Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Update # 191

8 Years

O HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!! After 42 days, Jeff was transferred from Barnes to a rehab facility at 4:30 this afternoon.

Last week, the doctors began to discuss Jeff no longer needing the ICU room on the transplant floor. They were hoping to have Jeff in a rehab place by Friday, the 20th. The big discussion was how much time should Jeff rehab a day. Barnes has a floor for rehab with patients with trachs. But that floor would only do 1 hour of rehab a day. Docs felt Jeff could do more hours per day. An acute hospital near Barnes would do 1-2 hours of rehab a day with Jeff and naturally take care of his trach. By the end of Friday, that hospital would accept Jeff as a patient but they had no word from Jeff’s insurance. That hospital would not let family spend the night with Jeff.

Two other rehab places were contacted. These places would do 3 hours of rehab per day with Jeff. Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy at Barnes both felt Jeff could work 3 hours of rehab each day. Yesterday, one of those places accepted Jeff as a patient. Trach care was no problem, 3 hours rehab was no problem, and family spending the night was no problem. It was only a matter of time for the insurance to okay the facility. 2:30 this afternoon, we were informed insurance said yes!

We quickly packed up some things in the room to be ready for Jeff’s next ambulance ride. Meridith and I had to go to Hope Lodge to clean the room we’ve used for the last 4 weeks and check out. Being only a mile from the hospital and having free lodging was such a blessing when Jeff was so critical.

Jeff is at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital in Chesterfield, the western part of St. Louis county. He has a nice size private room facing East with a great view of Highway 40. Doctors and nurses are on staff 24 hours so if any situation arises with the trach (or anything else), medical help is right there. Therapy staff will write a plan of rehab exercises for Jeff to follow each day. He will be exhausted after 3 hours of hard work but Jeff is ready to go.

Yesterday at Barnes, OT and PT came right after each other and Jeff worked for 1 hour 10 minutes. 31 of those minutes was Jeff sitting on the edge of the bed balancing himself using abdominal muscles. They also worked his arms and legs. And – Jeff stood up for 2 seconds!!! Yep, Jeff’s ready to work at rehab.

Barnes referred us to a lodging place called Haven House that is 6 miles from rehab. The 3 of us will again rotate between staying with Jeff and spending the night at Haven House. It will cost a bit to stay but they provide 2 meals a day and again free laundry.

I forgot to mention in Sunday’s update that Jeff was able to talk last Friday with his guys at work. The phone was passed around so Jeff could speak with his friends/co-workers. Jeff was thrilled to hear their voices and I think they were just as glad to hear his. He commented several times that day how great it was to talk with them. Yes, he’s ready for rehab to return to his job.

We do not know the time frame for Jeff to be at rehab. It will depend on his daily progress. We are not going to give the address here but ask that you send anything for Jeff to our IL home. Ken will bring mail down on Fridays.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your prayers, concerns, love, support, visits, emails, calls, have held the 4 of us up during the most difficult time of our lives. We pray you’ll continue to help Jeff through this final part of a scary journey by remembering him in your daily prayers. It’s remarkable how God has blessed Jeff once again with healing. Words cannot express our thanks to each one of you.

love,

Marcia