Hey gang, we've had a lot going on so let's get right to it.
Lisa has moved out of Barrow Neuro Rehab Unit and is back with the group of therapists who worked with her from March thru June when Lisa made the greatest gains since her injury in February. You'll remember after Lisa's dramatic helicopter flight from Tucson for treatment of the deadly Stevens Johnson reaction at the Arizona Burn Center here in Phoenix, Lisa was transferred to Select Specialty Hospital, a long term acute care facility (ltac) located in St. Joseph's medical center and under the care of Dr. Kwasnica, program director of the world famous Barrow neuro rehab unit.
It was with Maureen (speech therapy), Connie (occupational therapy), Deb and Marty (sharing physical therapy duties) that Lisa went from virtually no ability to interact with us to consistent head nods to very complicated questions. Then, as we all know, Lisa's muscle tone driven by errant signals from the severely damaged portions of her brain, took away her gains and left her vulnerable to a series of complications and infections.
The effort to protect Lisa's opportunity to make a significant recovery led her doctors to transfer her from Select Specialty Hospital to the Barrow neuro rehab unit also located here at St. Joe's. The valiant efforts made by her doctors and therapists there protected Lisa's health and range of motion, but failed to break through her spasticity. Unable to make progress, Lisa could not remain in the neuro rehab unit. The folks there felt that evaluating and possibly adjusting the med mix in her pump, reviewing her amenability to other spasticity treatments including hyperbaric should be done while Lisa is in another acute care facility. Then, if Lisa does show significant enough improvement to meet Barrow's criteria she will be welcomed back.
When we did our last update, where Lisa was going was still unresolved. I told you Select had initially declined to accept Lisa back as a patient for reasons I hoped to have resolved by November 8th. My hopes were realized and Lisa was given the opportunity to return to a group of nurses, CAN's and therapists (while retaining her team of doctors) who've cared about and for Lisa through thick and thin since March.
Lisa's return was pretty emotional. It seemed like a big step back, and yet coming here was so much better than any alternative. I was also concerned about how we'd be received for reasons that I'll explain another time. As it turns out, I shouldn't have been worried at all. Waiting for us were old and good friends with tears and open arms. Her therapists know what Lisa can do and have been able to help Lisa do things she hasn't done in months- head nods, jaw movements – not in a big way yet, but still really encouraging.
The Select folks also got a moto-med dad talked about in the last update, and I am able to use that on the weekends with Lisa. This past weekend was a hoot, I set the moto-med up in a day room with windows facing the city, Michael- who will not be contained- crawled, lunged and cruised on the freshly mopped floor, while Lisa worked out for about 50 minutes, pedaling over 7 and half on her own according to the machine's software. While we're still having our ups and downs, overall, Lisa's tone is less and her responsiveness is more than it has been in quite some time.
We're still waiting for the final approval from St. Joe's Internal Review Board for Lisa to receive hyperbaric treatments but expect to hear in the next few days. Now that Lisa's therapy team has had a good chance to put her through her paces, they'll meet with Dr. Kwasnica to plan next steps. Serial casts are back on her ankles to get them back to a more neutral position, new splints developed by Lisa's Barrow OT, Trent, and Connie here are helping her wrists, hands and arms so all we need is a break!
Lisa's wonder dog Maggie has been proving that dog's and their masters share similar attributes because she's certainly got Lisa's fighting spirit. Maggie had been struggling with a congestive heart condition when she was diagnosed with lymphoma. Her vet, (actually, a board certified oncologist) has been treating her with chemo and other drugs. After an initial downturn, Maggie's responded beautifully, demanding her morning walks and darn near knocking me down when I walked in the door- pretty good for an eleven year old sheltie.
This past week though, it seemed her luck was running out. A big lymph node in the center of her chest combined with her enlarged heart had us all worried we'd lose her this week. Instead, she took a dose of radiation, a stay in an oxygen cage, and now we expect to have her here with Lisa this weekend! Maggie's visits are a treat for Lisa and her staff and I'm grateful to our friend and neighbor Jim and my Dad for making this possible by giving Maggie her meds, getting her to the vet and bringing her up to Phoenix.
Speaking of my Dado, he and Sherry moved into their new home right down the road from us. Helped by their Posse, they got set up enough to have a place of their own in record time. Our good friends and Louisiana natives Butch and Rebecca Milan drove from their home outside of Austin to cook authentic crawfish etoufee, jambalaya, white beans, and crab gratin for the moving crew and their supporters. How authentic? Rebecca had the crawfish and crab Fed Ex'ed in from the Gulf of Mexico to meet her here in Tucson.
Despite the trauma of moving in, dad and sherry haven't missed a beat in caring for their grandson. Dad comes and picks his namesake up in the morning; they make sure he gets his medicine and the ever increasing doses of affection and attention Michael requires. Sherry conducts the forays for food, diapers and other essentials all the while unpacking, organizing, storing, cooking and otherwise caring and feeding the Wintory men. Amazing.
So you can see, it's not hard for me to find things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving night. One of Lisa's rangers, Sandy, took time to bring to Lisa's room a plate of t-day dinner cooked by she and her family- good stuff(ing). Our friends Tracy and Carl Miller picked Maggie up from the vet and have brought her home tonight where Jim will look after her, this is after he and Ann cooked Thanksgiving dinner for Dad and Sherry still setting up their home while caring for Michael.
All these folks and others make it possible for me to keep my promise to Lisa to care for her as she would care for me.
Something happened to me today while driving up to Phoenix that increased my determination even more. A traffic accident a short distance ahead of me forced the line of cars all traveling close near 80 mph to slam on their brakes, the large SUV driving a Texas family that had been traveling more or less in tandem with me was, at that moment to my rear. I looked up in the rear view mirror and with relief saw he was going to be able to stop. I looked back ahead to see what had started this mess when suddenly the Texas SUV shot past me on the left in the median. Confused, I looked back into the rear view mirror to see an 18 wheeler hurtling towards us smoke billowing from his tires. I braced for impact and worse.
The semi's driver followed just to the left of the SUV into the median, which was steeply banked, his trailer slowly starting to jackknife towards us. He somehow kept his rig straight enough to avoid hitting us, going into oncoming traffic or jackknifing and doing both. I later judged his lane of life to be less than 20 feet in the middle of a sharply sloped median.
His cab and trailer gradually came to a stop and tipped ever so slowly left against the slope of the median, about a 45 degree list. I was looking at space between the two sets of tires. I'd once prosecuted a case where an 18 wheeler had climbed over the top of a car like mine; the picture of the crushed victim came to mind. I ran to cab tilting crazily for its bulk. Others came running, including the father of the Texas family in the SUV. I shouted for the driver to see if he was ok, to tell him he had to get out of there. The Texas SUV guy shouted I needed to get out of there, the cab was tipping over. Having used up my share of luck, I instantly got back over to the passenger side now towering over us from the list.
As the driver was jumping into our waiting arms, we shouted that he was a hero, I asked how he avoided us, and he answered without pause: "I prayed to God and He heard me!" I left my card with him and the responding officers, who wanted us out of there ASAP. The driver called later this afternoon. He said he really didn't remember what happened it was all so quick, he'd never been in an accident of any kind. He just knew there were families in front of him, he had a family and he didn't want anyone hurt on Thanksgiving.
So I'm thankful I'm alive, but for that life to be worth having been spared it must be dedicated to caring for those in need, and, as the wicked witch of the west said "and your little dog, too!" -rmw
