Yet Another Move

Well Lara, my sister, went in for a regular visit with Carolyn and a much needed conversation with the social worker. Much to our surprise the social worker told Lara that the insurance had stopped covering Carolyn's care about a week prior and that we needed to transfer Carolyn tomorrow (this all happened last week). Needless to say we were taken by surprise. Especially since we had been trying to connect with Carolyn's social worker/ case manager for about three weeks. We're not sure what would have happened if Lara hadn't insisted on see the social worker when she did. As anyone who has visited Carolyn in the last few days can tell you, Carolyn is still at Healthsouth. We knew that she was probably going to need to be transferred to a long term skilled nursing facility sometime in the next few months so we had already started looking into them. We just had no idea that it would happen this quickly. We are trying to get her placed at Town & Country Manor in Boerne. She will need a private room because of her needs. They think there should be a room available within the next week. I'll post more information when I get it.

Now for an update on Carolyn herself. Apparently the physician overseeing her care decided to discontinue some of her medications about three weeks ago. We have been trying to speak to her doctor for about a month and have not had any of our calls or notes answered. We don't know why it was stopped because Carolyn had seemed to be responding well to it and since it has been stopped has shown some signs of slight regression. She has become a lot less cooperative with the therapists and nursing staff. Because she has not been doing well with therapy and had stopped progressing, the insurance felt that she was no longer benefiting from the rehab hospital. Once she is settle in a skilled nursing facility we will try to arrange for her to continue therapy. One of the reasons we are trying to get her in at Town & Country is that Carolyn's primary care physician (pre-accident) makes regular visits there. Hopefully, having a knowledge of Carolyn before the accident will help in her treatment. Physically Carolyn is doing OK, but to my knowledge, she hasn't seemed to make much more progress cognitively.

Mike was scheduled to go in and had his kidney stone taken care of yesterday. Unfortunately I have not been able to get a hold of him to see how he is doing. He has been receiving some at-home physical/occupational therapy and is continuing to improve. He also seems to be handling things better emotionally as well. I'll have to post another update for him as soon as I am able to get a hold of him.

Thanks to all who continue to support us and provide help to Mike and Carolyn. I continue to be amazed at the generosity of those around us.

Long Overdue Update

Well, I'm not sure how many people are still checking this blog but I thought I would post an update anyway. I have to confess that it has become increasingly more difficult to put what is happening into words; as evidenced by my lack of posting updates. I think we had all hoped that Carolyn and Mike would be well into the recovery process by now and that most of the hard part would be behind them. Even though Carolyn's degree of functioning can be seen as nothing less than a miracle, she still can do very little to care for herself and her level of ability to communicate has seemed to significantly slow it's progression.

Carolyn can still talk. She seems to still go through little "windows" of awareness. She will answer some questions but most of her answers aren't always appropriate to the question. We're still hoping and praying that those windows will become more frequent and become longer as well. The doctors say that she will probably do well. We just don't know how their definition of well compares to ours. I'll post an update with more updates when I receive them.

Mike has been through a lot the past few weeks. He had his neck surgery about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The surgery went well even though I don't think he had as much of an immediate recovery of his range of motion as he had hoped. He will still need a great deal of physical therapy to regain his movement and strength. He was at Methodist hospital for about a week. He spent the following week at Healthsouth and was then discharged home. He had been home for about a week and was just admitted back to the hospital this last Monday. He has a kidney stone and upper respiratory infection. He has had a very rough time since he has been home and has needed and welcomed all of the help that he has received from friends and neighbors. He does not know how long he will be in the hospital but has been told by his doctor that he will have home health assistance once he gets discharged. Because of his surgery he is not supposed to drive for a couple of months and he shouldn't lift anything heavier than a milk carton for eight months. We hope that will get the treatment that he needs and regain his strength quickly.

There have been so many friends and neighbors to help (especially since Mike went home). We are extremely greatful for everything that has been done to help. None of us had any idea that this would be so hard. We are greatful for all of you that have tried to make it easier.