Two More Days

Here we are doing PT on the 27th. It was so awesome having Homer there to push him. Those two really get along and connect.

They came to cast his leg to mold a brace and Homer got to be the assistant.

Doesn’t that hair have to go?

Homer went back to Fairbanks after this. Of course, I was stressed about him driving at night, but he needed to get back to work. Someone has to pay the bills.
I finished shaving Elijah’s head Friday night and it made quite a difference on his appearance. His incision sprung a leak that night and was leaking the next morning. I tried to take a photo of it for him, but all I had was my phone and without flash was too dark, with too bright. Physical Therapy came and it was a new lady. Total disaster. She didn’t have the bandage to wrap the leg so she tried to use a nylon strap. Obviously, to get it to stay in place you would have to cinch it up until it cut the blood off. He started out the door and was tripping, then the blood/fluid started running towards his eyes and I said enough. Got him back in bed for the nurses to clean up and cancelled PT for the day.

A 3:45pm one his wonderful nurses thought he should get out and see the sun so with another ridiculous head wrap off we went.


In the back of the hospital there is a big crane and steel work going on to build a new women’s center so we went there. You can see how he still doesn’t have much control over the right leg. It was very hot and he lasted only a couple of minutes.

Homer had gone to a small Wal-Mart to get me hat making supplies. There had zero for yarn, but I put together a hat for Olivia anyhow. All the kids think is should go right in the trash it is so ugly! LOL

Morning of the 29th we are out cruising again. He gets hot flashes whenever he stands and then it is warmer in the section of hall from the sun. Simple walks are challenging, but each day he gets stronger and walks farther. Sometimes it was the shakes from being cold. Head injuries are such a mysterious thing.

Right after his walk the brace arrived at the hospital and he did a quick fitting. He was too tired to really try it out.

A few hours later PT is back again and the brace made a huge difference in his stability. You can also note that during these days it is a steady flow of people all day long. Physicians come twice a day, neurosurgeon once, sometimes 1 or 2 physician assistants, PT twice a day, OT once a day (until I canceled them as they weren’t doing anything with him, but wasting our money), the educational liaison, a social worker, volunteers offering to sit with your kid or get you anything you might need, pet therapy dogs, housekeeping, three meals and snack time and the nurses do vitals and pills every four hours around the clock. Then there was helping him stand to pee, sponge baths, air boots on and off, fluffy pillows, getting blankets, running back and forth for drinks….there really wasn’t any sit-around-and-be-bored time. Homer couldn’t believe how many different faces walked through our door. I guess a pediatric patient gets more attention than an adult.

My ex picked up Emily from my house and showed up Friday evening. We took Elijah for a walk down to the first floor (we were on the 3rd) to see a fish tank. They stayed to watch a movie with us and then left to sleep in the camper they had brought down.

Saturday morning on the 30th was another adventure of trying out some stairs. He did pretty good.

Even a little walking without the walker just to check balance.

Emily came up after PT and we did a little doodling.

We kidnapped Elijah and took him down to Subway on the basement floor. So good to see him eating. Just a few days before it was a battle all day long to get a bite here or there into him. Em and her dad left at 4:30pm to pick up his wife at the airport. They said they would be back so we stayed up until 11:00pm waiting, but didn't hear from them. Apparently, after shopping his truck had a noise so they were working on it in the parking lot and didn’t have time.

So while we were waiting we were watching movies in the dark. He thought his head was sweating. When we decided to give  up and go to bed we found this. Not sweat, but blood. He was having significant drainage so they ordered blood work. It couldn’t wait until morning because there aren’t any labs on Sunday so they were coming at 2:00am. It was after 3:00am before we got to sleep. Thankfully, the nurse put a note on our door so we would be left alone and we were able to sleep in until about 11:00am the next day.