5/4 - Happily Reporting From Austin!

Even though I am technically in Dallas (OK, I’m in Fort Worth), its time to update Jamie’s blog on her travels from yesterday. I’m happy to report that Jamie is safe and sound in Austin at St. David’s hospital! We woke up early on Sunday morning because Jamie’s team in Houston wanted to change her dressings one last time. So, Michael and the wound care team came to Jamie’s room at 8am, to wrap her legs, her right hand and her tush one last time. Honestly, its remarkable how far we’ve come since we first got to Houston; Jaime’s wounds are practically non-existent compared to how they originally looked. Really, most of the wounds are gone, even on the tush. Pretty nice. Jamie’s left hand is completely unwrapped now. She uses it more and more every day. I’m still pretty impressed with how great it looks. We won’t know much about how well she’ll ultimately be able to use that hand, but considering (1) it’s the bad hand, (2) Dr. Boutros was shocked that Jamie could hold a pen, and (3) it’s unshaped [meaning that it still has a few surgeries to go] – I’m pretty pleased with it.

Of course, leaving St. Joseph means a lot of things. It means that mom arranged for there to be a Thank You Lunch for everyone and I’ll be sure to post about it once I upload the pictures from mom’s (formerly, my) camera. We have a ton of wonderful pictures. More importantly, it also means that each of Jamie’s doctors approved of her leaving the hospital. Infectious Disease, Ortho (wait, Ortho is a word, but Orthodics isn’t? sigh…), Dr. Thai (can’t remember what he’s, you know, the doctor of)… anyway, the point I’m making here is that all of her doctors found her to be OK to leave the hospital. That’s a big deal to us, and even though we drove Jamie to Austin so she could go to her third hospital in 6 months, her doctors basically said that she was well enough to go home! (OK, they may not have said that, but we did it anyway! Loved the puppy and kitty reunion. Sake [like the drink], our beautiful dog and friend, loved it more)

I really wish I was in Austin today so I could be with mom and Jamie during the first day at St. David’s. Her schedule sounds pretty brutal; brutal, but understandably necessary. The plan, generally, is for Jamie to undergo three non-consecutive hours of therapy per day. For Monday, the first session is an evaluative session where her physical therapist will work Jamie through a series of exercises to see where her starting point is. Then, she’ll have an hour-long PT session (physical therapy, if you don’t remember) and then an hour long OT session (occupational therapy) with her OT therapist. That last clause of the sentence – “OT session with her OT therapist” – may seem redundant, but if I learned anything from my two hours at St. David’s yesterday, it’s that Jamie has ONE physical therapist running point for Jamie; same for the Occupational Therapists. That’s a change from St. Joseph’s, where Jamie was under the care of a team of wound care, PT, OT folks (MAN, I wish I had that picture with all of these people in their red shirts at the luncheon… I’ll try to add it later, you’ll see what I mean, then). Anyway, that’s one of the many changes we’ve seen at St. David’s, and we’re happy to report that most of them – lots more TV channels, cot for mom to sleep on if she needs it, pretty thorough food menu – are positive changes.

Anywho, I’m off to take care of some business - I’m going to start packing for my move to Austin… (what? I didn’t tell you I was moving to Austin? Well, ever since the economy laid me off from my previous job in March, I’ve… [WHAT!? I didn’t tell you that either? Well, then it looks like we have a lot of catching up to do when you get to Austin to see Jamie!]) Jamie can’t wait to see you all, so we hope to see you all soon!