Janary 28 thorugh February 11, 1999 update

Further updates: some of this may be new and some of it may not:

In the past week+ Suze continues to make outstanding progress. She has gone from a number 8 trach insert to a number 4, from 40% O2 to room air, and is in the process of weaning her off the trach all together. They basically cap off the trach for a set period of time to allow her to breath regularly and monitor her O2 sat levels. She has been doing excellent on that though it does tire her out a bit more than normal but she is adapting. If she continues to tolerate it by Monday the 15th she should be off the trach totally!!!

She has started to make some noises since she is now able to pass air across her vocal cords. Nothing really coherent but that will come in time.

Trying to get her to use a communication board but her motor skills just aren't there especially when she really needs something which has left her pretty depressed.

They started her on the swallowing tests, she was able to get a bit of applesauce down but it took an incrediable amount of effort on her part to get the throat/swallowing muscles working again. But the fact that is went down the right way is a very promising sign. Once she gets used to that then they can start feeding her orally vice via the stomach tube. Which she will be very happy, she has been directing some very malovent glares at the feeding bag lately. To support we are starting excercises that will require her to look into a mirror. She hasn't seen herself since the accident and while the wounds have healed fairly nicely there will still be some significant scarring of her face. We will have to see how she handles that but I expect the weekend to be a loss while she deals with that.

On Wednesday she walked 30 feet without the walker, just the PT (Jim Kelly the retired NAVY SEAL Cdr) and myself holding onto her gait belt for balance. She is becoming more mobile by the day but now she doesn't want to do the other things, she just wants to walk and walk....

Our anniversary and her birthday went quietly, called her mother and sister and Suze was able to hold the phone by herself and listen to them. She got a bit agitated because she wanted to talk back and she couldn't make any sounds. Passed the day holding hands, reading, watching TV and listening to CD's.

Well she was supposed to transfer to Riverside on Wednesday (the 10th) but I put a hold on that. Did a tour of the facility and it left a feeling of unease. They don't use the VAIL enclosures there so the options would 1) restrain her to the bed or 2) use an old style CRAIG enclosure. I flat-out won't allow the restraints to be used and the CRAIG enclosure it too demeaning and I think unsafe in her case. It is basically a mattress on the floor with walls around it. Just high enough that Suze could struggle over and fall face first. Riverside knew that the VAIL enclosure was necessary and didn't make the effort to obtain one (they are rentable). That coupled with some recent stories from friends about the Riverside system has pushed me towards MCV. It will mean continuing to travel to Richmond but they are rated one of the top facilities in the country and from what everyone is telling me she won't be there very long anyway. So the transfer is probably not going to happen until sometime next week, probably on Wednesday.

Discussion with the head of the Pensiula chapter of MADD indicates that there is a better than 50% chance this guy who hit us will either go free or serve very minimal time (<48hrs). The court date on the 5th of March will be to send the case to criminal court from traffic court. There will be a two month delay (min) before the case is seen in criminal court. His attorney will try to continually delay the court dates hoping that the witnesses will get tired on coming to court for no reason. Once the key witness doesn't show up it gets dismissed and he walks away scot free or if he is found guilty most probable sentence will be approx 48 hrs in jail, reduced by time served and the sentence will be over the weekend so as not to adversely affect his life. Very lenient in the Hampton court system on drunk drivers. Can you tell I am pissed.

Sunday's Daily Press (local paper) will be carrying an article about the accident and the aftermath.

She has been getting pretty depressed lately so if you have some spare time and can come and visit her it would be really appreciated.

take care everyone