in less than a week. He can now move both arms, shrug both shoulders, work his lips and mouth a lot better, and - wait for it - I watched as she coaxed him to move almost all of the fingers on his left hand independently. His index finger can tap, his thumb can clench in and out and make circles, and he can pinch his fingers together strongly enough to pick up small items. And that was in his first session. After he was done, she said, "Dwaine, I'm confident that you will regain full use of your arm and hand." Hooray!
After that, there was a short rest time, then another therapist came in for ANOTHER walking session. This time with a wheeled walker. But he only went a little way with that before she switched him to a quad-cane. He walked quite a ways using just the cane. He was tired and had to roll back to his room in the chair. But again, the prognosis - walking on is own before he leaves the hospital.
You can imagine that after all this, Our Guy was just flat out pooped. So we ordered him some dinner and I left for the day. This is the first night since the stroke that I've been away from him and I feel a little lost. If I'm not with him, I feel like I can't really help him. But like so many have told me, I can't help him if I push myself to exhaustion - and I am a MAN ON THE EDGE. So, I'm here at home and looking at bed at 7:15. I wonder if my TIVO taped anything good? I can probably get through the first 15 minutes of Big Bang Theory. . . .
Good Night and Sweet Dreams everyone, especially to our beloved Dwaine as he continues to recover. Whatta guy!
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