Update Part 1 (through 10/2)

So, Needlenoggin's PT dropped him. She had him on a sliding board and the wheelchair wheel turned and he slid to the floor. She assisted him down to sit on his ankles, but he was in severe, severe pain for a few days, with more nerve pain also.

However, that did eventually pass, and we were told that the breaks that had been seen in both ankles on the Xray were, in fact, from his previous accident. So, they didn't actually break both ankles. like it was originally thought, but he's not really up to the task of transferring without his Hoyer lift yet, apparently. So, they decided to send us a hospital bed, a loaner manual wheelchair (his custom one won't be here until 2009) and the lift. Before the fall, they weren't sure about the Hoyer, and didn't want to send the hospital bed, either.

However, for long periods of time, moving around in a manual chair on carpet with a barely healed arm is too hard to do full-time yet, so I found and purchased a used power wheelchair for him. It has no bells or whistles, but it goes. I've been TRYING mightily to get a quote on a newer chair, one that actually fits him, & is smaller (so navigating around is easier), but so far I've sort of been ignored by the wheelchair companies. Oh well, this one will work for right now.

Anyway, so we canceled our 9/27 Saturday visit because we were all dealing with green phlem, and so I headed down at 7 am on Monday, 9/29 to meet up with my folks and do training, get his list of doctors and specialists and get his medications so he could go home.

What we discovered was that life had become unbearable at SCVMC. They had put him, full time, in a loaner manual chair. It was made for someone my size, doesn't tilt or let him weight shift like he needs to ("just do it with your arms...lift your whole weight up with your recently broken arm. Why is that hard?"). It also sits him differently, and requires much, much more effort to move, even on the tile floor of the hospital. How is that going to work with carpet at home?

Anyway, hey were supposed to do a full training of me on his care, and while the OT and PT did give me a whole lot ("here's how the hoer works, here's how to do range-of-motion exercises, etc) but the nurses sort of ignored me most of Monday on his medications and other medical care. The next day we scheduled a meeting with the care-people and found out that nothing had really been arranged. He had no medical supplies ordered, his bed and hoyer "should" be there by the time he got home, and they weren't thrilled with the idea of a temporary power chair. Um, tough? Deal? Didn't know how to explain that. Anyway, before I went home on Tuesday, we'd gotten everyone in agreement, and I got to observe some of the medical procedures. My folks did the evening routine, and I was chastized for not being there. this is exceptionally finny because they'd ignored me Monday night and had known what days I'd be available FOR A MONTH, so I think they're just upset that they didn't have their act together, yet again. Oh, and his caseworker, who'd always said his release date was October 1st, got angry and condescending about how she had told us that his date had been changed to October 8th, and why weren't any of us listening? I explained that a)I'd said from the beginning that I could only get him on a weekend and that b)she'd never mentioned this date change to anyone in our family. then she turned to Needlenoggin and said "Oh yes I did! I came in to your room and told you." When he disagreed, she basically called him a liar. This woman has done nothing but undermine his care from the start (she was the one who thought he'd be able to go home with no problems even with a spinal fluid leak).

So, the week wore on. Thursday night my folks and I decided that I should get more than one night of practice at the night-time routine, so Little Monkey and I piled into my father's car, and headed to SCVMC. I did the routine while Dodo (what Rory wants to call my father...he wants to be "Vader") watched my son. As we left, I got a really good photo of Needlenoggin and Little Monkey:



Cute, no? More update when I get a chance to write again.