Days 26-28

For our Auctions, we have:

Crime and Terror, Graphic Novel Signed by Steve Niles & Scott Morse

and,

4 Pieces of Handmade Jewelry Created by Artist, Singer Monica Richards


And here is Eron's updates for the past couple of days:
Day 26 & 27

"Goodbye hospital, next stop Glendale!:
Sorry for the lateness of these posts, as Lola has mentioned, it has been a stupendously busy couple of days! After much grumbling, they made her very happy by pulling her feeding tube at last — making the transition to solid food was a bit rocky, but her love of the egg sandwiches that her mom has been smuggling her for breakfast has made things easier. I was skeptical about her use of jelly on said bagel sandwich, but hey, Callie loves it and I even had one and it's pretty good. At Callie's request, last night I brought some of my secret risotto (I'm sure I make legions of italian grandmothers cry every time I touch arborio rice) mounded with fresh spanish goat cheese and loads of roasted purple heirloom carrots and fennel. I even got her Chego tonight, but forgot the bowl I ordered had one ultra spicy tingrediant in it which she bit in to and nearly cried. Thankfully we were able to avoid that for the rest of the meal though being a klutz, I did accidentally dump a flood of ice water on her (sorry Callie!)
After the accidental cold shower, were were able to quickly get her shirt changed — which shows even more that every day there is a little bit more progress. Though to be fair yesterday was a bit rough since they had her on so many kinds of painkillers and other drugs to remove the feeding tube and catheter. She mostly just slept, but who else besides a few crazed shoppers do anything but relax on the day after Thanksgiving anyway. The doctor, probably also recovering from turkey-induced stupor, was in jeans and a sweater, and Lola asked for his ID — only half-jokingly I'm sure ;) As they were working, Callie was so high she occasionally sang to the doctor. Because singing during surgery is how Callies roll! Michelle and Will dropped by yesterday too while she was still a bit loopy from the drugs, and they had an amusingly non-sequitur conversation that I couldn't even begin to follow with my sleep deprived brain. I brought her Black Friday cheese from the Silverlake Cheese shop as a treat for being so hard working - and she scarfed down a huge chunk of sharp cheddar the moment I cut it open.
Though she loves watching the Venture Bros. (which she calls, "The Brock Sampson Show,") I am officially, "No fun anymore," because I continue to make her do exercises and reading before she can watch any TV. Lola turned to Callie this morning and went, "You wouldn't want Eron as a Dad would you Callie, he's so mean!" And Callie gleefully agreed. But the biggest news is that all this hard work has payed off! —They have officially recommended her to go directly to an advanced acute physical and occupation rehab center in Glendale! As of Sunday or Monday she'll have graduated up another major step! She has been very worried about the move, but she's worked so hard that the doctors are constantly being shocked by the pace of her progress. Lola and Tucker have been doing the most amazing job taking care of her (and I've been grabbing the late-late shift) and along with solid food, now she can do a good amount of the work to get dressed and go to the bathroom, and can even touch her thumb to each finger on her right hand. I know she's worried about the move to the rehab facility, but with all of you cheering her on I know she'll do amazing there. One day really soon she'll be the one to write these updates!"

Day 28
"Yes, I think this is a hybrid day [again] but at least for us I'm a bit shaky on the timeframe. I'll start with the less good news, which is that after an exhausting but pretty smooth move to the Glendale Adventist acute rehab facility, at some point early in the AM, Callie decided she was going to get right on trying to get better and and attempt to go to the bathroom by herself, which resulted in her falling out of bed and me taking an early AM quick drive to calm her down. They did CTs to make sure everything was okay, and when I got there I asked, "Does anything hurt?" and she sheepishly told me, "Only my pride." It wasn't a great way to start the move and her dark mood, compounded by sleep deprivation, continued for much of the morning. Tonight Lola is staying with her doing a pajama party :)
Day 28 Pt. 2:
All of the negatives aside, that morning I had handed her a cup of yogurt for breakfast, and rather than waiting for me to help, she grabbed a spoon with her right hand and with only a small amount of hesitation managed to eat the whole thing by herself. Note: she couldn't even move that right hand a week ago! Similarly today they set her lunch of meatloaf, veggies and salad down in front of her and she just dug in (mostly using her left) and ate the whole thing. The only item she needed help with was one impudent [and very under-ripe] cherry tomato. After that we took advantage of her newfound freedom from regular hospital life and had her hop in a wheelchair and hang out outside on the balcony for a while.
The new rehab facility is exactly what she needs. They do tons of work every day — with a bare minimum of one session of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy every day (and sometimes more!) Most of the male staff is doing handlebar mustaches for Movember, so the hospital looks a bit like a Silverlake bar. Today and tomorrow are evaluations for the team to fine tune the intensive program they want to pursue with her. For PT, they have confirmed there's plenty of work to be done so that she can move around for the next month without using her right leg (which needs four more weeks to heal up). Speech therapy was a breeze, since today was the testing for chewing, eating and swallowing (which can be tough after these sort of injuries). The whole session was prefaced by Callie telling the Speech Therapist that her mom and brother were bringing her Umami Burger. The test ended two minutes later when Callie downed a bite of each of her lunch and drank some water by herself. Test passed!
Aside from that, Callie thinks her Occupational Therapist completely awesome (who incidentally sports the most epic of the Movember stashes). They are actually having us diagram the tricky parts of our apartment so that they can recreate the setting, such as the height of the steps, in the rehab center. Toady was a bit rough, but she is completely free of all invasive lines and her medication count is going down all the time! Tucker and Lola are staying at our apartment in downtown now. We still have a long way to go and probably more than a few more rough days where she doesn't feel like she's making any progress, but keep on sending her your love and sooner than we will realize, she'll be better!"