Janary 15 thorugh 20, 1999 update

Been a while since I sent out an update, I do apologize but I have been staying at the hospital until very late and haven't had the time or energy to write anything.

Su continues her improvement daily. In the last week they have determined that the reason that she can't tolerate sitting up for extended periods of time is that she gets dizzy from low blood pressure, a common problem for bed-ridden patients. They have started her on the tilt table to acclimate her to being vertical again. The PT student (a retired Navy SEAL CDR) who is working with her PT said that she has not lost the walking motion instinct, so getting her vertical and in a walker should be a snap once she gets acclimated. That was a great piece of news since it means maybe months of her final rehab time if they don't have to re-train her to walk. Slowly we are straightening her arm Julie (Official Armourer and Webmistress of the NGG) can testify as to how incredibly painful it is to range her right arm, once you do that she is so pissed at the world that she just shuts out everything for the next 5 or 6 hours.

Julie Holms of the NGG visited the other day and even though Su and her have only meet a few times Su recognized her and was glad for the visit. Julie even brought me some un-poisioned scones, for which I was very grateful and quite honored. Jan and Karen from CANON came by and Su was really glad afterwards and was sorry to see them go, she is really getting to the point where she can appreciate her visitors, which is a major step.

She is really starting to focus for extended periods of time, she was able to watch the entire episode of Inspector Morse the other day (one of her favorites) and then still watch Ballykissangel afterwards. She finally started to try to talk on Monday night, I asked if she wanted me to read from the book "The Perfect Vehicle" (which by the way should be in the bookcase of every motorcyclist) or watch TV, she tried to say the word "book". I now have insight into how parents feel when their spawn says its first word.

So all in all a very good week for Suze as far as therapy goes.

The reason that I have been staying so late at the hospital (sometimes until 2 am) is that I have become very concerned about the care she has received from some of her nurses. Over the weekend I had to stop two separate nurses from giving her medicine incorrectly. Nothing life-threatening but it really raised the spectre of disquiet. Then on Monday a serious issue arose with her personal care. I had a very long talk with the Program Administer and the Nursing Supervisor about the problems, which are related somewhat to the hospital's use of "temp/contract" nurses since they are short staffed right now. End result is that I am personally vetting a group of nurses that will be the only ones that Su will be assigned. So until I feel comfortable with a particular nurse I will not leave her alone with that nurse. Hopefully that process will be completed by this weekend and I can get back to a regular schedule.

The second team meeting is on the 21st so I will send out an update when I get home tonight (prob be pretty late).

Take care everyone

lawrence