Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Steps Forward

Last Wednesday, my mom was transferred to a physical therapy rehabilitation center about 2 hours from here. It is a marvelous facility staffed by an outstanding group of people. She has made great progress, although her pain is incredibly severe at times (I hope I never walk in on a repeat of what I heard behind the curtain when I arrived there last Friday).

The one thing not mentioned much in the literature I've found is the unbelievable physical pain that can be caused by this syndrome. I've been present more than once when both my mom and that very heavy hospital bed were shaking as if in an earthquake. It was a near-constant for the first few weeks, but happens less often now, a few times a day. They say it is now caused by the nerves coming back to life, or occasionally becoming confused about their job. Not everyone is afflicted with this part - unfortunately my mom was.

She can't walk or stand on her own yet, but the people there believe that she will (and they have the track record to give us some confidence - an advantage of concentrating this kind of care in a single place). They are estimating (and have told my mom) that they she will be discharged in mid-January, and walking using a walker. Admittedly not for far at first. They expect her to eventually be able to walk without a walker after a few months of continuing therapy at home. Needless to say, this is wonderful news.

The distance is hard on both of them - I took my dad there on the 24th and everything went great, but trips like that one require a few days recovery. It will be almost a week before we can do that again. He was in outstanding form, which was good for both of them.

As you probably will agree - we'll take our victories where we find them.

(Largely excerpted from an e-mail to Amba earlier today)

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