Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Mark is wearing a huge smile on his face! Jess arrived back in Tampa on Monday evening from Sydney. We went to the airport to pick her up and fortunately, there were no snags on this trip. She was very worried about going through customs and not being allowed in or having a hard time like she did when she took a short trip to Canada last spring. But... all went well and they were happy to see her at the border this time. Jess was absolutely amazed at all Mark is doing on his own. She was very surprised. She and I are busy catching up after she comes down to the room after spending the evening with Mark. He is still an early to bed guy since he's usually exhausted by seven p.m.

Today was especially long. He was not allowed anything to eat after midnight because today was Botox day. They put in an IV and got him ready early this morning. He was second in line at the Interventional Radiation Department.

His Botox today was done in one of the muscles in the pelvis. Therefore, it had to be done with a CAT scan showing the exact position of the muscle, so as not to interfere with any organs in the area, notably the colon. They mark the area with radioisotopes and then insert a needle from his back into the muscle where they want to inject the Botox. Then they rescan to determine if the needle is in the correct spot. Then they add the medication. They did this in four different areas. It was the first time this area was scanned this way and the doctor said that the muscle on the left was perfectly round like it should be while the one on the right was oval shaped which means that there was excessive tone in the muscle, which they were pretty sure was the case.

Hopefully the Botox will release the tone and work like it has in his arm and legs. He was given a break for lunch and then they did the Botox in his right leg again. All in all he had a very expensive Hollywood treatment!

He joked and kidded with the doctors all the while and has had no ill effects from any of the shots. He's looking forward to next Monday when the first signs of whether it worked or not will most likely show up.

He is off all his pain medication now as well as the blood thinners he was getting. He's very proud of the fact that he only has aches and pains and that he manages well with just ibuprofen. This is another big step.

It looks like the plan for him to enter into the Transitional Program will happen on November 1st. We are having a meeting next Thursday with both the acute team and the transitional team to work out the final details. Mark may not be able to move into the apartment exactly that day, since they are still working out some final glitches, but he will be taken over by that team of doctors and therapists. Fortunately, he knows all of them and that is a big plus.

Just imagine, it's nearly a year since the accident and he has really come so far. At first the prognosis was so bleak that we can only thank God for such a miracle as this.