Kerry: March 28, 2009

From Lynn to you all...

All -

We have passed the 3 month anniversary (March 26) of Kerrys accident.  We are in the fourth and final phase of hospitalization.  She is in Heartland, a rehab and nursing home facility in Sarasota.  She is once again about 30 mins from home but an easy drive, a good thing.    She has been there one week today and adapting quite well.  All the rooms are private, anotherr good thing.  The placeis very attractive with attractive surrounding grounds.  The staff seems very pleasant, helpful and responsive.  They all speak a  form of English that is understandable, another good thing given some of what I have seen in nursing homes.  lThe wing she is in is all orthopedic injury rehab.  Most look to be over 50, hips, knees etc and the nurses have taken to referring to Kerry as their pediatric patient.   She has rehab every day but not today as they were cleaning the rehab room.  Her rehab is relatively simple at this point, mostly walking with her cane for endurancewalking.  The getting up and downfrom the chair is still very strenuous for her asit is all about legs, no arm pushesoff the chair yet, and remembershe is still VERY confined in her "turtle shell" armor.  It has been much easier as of late for John and aid to get her into it, mainly because she isnot in as much pain  in her back, moderate but not severe any more for now anyhow.  Each day seems to get better, some days no pain meds at all.  Tonight she aked for one at about 6 but hadhad none since yesterday noon, a big and positive step for her.  Not the case every day but that is getting better.  She still gets a cocktail of meds twice each day of stuff for her bowels, her tummy, her calcium problems, and Xanax twice each day.  Who wouldnt need that after so many boring longhours in bed andso many painful memories still very fresh!!!!!   Her OT happens each day as welll, using her hands to put pegs in holes, etc.  This week coming she will start OT with personal care techniques.  She of course cannot yet dress herself, toilet herself oreven feed herself.  Her left and only arm at this time is still quite stiff and her hand shakes considereably but much less that just 2 weeksago.  Hopefully the shell will come off mid april as the neuro guy had felt 3 mos would do it and that will bel April 9.  Please keep our community fingers crossed for that to happen as she will then be much more flexible and hopefully more ambulatory.    Just finished 3 days of Hayden and his family being here.  A delightful interlude forall ofus, esp me.  I enjoyed seeing his 3 little girls  full time for a couple of days.  They are cute kids ( Emma is 7, Callan 5 and Anna 3) easy to be around, loved many hours ofl pool time each day (the 2 elderones are very competent in the deep water, easy forthe lifeguard)  and Anna is content to play on the seats in the hottub.  She thought it was the kiddie pool.  They are in bed with no fuss no muss by 8 pm, an even more attractive feature.  Kerry was thrilled to see Hayden when he arrived, she smiled from ear to ear with genuine joy on her face, so wonderful to see after these many weeks of ofttimes agony for her.  Does a moms heart good, believe me!  Forgot to say she has daily ultra sound treatments on her leftshoulder and elbow, deep heating the muscles making the exercises much less painful for her and extending her flexibility a great deal.  This Tuesday she will be once again transported to a docs office in Sarasota, an ortho guy to determine if she may be bable to do some light weight lifting with the left arm.  Xrays will also bedone of right and thus far useless right arm to hopefully try some frlexibility work on that shoulder.  That arm will not be any more than minimally functional until further surgery sometimein the furture, to restore  and not sure it is even opossible yet her rotator cuff.  It does not exist at this time so there is no way for her arm to bemoved from the shoulder joint by her, that arm flexes at the elbow but the shoulder is not operating .  Again, community finger crossing that repair to give her some use in that arm might be possible.    Her kidneys are working again, her tummy has quieted down,  still amystery.  The MRSA woundon her upper is "granulating" very nicely, medical talk for healing well,.   Thanks for listening, tune in again in about five days.   Maybe thereis light at the end of the tunnel.  LYNN

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Regards, Kyla Elderton