Greg cruises the hallway!

We broke out of the room for a quick hallway cruise to have lesson number 2 on the power wheelchair. Greg is a natural and impressed the PT with a perfect parking job next to the bed. We hope to have the official OK to leave the room whenever we want by the end of the week. Infection is better, but they always allow a certain amount of time to go by.

Today OT was crazy because of all the possibilities she put out to Greg. The first was the correct brace to hold a stylus and Greg can easily use my iPad to message and e-mail, the phone was a little more challenging because of its smaller size, but Greg A+ Lemos did that, too. He also fed himself for the first time with a cool brace attachment for utensils and worked on picking up cups. She will do more strength training and Greg and I have to start incorporating the other techniques he learned during the day. Although, I don't know how that will happen with so many appointments and "drop ins."

So, one of our unannounced visitors was our case worker who gave our approximate discharge days. Yes, the discharge date is approximated right away to be able to map out our course of action while we are here. So, we are due to leave on January 20. This means that Greg does therapies and we meet with various folks on having the appropriate equipment to be in our home, outfitting our home, getting aids, front door ramps, bathroom and bedroom remodeled, picking a wheelchair, and other things that I don't even know about yet. The good news is, though, we believe we can remodel our new home (we have only been living there for 4 months) and are both so happy about the prospect of returning there. The ramp, hospital bed, and commode have to be there to be able to return and the rest can be finished after returning. If not, we will need accessible housing or Greg will have to go into some kind of rehab facility near home.

Before dinner, I went for a walk along the pier. Spaulding is located right on the water and across from Boston. Nice to try to clear your head-maybe it will work, but it is hard because I keep thinking about what happened, what is happening, what will happen. I know that everyday brings new answers, but it also brings new questions.

While Greg's neck strength is beginning to improve, he stayed in the chair just a bit too long today and started to have a lot of pain. It is interesting that when there is pain in the body of a person with a spinal cord injury there is often a body temperature change. Greg became very cold and then it is hard to warm up, but then you can swing the other way and get to hot and develop a fever. It will get better like everything else.

Tonight Greg will not be hooked up to the ventilator. He will breathe on his own all night. We believe that 2 nights of this and the vent goes away. We look forward to a quieter and uneventful sleep tonight. Good night and thank you for being with us.