11am is the time of our physio appointment today. The weekdays come around all too quickly and the hospital schedule raises it familiar head. Although our actual appointment is eleven we have a full list of ‘things to do’ at the hospital today. No trip to the hospital would now be complete unless we have our obligatory visit to the ortho department where we again try and get Danas splits corrected.
We thought we had sorted this issue out but hey presto, Dana is still getting a sore point on her foot and we need to get this addressed. Second item on our list today is our task of trying to get Danas sterry strips removed from her legs and calfskin that were placed on when she had her heel and hamstring surgery.
We attempted to remove these last night when giving Dana a shower as the doctors told us we could remove them after 10 days and it was actually day 12. Dana was having none of it and she was frozen to the spot petrified whist we attempted to take them off. Now the doctors also told us they would fall off, but no Danas were still stuck solid.
As we had tried yesterday we didn't feel quite confident and tentatively tried to remove them...they were not budging and the ones on her calf looked nasty which easily perturbed us from progressing anymore with our attempt to remove them. 'Mental note to ourselves, get the professionals to remove them at the hospital tomorrow!
Our 3rd and most important task on our list today was our appointment with Dr Park, the man for whom we had made this trip . We were unsure of how this would be as it was the review of Dana’s post op. We still had some questions we wanted to ask such as: Could Dana walk unaided? Did he manage to remove all the spasticity? What would he expect from her following his review? Did she pass the test?
And last on our list was the physio session.
We arrived at the hospital a bit later than we anticipated due to the fact we could not get up. We headed straight to the ortho ward where we hoped to collar Keith our friendly ortho man. Now Keith looks like what they class as the ' all American boy, tall, neat hair, fantastic teeth and muscular. He walks in and flashes his smile as always and I swear his teeth sparkle like they do on those TV ads. He gives a thumbs up and a wink, we smile back as he comes over and we explain the splits are still not right. He says no problem he'll take them to the workshop while we wait and gives his catchphrase "I'll get right on it!" and off he pops with Danas splits to visit the elves he has in his workshop. 20 minutes later Keith appears and said the splits are fixed and we head to the physio department.
Arriving at physio we meet our therapist for the day, Blaire. Now I feel sorry for Blaire as she has Dana and Blair is probably 5 months pregnant, about as big as Dana so when Dana needs moving about, you think....health and safety if you know what I mean. Blaire is good, she has what we like in our therapists....no mercy !
Blaire tells Dana to get on the couch to do some exercises and when Dana moans she says things like "Dana your moaning to somebody that doesn't care..." classic and with us going on at Dana also in the session, Dana has not choice but to just get on it. We get through the session with some resistance but not much but at the end Dana walks about 100 feet. She more or less collapses and is exhausted.
Dana has done incredibly well in this session and also managed to keep her knees apart today when walking because she was scared on getting her sterry strips caught.
We didn't have the heart to tell her she would not catch them and they would not come undone, but thought wise to keep quiet and let the fear be an aid to walking....bad parents!
Lunch bought welcome relief from the session and much needed nourishment for Dana.
2pm we found ourselves back in the hospital awaiting Dr Park. We we're shown into room 3 and told Dr Park would be shortly with us. We eagerly awaited! Dana felt nervous and so did I, not sure why but this seemed really important and almost like an approval.
Dr Park entered the room and shook our hands. He immediately asks Dana to show her walking to him. We arranged Danas walker and off she went, he watched closely, studying every move. He stopped her and asked us to alter her walker as it was too high, we obliged and off Dana went again. He nodded and smiled "Good, Good Dana " he said. He asked her to turn " Good" he repeated. She walked back to the chair and he said that she was doing really well and improving. He stretched her legs and was pleased with her progress and work she had been putting in, then tested her for loss of sensitivity and she responses as she should do with no loss
He tells us that Dana was free from spasticity now and that she can do anything she wants exercise wise. He told us it would be good for her to strengthen her muscles and we explained we had started to look at equipment to do this. He also explained that she would benefit form vigorous stretching and he asked us if we had bought the equipment he had informed us about, we informed him we had. We said we had noticed little things that had changed and he nodded in understanding.
In a way our journey through this was always going to come to this point. The point where you say " well what's the score Doctor, tell me straight" and what I heard was " everything is good" ,You can relax.
Reading this back now as I type it makes me realise what an incredible gift we have been given, a gift of life for Dana that will have some normality. sure it's going be tough but it's now up to us.
Dr Park then left us in the way he does best, he almost glides out of the room without any more questions and he's gone. Maybe it's his angle wings that carry him off quickly.
Our last task on the list was to get Dana sterry strips sorted so we venture up to the 10th floor to plead with the nurses to help us. They take one look at the sterry strips and calls a nurse practitioner, Katie to also inspect the dressings. Katie has a good look and starts touching the dressings much to Dana’s fear. After a while says they can stay on until they fall off naturally and to call her after two weeks if they don’t move. Dana is relieved, I on the other hand am not and finally we all leave the hospital at 3pm and head to the mall for a change of scenery and eventually dinner. We get into the car and the temperature says 110, time for air con again.
Back at the hotel later that evening I carry out the homework which Blaire has set Dana, which is to walk a set distance, the focus is knees apart, then focus on long strides. Sit to stand and finally weight transferring. All the exercises are done really well and the hard work shows on Dana’s red glowing face.
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