Bill, Friday August 30: visit from RIO; apartment coming along

RIO is the Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon, one of two inpatient rehabs at Portland hospitals. It will be the next and final step before going home. "Marcie," a rehab nurse, came to interview Bill and explain the program. She thinks he is ready to start the transfer process, so she will begin working with the insurance company, OHSU (because the doctors there still follow his care), and the current nursing rehab facility. 

Is there a downside? Yes, for Ayn. She won't be able to stay overnight with Bill as she has during this entire process. I'll grant you the fact that she wasn't sleeping in his room while he was in ICU, but she was very nearby in the waiting room. The change will be hardest on her. We're expecting his stay at RIO could be somewhere between two and four weeks, then he will continue with outpatient rehab once he is home. 

The speech therapist ran him through an assessment covering cognition and speech. The biggest issue he continues to have is some "left side neglect." When he was given a short paragraph to read (in big print), his eyes didn't move all the way to the left side of each line. When he was given a cue, by placing a pencil at the left, he could follow it down and start in the right place. He didn't have any problems with understanding and answering questions about the paragraph he had just read.

There's a little bit of an offset with depth perception, but we've seen it getting better, such as when we're having him sign his name on a line, it's closer now.

OLD/NEW apartments: the move is still set for September 16.  I know my daughter posted "right now, this week," but that was because the owner had said September 2 or as soon as possible, "time is of the essence."  The living room and master bed/bathroom are completely packed, and the kitchen is down to daily essentials. I'm going to work with granddaughter "C" late Sunday and all day Monday on her room. *sigh* she's 15, you know! She has packed several boxes already. 

Thanks to Bill's brother Ben for helping today by taking apart "the cube," a 6' x 6' IKEA structure. He also disassembled what I call the Erector Set TV/server stand. And he even vacuumed dust bunnies!

Other:

* Bill is having blood tests twice a week now, instead of daily. Today's results were excellent, no infection markers, no kidney stress markers. Sodium was a little low, so more Gatorade and/or soda for him.

* I'm pretty sure this next story does not violate HIPPA, because I don't know the patient's name. I was at the nurse's station, using the fax, when a patient wheeled up and peered in. He asked, "She's not here? I wanted to let her know I just had a solid BM after two days."

If you don't know what a BM is, think toilet. 

Life in the fast lane....