Wake Up Little Sunshine

It was Kathy's first complete day at Sharp. Everyone seems eager to get to know Kathy and details about her condition. Her doctor on the floor is Dr. John Jahan. His specialty is rehabilitation therapy and is the chief doctor. I reviewed the schedule and Kathy has a well designed and structured program, especially Mondays through Fridays. She starts with occupational therapy in the morning, speech therapy around noon and in the early afternoon, physical therapy. Today she got around 1.5 hours of work which will grow to 3 hours by Monday.

Kathy is still being fed through a nose tube that empties into her upper intestine. She just seems unable to handle the speed of water when she swallows. Next Tuesday they plan to administer a barium upper GI to check for problems. On Wednesday or Thursday of next week I will attend a conference with the various doctors to review Kathy's current condition. Questions like what is going to be done, her schedule and how much time to expect Kathy to take for recovery will be discussed.

Sharp Hospital conducts (3) events a week for family's education. This covers areas of interest such as relationships, communications, how the brain works, mobility, family caregiver advice and community resources. They handed out, an interesting book called "The Journey Toward Recovery. I will enclose a quote:

"Brain injury strikes 1.5 million people per year. That's one injury every 20 seconds. Approximately 500,000 of those injuries hospitalizinglization and close to 75,000 result in death. Between 70,000 and 90,000 survivors sustain injuries that are long term or permanent. There are currently 5 million Americans living with disabilities resulting from brain injury. Although these figures are discouraging, they may help caregivers and friends realize that they are not alone."