Early last night my dad was moved to the spinal rehab unit! This unit is different because it has a strong focus on rehab. When patients move there, they are no longer sick, and need constant nursing care. That is great news that the doctors believe that he is ready for this unit. This unit is where the really intensive rehab begins. My dad will have a really busy rehab schedule, as well as several other daily tasks they will give him. 

Today was the first day starting this new schedule, and he was busy! He went for his rehab in the morning, and learned lots of new things. He then went to get an xray of his throat, to figure out why he still isn’t swallowing. In the test, they found that there is still some swelling from the surgery that is preventing him from swallowing. My dad has also had a really sore throat the past few weeks, and that may also be inhibiting from swallowing. He had a fungal infection in his mouth last week, called thrush, that may be causing the sore throat. They are also testing him for strep throat just in case. 

My dad got to meet his new physician for this unit, who had some encouraging things to say. He says that 2 weeks may seem like a long time to be in the hospital, but in their eyes, it’s still really early. He thinks that my dad has a lot of progress to be made, and that the amount of movement being shown now, is not evidence of how much he will get back. The next 3 months are when the majority of the progress will happen, and my dad is ready to start working hard!

My dad’s movement in his right arm has dramatically improved over the past few days! In rehab yesterday, while lying flat on the mat, he was able to glide his arm from his belly button all the way to his neck! This really shocked my dad to all of a sudden see his hand near his face without any help from anyone. He is also able to rock his wrist all the way over now, which was not possible yesterday. I took a video and will try and post it on here. 

His left hand is begining to rock, and is at about the same place the right one was about a week ago. His hand is rocking roughly 2-5mm. Although it is moving slower, it is still making progress! 

As for visitors, my dad is up for 1-2 visitors per day. He has asked me to schedule them at either 4pm or 630pm, and keep them 30 minutes or less. This is all he has energy for, for now. Please email me (cearamidwinter (at) gmail.com)what day and time work best for you, and I will let you know if that works. Thanks for everyones patience on this matter.