HealthSouth

As I wrote in my post about St. John's Rehabilitation Center, we chose HealthSouth and waited for an opening there for Richard to get in.

Sadly, by the time Richard got there, he didn't have too many days left in a center other than a hospital.  The insurance company had a limit on the number of days that are covered in a facility that is not a hospital.

Starting the first day at HealthSouth, Richard took a shower, used a real toilet, moved numeous times from the bed to the wheelchair and back again and went to the cafeteria to eat at a table!  He started being extremely emotional, which we found out was part of the traumatic brain injury.  He ended up in tears about things that he would have never cried about in the past.  He was so busy at occupational, physical, and emotional speech functional theraphy, and language therapy that he didn't have time for phone calls or visitors. I couldn't believe how hard they worked him, but he did great!

After just a couple of days there he was experiencing extreme pain during dressing changes on his ankle.  The doctors there thought that the infection might be back so they tried to get through to the hospital, and even they could not get through to anyone.  Interestingly though, they ended up calling an ambulance to take him to the emergency room to handle the situation rather than just wait for their calls to be answered.  Because of it, they extended the antibiotics that he was on, which was a great thing!  I am so grateful that they took matters seriously and got Richard the help he needed.

On the 1st of July we took Richard out to the Olive Garden for dinner for Austin's birthday (Danielle's husband).  It was a real challenge to get him in and out of the car and in and out of the wheelchair.  Then to navigate in the restaurant was pretty crazy.  You would think that public places would be more handicapped friendly, but they just are NOT, especially when the person in the wheelchair has to have both legs straight out in front of them.  It was his first outing in 5 months!  Here is a picture of that day:

    

On July 2nd he walked for the first time!  He was in between two bars to provide stability while the physical therapist had him in a strap to catch him if he started to go down.  This is also the time that he went to the eye doctor to get the diagnosis on the right eye.  The doctor took so much time with him and really seemed to care about him, which was so rare for us at this time that we were shocked! 

Once again, the insurance company wanted him out and home as soon as possible.  We arranged for a pass to take him home for a trial visit on the 4th of July.  It was a hard day for me because getting him in and out of a car, in and out of wheelchairs, etc. was physically draining. We were able to see what modifications needed to be made the house for him to come home.

The OT and PT made it very clear that it is important that when he went home, that I didn't do everything for him.  He needed to regain his strength, and that can not happen if he doesn't push himself to be self-reliant.  Everything that happened at HealthSouth was to prepare Richard to go home and be on his own.  Their facilites were amazing.  Their doctors and therapists were the best we had seen since he was in trauma ICU.  We were so incredibly blessed to have him at HealthSouth.  I feel that he should have stayed a little longer to be more prepared to come home, but that was not an option for us.

By July 28th, he would be back in the hospital for another infection on the ankle, but the time we spent at home, and the success of that time at home would not have been possible if it were not for HealthSouth and the professionals there.  They were amazing!

Here are some pictures of rebab at HealthSouth: