Friday, January 22

Many of you have noticed that these posts are getting briefer and more intermittent.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  The respiratory issues have slowed things down quite a bit so there aren't a lot of big events to report.  I'm also exhausted at the end of the day (who knew rehab would wear the family out, too!) and recording events here falls by the wayside.  Finally, as I'm sure you can imagine, this whole experience is rough and I'm reluctant to share all of the details in such a public place.  Those are the reasons I've abandoned posting every day.

On to other things!  The week finished up pretty well.  Bill's occupational therapist has been working with him using assistive equipment to do things like eat, turn magazine pages, and type on a keyboard.  It's difficult and frustrating for him to have to retrain his body to do things that used to come so easily.  His physical therapist continues to work with him on strengthening the muscles that are still enervated in his arms and he's making great improvement there.  He is healing up nicely from the lung surgery he had Monday and we hope that the chest tubes will come out early next week.

There have also been a couple visitors this week who have been in a similar position that Bill is currently in.  They can relate to him in a way that none of the rest of us can, and they are also clear examples that he can have a life after spinal cord injury.  It's tough to know when someone might be ready to have those discussions and meet other disabled people, but I think this is happening at the right time.  Bill is still confined to his room because of the chest tubes and the suction device they are hooked up to, so he doesn't see many people and the folks he does see are not disabled.  I find the Shepherd Center to be a very inspiring place because there are so many people who are going about their daily lives, either working there, coming in for therapy, or just coming in to use the gyms.  It feels strange to call them disabled because they are clearly able- they just get around in wheelchairs instead of walking like I do.