12/16

What.  A.  Day.  This day was a huge mix of great joy and enormous frustration.

First, I went to Penn State Hershey Rehab at 10am (as I was instructed by the rehab liaison) for an appointment to tour the facility.  Apparently no one was available and I ended up sitting in the lobby for almost an hour.  Finally I checked in with the secretary (for the 3rd time) only to be told "well, I don't know if anyone will be free any time soon, I guess you could just come back later".  Frustrating, given that I currently have about 35 hours worth of things to do in a 24 hour day, so my hours are precious.  And I walked out of the building to find a parking ticket on my car.

Then I found out that several faxes that I sent out two days ago, containing important and time-sensitive information about my dad's care, were never received.  Apparently there was a problem with the fax I was using and didn't realize it.  Or maybe I was just sleep-deprived and didn't have the brain capacity to push the buttons correctly.  Either way, it caused a delay in things that I needed to get done.

I visited Dad later in the morning and found out that he had somehow pulled out his brand new PICC line in the middle of the night.  So for now he has a peripheral IV in his hand, but will need to get another PICC line placed in the next couple of days.  The rest of the visit went really well though.  We washed his hair and I primped him for what I call his "fancy salon time".  Then he stood up with assistance and easily walked (with help) over to his recliner to sit down.  He ate a great lunch.  PT and OT came and he did really well with his exercises and walking with a walker.  Great continued improvement, I'm so proud of him.

Then I went and did tours of both Penn State Rehab and the Osteopathic Hospital Rehab.  I'll just say up front that we're going with Osteo.  I really did keep an open mind about Penn State Rehab, despite the incident this morning.  I actually would have preferred to go with them, because that would have been a really good continuity of care from HMC.  However, Penn State Rehab seems much more geared towards people with physical injuries, like patients recovering from a knee or hip replacement, instead of people recovering from brain injuries.  There are lots of resources for people recovering from physical injuries and it seems like a bright, new, friendly place to do that.  But there's a "brain injury" wing and it's just kind of creepy.  It's a locked hallway and it honestly sort of feels like jail.  Nothing like trying to get the rest of your memory back while spending time in rehab prison!  Also, they are pretty strict with visiting hours.  They are from 8am - 8pm, however they "strongly discourage" any visiting outside of 4pm - 8pm.  Family is not permitted to be present during any of the daily therapy sessions.  The good thing about it though is that all the patient rooms are private.  That's nice.  But the private rooms and good continuity of care is really all that it had going for it.

Osteo on the other hand, is ALL ABOUT incorporating family into a patient's therapy and plan of care.  They strongly encourage family to be present during any and all PT/OT sessions so that the family is better equipped to facilitate a patient's care at home.  They seem to really believe in a cooperative effort between staff and family.  There are no visiting hours and no visiting restrictions, family/friends may be present at any time.  There are no specific wings, the rooms are organized in a big square around the nursing station.  They are shared double-rooms though, that's the one thing I don't like.  Private rooms would be much nicer.  But the layout is really nice and there are so many places for people to hang out socially in between sessions, there are TV rooms, a piano room, comfy places to be outside of their individual room.  There is also a pool where people can do aquatic exercise.  Not to mention that one of my co-workers in the ER gave Osteo a glowing recommendation from when her dad was there almost two years ago.  I was very intrigued when she was telling me how great it was, and after touring the facility I can see exactly what she's talking about.  Overall I feel like it's going to be really conducive to his healing.  It just has the atmosphere of "healthy people recover here", versus Penn State Rehab's wing where it felt like "sick people stay here".

I left Osteo feeling pretty excited... and then got a text from Marty that he had an injury at work and his right middle finger got mangled.  I'll spare the details but he fractured, lacerated, AND partially amputated a small part of it.  So then he got a lot of repairing, trimming, 14 stitches, a splint, and has an appointment on Monday at the hand clinic to find out about getting pins put in. For now he is unable to get the splint wet, move his finger, or basically even use his right hand at all.   This means he is going to be extremely limited with how he can help out around the house.  My plate just keeps getting fuller.  I'm starting to feel like I wanna know who I ticked off in the cosmos.

So then I went home and found Zoey to be bouncing off the walls.  She has been cooped up for so long, she's accustomed to me taking her out almost daily.  I whisked her up and figured I'd take her to Hershey Park to Christmas at Candy Lane.  She's been asking to go and I thought the time outdoors would be great for both of us.  The whole car ride over there she was cheering for Hershey Park, she was SO excited to go on the rides.  We literally were singing "Her-Shey Park!, Her-Shey Park!" in the car.  We walked up to the gate.... and it was closed.  The park didn't open for another hour and a half.  It felt sort of like when the Griswolds got to Wally World.  After all the build-up, she was NOT a happy toddler.  But luckily Chocolate World was open, so we just went there.  After we went on the ride I said "You know what Zoey, the hospital is close by, do you want to go see Pop Pop?"  She literally squealed and said "POP POP!!!  I wanna see Pop Pop!!".  Since he's out of the ICU and stable, I thought it was a great idea.  And I was so right.

You should have seen him when she walked into his room.  He opened his eyes and his whole face lit up in a huge smile, he said so clear and easy "Hey Zoey, Pop Pop loves you" and he grinned for so long.  She had a lot of fun bringing him things to eat and drink and he had a good dinner.  Previously I just held the utensils for him, but he managed it on his own tonight and did really well.  More great progress.  He also got a kick out of her bouncing around the room trying to push all the buttons on EVERYTHING.  She managed to sneak in the shower and pull the nurse cord twice without me realizing it.  I'm sure they love us there.  When he got tired again and started to fall back to sleep, Zoey crawled into bed next to him to watch TV.  It was so precious, I can't even tell you.

But of course, in keeping with this day of ups and downs, just as we were getting ready to leave, Zoey had an accident and peed EVERYWHERE.  Her pants were soaked.  Her socks were soaked.  Her shoes were soaked.  The floor was soaked.  This is the first time she's EVER had an accident in public.  She's done so well since she got potty trained last summer, I don't know what happened.  I guess she was so excited to see Pop Pop that it just snuck up on her like some kind of ninja pee.  So then she was upset and saying "but I don't wanna wear these wet pants!".  I debated stripping her down and trying to creatively wrap her in a towel to leave the building, but my toddler origami skills are lacking.  So I just bundled her up over her wet clothes so she'd be warm and not look like an obviously pee-soaked little kid, and figured she'd have to just suck it up.  Well of course the whole way out of the building, she's yelling to every single passer-by "I peed on myself!  I peed on the floor!".  It was an interesting walk to the car.  

Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure.