Hi Everyone,
This carepage is a vital resource for communication and a tool in our recovery from this tragedy. I come to the computer each night and the first thing I do is read the posts you all have sent. Each day I gain strength from reading your words of encouragement. On nights such as tonight, they are a life line. We are facing some tough decisions. Last week we were given a discharge date of 1/20 for Corey. There are two reasons for this conversation. 1.- she is not showing signs of functional improvement in the “typical” timeframe alloted by the insurance company. 2.- Corey is stable and doesn’t need the medical services of an acute rehabilitation hospital. Being her advocate, we agued that intensive inpatient rehabilitation is what we believe is contributing to her advancement. We also insisted on presenting more directed documented evidence of her recent surge of activity to the insurance company. For those of you who read between the lines, you may have picked this up on the prayer requests for specific command responses. After teaming today, Corey’s discharge date is now 2/1. We bought a few more weeks.
Once again, I’m asking all of you to pray for us. I agree that Corey’s recovery is going to be in “her time” because of the natural healing process. I also know that we can’t predict the outcome of this nor can we worry about the future. But truthfully, we have to be realistic and think of the long term care solution!
Tonight before I signed on to the carepage, I sat at the screen tired, worried, angry and scared. My faith and hope have never been more challenged. You ask me how I “do” this. I can empathize with Corey. Getting through the day is exhausting mentally, physically and spiritually. The answer, I open the page and start by reading the notes. There are days I go back to October. The energy, faith, hope, encouragement, unconditional love, friendship and wisdom that I read rejuvenates me! It pushes the negative thoughts and energy away and I honestly feel some peace begin to refill that hollow space. I begin to think about the good that happened today…
And so it begins; today Corey lifted her left leg to a full bend 3x. This is how the right leg started and FYI – PT reported she’s still kicking the ball in the gym! OT casted her right arm so she can begin to stretch and help to counter the tone that has increased in the last few weeks.
Another wonderful piece to report, Chef Young and Chef D came to visit tonight. These gentlemen are her VoTech Chef’s and mentors. Corey reacted to both of them with gaze and movement! They are also going to help me with an idea to assist speech. Speech asked me what Corey’s favorite tastes and smells are. I asked the Chef’s to send me the spices Corey would recognize from the kitchen. We are going to bottle those and use them in therapy. They say that the sense of smell brings back memories. Maybe she’ll want to get back into the kitchen!
Corey, there is a lesson here for each of us tonight. We all have times where we feel weak of mind, body and spirit. Sometimes we don’t bounce back from this with the same energy we would if given less burdens. That’s okay. The point is we keep trying. Do you remember the quotes above the computer? God answers prayers in 3 ways; “Yes”; “Not Yet”; and “I have something better in mind”. So we will work hard each day, make plans for the future, but we wont plan the outcome…instead, we will wait for Him to show us a better plan than we could imagine or create on our own.
Happy dreams honey, xoxo