Rehab and PT

 First time getting in the wheelchair.  It took 3 guys to help transfer him.  Within a couple days he could transfer by himself.

 Scott's eternal view.  He rarely left the bed so this is what he looked at most of the day.

So-So and I at the doctor's office waiting for Scott to get back from x-rays.

We got to Orem Rehab and met everyone.  They were very eager to accommodate us.  He had a double room so it was large.  The biggest problem was the bed was about a foot too short, so they had to go find a larger bed.  They said it would probably be a couple days to order one.  Luckily, by the time I came back that night he was already in it.  I loved the bed because in order to be long enough it had to be wide and so I was able to lay by him.  It was the closest we had been for a couple weeks and I loved it.  He also asked for a bar to pull himself up with and they got that in for him as well.  The first thing I wanted to do was get him into the shower as he hadn't had one in two weeks.  They had a huge shower room with a wheelie chair and the first time we used it it took us an hour and a lot of grunt work by me to shower him.  We got faster by the end.  

The nice thing about the center was they were able to give him all his medications and check up on him frequently.  His leg was very swollen and they found out he had edema so they ordered a scan.  The nurse said they had found a clot in a guy a couple weeks before so they were going to be careful with it.  It turned out to be nothing but I was relieved they had looked at it.  

He really liked the food which surprised me, but I guess since he hadn't been eating much the last couple weeks it anything was good.  We had to wait through the weekend to start physical therapy.  On Monday a couple of the physical therapists came in and another nurse and it took all of them to lift him up into the wheelchair.  He was so used to laying he got light-headed and was only able to sit in it for about 5 minutes, but it was great progress.  

He was able to start working full time as they had good internet and he even had a meeting in the outdoor patio the next week.  But he only had about an hour of good, coherent awake time before he got drowsy.  He would actually fall asleep in his chair while people were talking to him.  So he spent most of his time trying to catch up on work between naps.  He would work out in the gym in the morning and then be in his room the rest of the day.  I would go over during the day and then drop off one of the older kids to be with him through the evening.  At the doctor appointment the next week they took out all his stitches (it took almost 1/2 hour with 2 guys working at the same time to get them all out--and it was disgusting) and they both said he looked good and to keep resting.  Trauma patients burn a lot of calories from healing which we figured out when Scott lost about 30 pounds.    

After a week of being there he decided he wanted to go out and visit the golf tournament he had organized for work.  So I drove him to the golf course and he said hi to everyone.  It was his first time out and after an hour he was exhausted but so excited to see people and get out.  

On Sunday I took him home for the first time.  I had been working so hard getting the house ready for him.  It was funny all the things we took for granted that had to be changed for a wheelchair.  His uncle came and made the bathroom handicap accessible (lowering the sink, making a bench so he could slide to the toilet, a bar to get in and out of the shower, a chair to sit in while showering, etc.) and I painted it and redecorated.   We also had to knock down part of the wall so he could maneuver in the hallway, I took out a mattress so the bed was lower for transferring, we got a ramp to get in the door, etc.  Anyway, I envisioned him getting home and feeling so comfortable and loving it he decided he wanted to come home right then.  He came home for 2 hours, slept for most of it, and wanted to go back.  I knew he was nervous about coming home (no hospital bed or nurse) but I was so sad.  It was hard going back and forth and not having him here.  But he was overwhelmed with the kids, noise and he thought I was going to throw him back into the swing of everything when he was still so weak.  He knew I was upset and he cried and I cried.  I pulled over so we could calm down and I told him it was okay.

He wound up staying 4 more days and by then he was transferring by himself, getting to the bathroom by himself and basically moving around a lot more on his own.  The kids were home for their first day of fall break and it was raining really hard when we brought him home.  It was an amazing feeling to all be under one roof and be together.