It is Friday afternoon and I have spent the whole day with Karen at the Sticht Center getting trained on how to assist her when she goes home. Karen was feeling better today (after several days of feeling very tired which slowed down her progress a bit). As a result, they pushed her (and me!) very hard today. She did a lot of walking, going up/down stairs, getting in/out of the car (there is a real car right in the rehab gym!), stepping up/down off of curbs, etc. Karen pushed herself extremely hard and all of the therapists were very pleased with how she did today. The PT said, “You are really showing off today, aren’t you?” She is very exhausted and so am I (this stuff is hard work!) and she is now resting.
We had a conference today with all of the therapists and the case manager. They gave us an update on her progress in all areas (progressing well but still a long ways to go). First piece of good news: they feel like she is to the point where they can send her home this coming Wednesday, May 4 unless something changes! In order to make sure she continues to progress, she will have home health visits for Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy as well as visits by a nurse. While this is a bit scary, I feel that if she continues to do as well as she has today, it is time for this next step.
Now the best news. Dr Lovorn (attending rehab physician for the Sticht Center) talked to us and said that yesterday they discovered that Karen’s thyroid levels are extremely low, but this is easily treated with meds. This would cause extreme fatigue, sleeping all the time, foggy thinking, slowness in healing and all kinds of things like that. Dr. Lovorn was very excited and described this as a "great discovery" because it is so easily treated (oral medicine) and also explains some of the slowness in her recovery! She did say it will take several months to get her level where it needs to be, but we should see gradual improvement from week to week. I told her I was surprised that with all the blood work Karen has had over the past three months this had not been discovered. She said it is a very specific test not covered by other tests. We are just thankful that this was discovered. I don't know that this will "fix everything" but sounds like this could be a key to getting her recovery moving along at a faster clip!
Please pray that this new thyroid treatment will provide the physical lift that she so badly needs and that this will also help to resolve the cognitive issues.
Rusty
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2 comments:
Your update made my day!!!!! I am so excited about the "new discovery". I enjoyed the part about the car in the rehab. I remember when my dad was in rehab he was so excited to show us how he could get in and out of one of those cars. Have a wonderful weekend. We are suppose to have nice weather here. Hope ya'll do, too. Love, Gayle
Sounds like things are looking up. We hope they continue to get better as the days go on.
This is great news for the whole family.
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