Friday, August 22, 2008

WOW!!! I can't believe it has been a whole week since I posted an update. Sorry about that to those of you who wait with bated breath to read about our life here in Tampa. It was a rather interesting week, and each night I would get back to the room and pack it in.

Anyway, we really enjoyed having Richard here for four days. We had a quiet weekend hanging around and enjoying lunches out. Mark amazed him by getting in and out of the car easily. We were able to have our family meeting with the rehab team on Monday and it was a very productive meeting. Mark participated well with questions and comments. It was decided to aim for October for him to move into transition and that was fine with us. We really did not want him pushed. The new building should be open then and that will make the move more beneficial since the patients are then in an apartment setting.

He is definitely making huge strides as far as his independence is concerned. He rarely uses a slide board for transfers and now stands and pivots from his wheelchair to the bed or another chair if he wants to. He now dresses himself either in bed or sitting on the side of it. He still needs some aid in getting to the shower, but showers himself once he's there.

Everyone is really pleased with his progress and he was interviewed by the local ABC affiliate here in Tampa as part of a story on the new Spinal Cord Injury unit and the Lokomat. They are going to send the video to Cleveland's ABC station and hopefully those of you there will see it. Unfortunately, we missed the piece this evening because we were held up in ENT where they were trying to get packed up wax out of Mark's ear!! Fortunately, my cousin taped the segment and we will see it eventually. I checked their website and, as of this evening, the video was not posted, only a written version. If the video does show up, I will provide the link so that you may watch if you like.

For anyone wondering about Fay, she's still around. Today was the day we had the most rain and wind, but not very much considering the storm has scooted all around us. However, it did cancel Mark's trip to the golf course today, so that meant the usual therapy routine. We were very fortunate, but we had all kinds of instructions about moving into the hospital if we were in the path and if Fay had become a hurricane. All that seemed to happen is the fire alarm going off again!!

All our best to everyone out there reading about our life here in Florida. We promise to be a little more diligent from hereon.