What a Whirlwind!

More tests! It seems that Jon's halo is made of titanium so there is no problem doing an MRI afterall. Last night he was sent to have several MRI's of his head.If you've ever had an MRI you know what kind of noise they make--like a jackhammer out of control!! The last one I had I thought "I'll just take a nap.." yeah, sure! Anyway, Jon had a hard time laying still enough so they only could do one part of the test. He went down today after therapy and did the rest of it. They actually disconnected the halo from his chest brace to see how well everything in his upper spine was healing. We are looking forward to hearing the results later this week.

Carol has 3 days off this week and wanted to spend them with Jon so I met her in Findlay and brought her back down to Columbus.The snow was just getting started and we beat the freezing rain. When we left the hospital though the freezing rain had been at it for several hours so the 15 minute trip back to Barb's took more than half an hour. Today Columbus had at least 6 inches of snow--would have been more if they hadn't had so much freezing rain so it took awhile to shovel out a path and defrost the doors. We finally got here about 3:45 p.m. We'll be staying with sister Barb when we come down for visits. Barb and Jon's Dad are enjoying the opportunity to visit daily.

We've been trying very hard to keep Jon's fingers from curling but the physical therapist wants them to curl so that when he's leaning backwards on his arms he has more stability. He needs this position to help with transitioning from the transfer board to a wheelchair. We also were able to watch the occupational therapist make him a custom thumb brace. The therapy sessions have been interesting to watch. The therapist is working with him every minute of the half hour and seems to be tailoring his sessions toward specific goals. All his doctors, nurses and therapists had a team meeting meeting today to determine goals and a possible discharge date. Had Columbus not been under a Level 2 emergency status we might have made it over in time to sit in on the meeting.

Jon's attitude has changed dramatically. He is making great efforts to memorize names of the staff and greet them cheerfully...I must add that the whole atmosphere here is totally different. Jon has made more effort to try the food--we've suggested that it is a different set of cooks and menus so he's been willing to give them a try. One of the things he definitely likes is having real potatoes, not instant!

My apologies for the long times between postings. Between my computer being unreliable and the hour and a half trip home I've not always been capable of sitting down to write--one more reason to respect my friend's blog for her daughter. She'd be writing at one or two in the morning. (She also had her own laptop that went everywhere with her and is about half my age...)Last week I spent both Wednesday and Thursday night in Fremont...less than 24 hours notice on moving...the excuses could go on and on but the main point is I do apologize and I'm glad you're following Jon's progress.