Kindred Hospital

On March 19, Richard was transferred to Kindred Hospital.  It is not far from UNM, but it is cheaper so the insurance company made the call to send him there.  He could not bear weight on any of his extremities so they basically just have to wait until he can for further treatment.  He had a wound vac on both the arm and ankle.  He had external fixators on his legs.  He couldn't move himself at all but he had appointments at UNM so he had to be transported back and forth when necessary by ambulance.

He also started receiving occupational and physical therapy at Kindred. They couldn't do much with him, but at least they were attempting to do something.  He started to be able to put a little weight on one of his legs so that they were teaching him to get himself on the portapotty.  They had a machine that would move his leg so that it didn't freeze in the position it was in.  Here are some pictures of that:

The machine that moved his leg

His ankle on the inside.  You can see why they wanted to amputate, and this was a couple of months after the accident so it had healed quite a bit by this picture.  

While there, I wrote this in my journal: I know there are things Rich is going through that I can’t begin to understand, and vice versa.  I had no idea there was so much to going through a catastrophic event.  It is overwhelming to say the least.  The stress is starting to wear on me.  Seems like no matter where I am, I think I need to be elsewhere and the constant things to do all the time with no end in sight is very tiring.  I have to remind myself to take one day at a time, and sometimes I have to break that down to an hour at a time.  
 I drove from Los Alamos today and as I left White Rock, it was starting to snow.  By the time I got to Santa Fe, it was thick and sticking to the roads.  I was getting worried, wondering if I should stop somewhere until it warmed up or stopped sticking or something. I was about to give up and try to find a store I could stay in for awhile.  Then I called Rich to ask if there was snow in Albuquerque.  He said that there wasn’t.  He said that it was cloudy and overcast but no snow.  Just as I got on the phone with him, the snow stopped.  A couple minutes into the call, I could see a distinct line between the area that was getting snow and the Albuquerque side of Santa Fe, which was just as clear as can be.  I think life is like that trip.  We have to step into the darkness before we come to the place where we can see things more clearly.  I am not seeing the clearing yet in our lives, but I have faith that it is there.  I am still in the blizzard conditions most of the time, although I do have to say that things have started to clear some in the last week.  

One day the sun was shining and we were able to take Richard outside.  It is the first time that he has been outside for anything more than an ambulance ride since the accident.  It was a good day.  Wendy had purchased a car and she wanted to show it to him so we took his bed out so that he could see it.

We also had Easter at Kindred and we took some pictures.  Richard and I would snuggle in bed, and they didn't like that for some reason.  I think it was good for both of us.

The wound vac dressings need to be changed about every other day and when they changed them at UNM they were very sanitary, but at Kindred they were not.  Because of this, it wasn't long before he picked up MRSA infection in his ankle and ended up back at UNM in the emergency room.  That is a story for another day.