My Little Darlin' - PT Day 72 - Home - (by Jan)

David was only sightly annoyed when he walked into the bathroom and found out that I had taken a shower and gotten dressed BY MYSELF!!  He is learning that I am becoming more and more independent.

We drove to Jackson where I got a root canal in a back molar damaged at the time of my impact... Yippee!!

Tomorrow we will return to Jackson and spend the night with my son Derek and his family.  That will put us only about 1 mile from our appointment at Quest at 8:00a.m. Thursday.  At this appointment I will be evaluated by the whole team of therapiists.  At some point after this evaluation, they will put together a plan of therapy for me.  We have no idea how long my outpatient therapy will last, but I am totally comitted to making it work.  I told them that I am signed up to do the Disney World Marathon in January.  I want to complete it.

My plan is to have the therapists "BRING IT".  I will kick butt and take names, and show them what I've got!!  A little brain damage won't keep me down!!

Jan

I Love My Husband

My Little Darlin, PT day 71, by David

Day 7 at home.  Jan is conked out again after a long active day(TIGT) so you are stuck with me writing this again.  Not much new other than Jan seems to be improving daily.  She even said she feels the improvement.  We did go to Tupelo and visited the critical care unit where Jan was for a month.  Jan saw and was able to thank many of the nurses and staff that took car of her.  I will tell you who read this, for health care providers who deal with a lot of very sick people to actually get to see one come back the way Jan has shows just how important and meaningful the job they do is.  Jan and I are so thankful to all of you at North Mississippi Medical Center.  Also as important are the ground and air ambulance crews that got her there.  You all truly played a major role in saving My Little Darlins life.  We can not thank you enough.  What you do every day is difficult and very stressful but matters so much and she is proof.

Tomorrow we are going to Jackson for her Intake Interview at Methodist Rehabilitation Center Quest Program to be followed on Thursday for her Quest team evaluation.  By the way she also gets a root canal tomorrow.

Please do not forget what happened to Jan putting her on this path.  Not all are as fortunate in their outcome as Jan has been.

SHARE THE ROAD, IT'S A LIFE
PUT THE !%@$# CELL PHONE DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL SOMEBODY
GET OFF THE COUCH,  LIFE IS FOR DOING STUFF
SUPPORT BIKE WALK MISSISSIPPI,  THEY WILL HELP MAKE CHANGES HAPPEN
BE BRIGHT AND BE SEEN

I Love My Little Darlin,
David 

My Little Darlin" Day 70 - Home (By Jan)

Today was pretty much a normal day.  David let me sleep til 9:20, then cooked me breakfast - scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and blackberries.  We contined cleaning up the "clutter" around the house and did some laundry.  I am more and more able to actually help out around here!!

Around noon we took a "Sunday Drive".   We went to the Noxubee Refuge and looked at the alligator swimming across the lake!!  I LOVE spotting the alligator!!

Once we got back home we ate some of the delicious soup made yesterday by the "brain damaged" woman of the house.  Both husband and son seemed to enjoy it.  TIGT.

I went back and read some of David's early posts.  That was very hard for me.  To realize what he went through.... the pain and fear he must have been feeling... was overwhelming.  I cried.  I wish the woman that hit me could feel what David felt.  I wonder if she felt anything.

I love my husband.

Jan

My Little Darlin, PT day 69, by David

Day 5 at home.  Jan went to running club and had a great reception.  She very much enjoyed seeing every one and I thought they all enjoyed seeing her and how well she was doing.  She really is doing well.  As I said yesterday all areas that she has deficits seem to be improving.  I am not hovering as much as I have been when she walks around he house letting her be a bit more independent.  She knows she is improving but is still frustrated because she cant help me do much of anything around the house.  I let her know her job is to get better and not to injure herself by doing too much.  She feels her biggest limiting factor is the back pain she has from the compression fracture.  She is past six weeks with pain and we have talked about kyphoplasty(inject glue into the bone).  This is a procedure my partners and I do quite a lot of and get significant improvement in the back pain in most patients.  It is typically done of fractures from osteoporosis rather than trauma.  I tend to be conservative and would rather her avoid any procedure but if the pain persists then we may have it done.  Risks are very low but I worry when it is my little darlin and cringe at the thought of any more harm happening to her.   Even though risks are low they happen and if it happens to you it is 100% to you.  I also do not want her to hurt. I have told her to write down today what her pain level is and record it daily for a few days.  If it is improving then we do nothing.

Thanks to all for coming to see Jan at running club today.  She definitely appreciated it.

SHARE THE ROAD, IT'S A LIFE
PUT THE !%@$# CELL PHONE DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL SOMEBODY
GET OFF THE COUCH,  LIFE IS FOR DOING STUFF
SUPPORT BIKE WALK MISSISSIPPI,  THEY WILL HELP MAKE CHANGES HAPPEN
BE BRIGHT AND BE SEEN

I Love My Little Darlin,

My Little Darlin, PT day 68, by David

Day 4 back at home.  Sorry for the late post. Very busy now that we are back home.  Mostly spending time getting the house more organized and less cluttered.  Want as few obstacles as possible that could cause Jan to trip given her limited stability.  She is improving daily.  In the house I do let her walk some without my hand on her but I am still right there just in case.  I still have high anxiety about her reinjuring herself.  Today she successfully completed a high level difficulty Sudoku and a jumbles puzzle.  Mentally this confirms objectively she is improving.  She can see the physical and mental improvement as well (TIGT).  She still has a fair amount of back pain when she tries to sit up or sit for an extended period.  She and I discussed kyphoplasty today.  This is the injection of glue into the vertebrae.  It is primarily done on older women with osteoporotic compression fractures and gives significant relief of back pain in the majority of women who have it done and has low risk.  There is still nothing safer than natural healing and the pain should improve over time so have opted to wait.  Got to go to sleep now. Can hardly keep my eyes open.  BTW tomorrow morning our local running club is doing a little extra for a welcome back Jan celebration.  We have a great running club and most bring something to eat  so it is a couple of hours of eating and visiting after the run every saturday morning for all level of runners and walkers.  Jan was very pleased because she made the brownies she is taking tomorrow with minimal assistance.

To address a couple of comments made on yesterdays post.  I do not disagree about taking a risk by riding on the road with the number of truly stupid, arrogant and or oblivious people driving automobiles.  The only way to decrease your risk from harm is to cocoon at home and that is what my little darlin has been saying is what she wants to do since this happened to her.  Add another thing the person that did this took from her, her sense of adventure.  I also much prefer to be on the trails riding my mountain bike but few of us have them out our back door.  I also like to do triathlons and this requires training on a road bike at high speeds that you can only do on a road.  Riding the road bike is also good training for the mountain bike.  I have not riden my road bike since this happened and I am not sure I can for a while for two maybe three reasons.  One psychologically it will be difficult because I still have a mental image of what Jan went through at impact and shudder every time I think about it.  Two I think Jan likely would have severe anxiety if she knew I were riding on the road.  Three my wife is very vulnerable now given her still weakened condition physically and mentally and I can not risk something happening to me that would keep me from taking care of her.  On the otherhand sitting on the couch like the majority of americans do now a days is a sure ticket to early death from many preventable diseases.  We could all give in and never ride on the road again or we can encourage more to do something good for themselves like ride and maybe someday this would become the norm(yea right! what BS)  I know the risks are there but I will be back on the road at some point in the future.  I won't be able to help myself.

SHARE THE ROAD, IT'S A LIFE
PUT THE !%@$# CELL PHONE DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL SOMEBODY
GET OFF THE COUCH,  LIFE IS FOR DOING STUFF
SUPPORT BIKE WALK MISSISSIPPI,  THEY WILL HELP MAKE CHANGES HAPPEN
BE BRIGHT AND BE SEEN

I Love My Little Darlin,
David