Thursday, March 1st 2:00pm

Finally found a few minutes that I could stop what I was doing and post some info about Kerrie ( well, didn’t really find a few minutes but figured if I don’t stop what I am doing it will be midnight before I get on here again).

When I got back to Detroit, Monday night, Mom took me right to the Hospital to see Kerrie.. couldn’t wait to see her, missed her more than I even imagined I could and was practically in tears waiting for the elevator to get me to the 7th floor.

Walked into her room… and she just smiled. The most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. I ran over to her, told her I missed her and gave her the best hug I could.. She was so damn beautiful to see. Better than anything in Paris or London..

When I asked what she had been doing she said “Lot’s of stuff” and then told me about taking a shower, “walking” along the parallel bars and riding her hand-bike. When I asked if she had been working really hard she rolled her eyes, gave a hugh sigh and just said, ” aughhhh. YES!”

We had a great slumber party together and both fell asleep within an hour of my getting there, but it sure was nice to wake up and find her next to me in the morning.

Tuesday morning we met with the Rehab Team, for her weekly progress meeting, and they all said they were very happy with how Kerrie has been doing.

OT stated she’s doing very well in some things, such as brushing her teeth, and only needs help with stuff like getting the cap off the tooth paste. Other areas, such as getting dressed, haven’t been tried yet. Getting her up and out of bed still takes multiple people, but she’s able to help out with this more and more.

PT also said she’s been going well, has taken a few steps while working along the parallel bars and is showing some improvement in the strength in her legs. Still not great, but there’s been improvement.

Speech Therapy states she’s doing well with reading, spelling, word comprehension and following complex directions.. but is still not swallowing properly. We have to remember to tell her to swallow.. I’ve been trying this for months but I’m only there a few days a week and Mom can’t be there everytime she eats, so it’s something we will really need to push hard. She may be eating pudding, applesauce and yogurt but she doesn’t swallow it. She just lets it slide down her throat and whatever she doesn’t get down her throat runs out the side or her mouth..

They did have encouraging news about Kerrie coming home soon. Although they would like to keep her there a little longer, she may be coming home by March 10th. No exact date has been set yet, but that’s the projection. If they are able to extend her stay they will, but this may close to the date she will be released. They want to get her to the point where she can give more assistance when getting out of bed, so that maybe only 1 or 2 people would need to help, where she can use a bedside commode, and where she would be able to handle in-home Rehab, 2-3 days a week, without losing ground on her accomplishments. I really want her to come home, but it scares me that she may come home before she far better than she is now.  They need to make sure we are ready too. Mom has already learned a lot of the stuff she needs to, but I need to learn how to hook up her tube feedings and assist with her medications, learn how to properly get her in and out of bed and what I can do to help with her rehab while she’s at home. I’ll be spending Monday and Tuesday, next week, learning all this fun stuff from the Rehab staff.

Yesterday was another milestone for Kerrie.. Mom called and told me that they took a walk in the hall.. Kerrie took five steps in the hallway, while holding onto the handrail. Not sure how she does this exactly, or if/how Mom was holding her up. I know she needs to have some support in some manner, but it almost sounds as if she only had the support of the handrail in the hall.

Mom did stress that she more or less dragged her right leg, but she was able to “walk”.. the PT staff ( or maybe it was OT) came out, saw Kerrie in the hall and told Mom to buy her some shoes. So.. Mom went on a shopping adventure to get her some new shoes. Not even sure what size she wears now 🙂 She hasn’t worn shoes since October and she’s lost a lot of weight since then.  Mom also mentioned they were going to be making a brace for Kerrie’s leg. Not sure if this is to help her keep it stable, so she can walk easier or if this is to help keep her foot/leg from developing turnout.. but I am sure I will get more information about this later.

The staff is busy preparing lists of what we need to get Kerrie for the house : Wheelchair, hospital bed, IV Poles, bedside tables, bedside commode, bedpans, towels, hand-bike, portable rehab equipment and on and on and on..

In the meantime, Mom is going crazy trying to figure out how we are going to get the house ready by next week. She’s already tried to find a new home for her cats, since they couldn’t stay in the house, and ended up enlisting the Human Society to help find them a home..the plants have been gone for months, the drapes and blinds replaced, some carpeting replaced, but there is a lot that still needs to be done…Saturday is going to be spent emptying out her garage and cleaning it. Kerrie will have to be brought in and out of the house through the garage, so it has to be entirely cleaned.. Ron and I will move everything to a storage unit and Ron is going to build a wheelchair ramp inside the garage. Then we’ll have to clean the garage out.. Furniture from inside the house will have to be in the storage unit, knick-knacks put away, unecessary objects moved out of the way, anything that could collect dust needs to be removed.. the house needs to scrubbed top to bottom, carpets and furniture extracted, etc. It’s a huge job.. and we all have to work our normal jobs in the meantime. Mom has hired people to come in and clean the house on Monday, and extract the carpets and the furniture later next week, but we have to get the rest of the house ready before they can do any of this.

Mom has put out a call for help to some of our family members and I’m extending it to whoever is interested.. if you are free on Saturday and would like to help Ron and I get the garage cleaned out, stuff moved to storage, etc. please get ahold of Mom.  Mom has to work that day, so we are going to try to get as much done as we can before she gets home.. but if we have a few people to help it can get done quickly. I’ll even buy the pizza and beer. If you’re free and you would like to have a little “fun” on Saturday get ahold of Mom. I’m not sure how many of our cousins she’s heard from, but she’s already contacted all the “Big Manly Men” to help out 🙂 so I’m not sure how much help we still need.. maybe a lot.. maybe none.. just thought I would mention it.

I’m sure there will be much to tell about Kerrie over the next week or so and, as always, I will try to get information on here as soon as possible.

And don’t worry.. I haven’t forgotten that I need to tell the story of the very nasty 4:30am fall in the shower on the day I was coming home :)  Time to get back to work, so  that will have to wait