December 21 update

Su is continuing to improve. Today she made some very big steps. One is that she started to move her arms and facial features, she is able to make frowning and crying gestures and grimaces but that is a big improvement over the last couple of days. She was able to wave hi to her neurosurgeon. Her thrashing about has increased to the point where we had to leave her in the soft restraints most of the day. I am simply too tired and slow to prevent her from hurting herself or me (I now have a reverse Reebok print across my forehead :-) ) when she starts flailing with her feet. The plus side is that her spells of agitation are shorter in duration.

Acted as a spotter today when PT got her sitting up on the side of the bed. They had to do most of the work but she was able to do some of the balancing herself and had the strength to pull herself upright part way. Her blood pressure held through the entire time which was excellent. That really tired her out so she slept most of the day after that.

The meeting with TriAtlantic/TriCare was "interesting". The case manager got slapped around pretty good by the hospital staff, PT/OT - Trauma - Physio - Admin were all there and they pretty much read TriCare the riot act. End result was that TriCare agreed to send her to a sub-acute facility until she had made progress to get to an Acute rehab facility. TriCare's original position was that they would send her to a nursing home and IF she got better they would see about sending her to Acute. As you can imagine I took a very strong exception to that philosophy and all the Sentra people backed me up. Su might be transferring to Stuart Circle in Richmond on Wednesday if a bed becomes available there and if they accept her. Will know better tomorrow afternoon. 50/50 chance she will be remaining at Norfolk General for the Xmas holiday weekend. Have already made arrangements for cot to be in her room for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It will be our first Xmas and I don't intend to spend it anywhere but by her side.

The criminal court date for the drunk driver has been set for the 5th of March 1999. I am hoping to pack the courtroom with friends of Su to show support and to make it harder for the judge to lenient.

Not much else to say.

Lawrence
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