5/8 - Jamie's first week at St. David's, briefly

Finally, a post about the daily goings on here at St. David's in Austin. If I could describe the St. David's rehab unit in a few words, they might be: scheduled, punctual, detailed. Fun and different are also words that I'd use. If you're a frequent reader of the blog, then you know that Jamie is required to undergo three hours of treatment per day, which takes a physical toll on her, but I'm happy to report that she's handling the increased workload with a smile. It also helps that her friends and family have been visiting pretty regularly. So, just looking at yesterday's schedule (which appears to be pretty similar to today's schedule) she has OT from 9 to 10; she has Wound Care from 10:30 to 11:30 (or however long it takes); she has PT from 1 to 2; then, from 3 to 4, Jamie has 30 minutes of PT and 30 minutes of OT. She also meets with the Psychiatrist three times a week to deal with the trauma of what she's gone through. So, assuming Jamie doesn't have any visitors, her day is very busy.

Of course, Jamie's had visitors streaming in and out of this place. One visitor she's had a few times has been Jamie Peroni (JP) from Hanger Prosthetics. He came by on Monday to cast Jamie's legs for her prosthetics (see the picture to the right). Then he came on Wednesday with some sockets, based off of Monday's casts. On Wednesday, JP put both of the sockets on Jamie's legs to see how well they fit. The goal with the sockets is to evenly distribute Jamie's weight so that it her leg is not resting on the bottom of the socket. If I remember correctly, there are four spots where Jaime's leg comes into contact with the socket, and it will be easiest for Jamie to walk on them if the weight is distributed to these four pressure points evenly. Anyway, JP marked up these rough draft sockets and, today, he'll come back and check to see if the sockets are a perfect fit. I'm not sure what the next step is, but I will have an answer for you later today when JP comes.

As for her OT/PT routine, the kinds of exercises she's doing here in Austin are totally different than what she was doing in Houston. For example, during today's OT session, she did lots of exercises with weights while sitting in her chair. Most of her exercises are intended to strengthen her core muscles so she can balance while sitting for an indefinite period - she has to sit perfectly before she'll be able to stand... stand perfectly before walking... walk, jog, run, jump, dance... you get it. But I'm very enthused by the strength building aspects to Jamie's routine. Also, they're working on the hand dexterity. Today, Jamie and I played a couple of games of Connect Four (see the first picture, above). But even the basic exercises are tweaked and varied to make it interesting and challenging. Whereas Jamie completed her arm exercises in her chair today, yesterday, she was sitting on a bouncy ball to work on her balance. See?

Jamie and the rest of the family absolutely love the fact that our home base is here in Austin. If we need something or someone at the house, its literally only a mile away. It's awesome.

As you can see, I've finally got some pictures on the blog. Usually, its the blog readers that get all the Jamie pictures, but I'm about to add a TON of pictures to the facebook group. I'll probably post some of those pictures to this blog, but if you're reading this on the blog and you aren't on facebook yet (hi Papa Gene and Clint!), then you may be missing out on some fun pictures.

Finally, no update yet on whether SB 819 has been heard by the house. Thank you so much for all of your emails and phone calls to your state reps. Even though I didn’t ask you to email me once you’d contacted everyone in the Higher Education Committee, but a lot of you did and we’re very touched and grateful.