From: David
Date: Thursday, February 03, 2000
Lynne met with the neurosurgeons on Wednesday, February 2, then with Dr. Faraohki that evening. Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 9. The goal of surgery is to decompress the spinal cord and make it more stable.
The doctors want to open the pinching in C1 that has been there since birth, but which is more critical now because the accident.
The MRI also shows bone spurring on C3-4-5, which the doctors also want to remove. There is also a possibility of replacing some disks with gel or fusing those vertabrae, depending on what they find.
Mom is returning to Denver on Sunday the 6th, and Russell's sister Gaye will be arriving on Sunday to stay for a week.
The Rehab center wants Russell to do caregiver training on Monday and Tuesday, the 7th and 8th. They'll put them in a special unit, where Russell will get as little help as possible.
Lynne has ordered a wheelchair and other equipment to be used at home. They are looking at public transportation to and from rehab.
Lynne has switched to her right hand to eat, which she says is working as well or better than her left. She continues to work hard in rehab and make progress every day.
Lynne says she is struggling with her supervisor instinct vs. her need to surrender. Please pray for wisdom.
Thanks again for the prayers, cards, and other expressions of concern. They make all the difference.
Love,
David
From: Russell
Date: February 3, 2000
Sounds pretty accurate.....here are the corrections as I see them:
Dr. Farrokhi is one of the neurosurgery residents. He is the only one we met with yesterday PM. The goal of the surgery is preventative, not corrective, but if they can relieve some of the pressure on C-1, that is a good thing. If that goes part of things goes well, then they will look at working on the herniations between C-3 & 4, and between C-4 & 5. These herniations are old, as well, so there are probably some spurs that will have to be removed from the disks. If there is a need to fuse C-3-5, they will either take a small section of bone from her hip, or use cadaverous bone tissue from the bone bank.
I started caregiver training today, and will also be there tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM, to see how the bowel program works. We will spend the night together Monday and Tuseday, in the Temporary Living Apartment. This is like our final exam, where I do everything for her, and they evaluate the situation.
I got there this morning at 9:00AM, we went down to the TLA, because they have a shower bench similar to the one we will have when she gets home. We transferred her to the bench, and got her going on her shower. It was pretty wierd having a third party watching Lynne take a shower, plus me helping her. She does really well bathing herself, and Celeste, the Occupational Therapist giving pointers.
We also worked on transfers from chair to whatever today. We were trying to work with the transfer board, but Lynne does pretty well without it. I think we will need it when we work on transferring from chair to car.
As far as Lynne switching from supervisor to surrender, we are trying to approach things as her being a coach. She knows what needs to be done, and she can coach me (us) through it, and still have a spirit of surrender.
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "That's about it."
Thanks,
Russell
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Date: Thursday, February 03, 2000
Lynne met with the neurosurgeons on Wednesday, February 2, then with Dr. Faraohki that evening. Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 9. The goal of surgery is to decompress the spinal cord and make it more stable.
The doctors want to open the pinching in C1 that has been there since birth, but which is more critical now because the accident.
The MRI also shows bone spurring on C3-4-5, which the doctors also want to remove. There is also a possibility of replacing some disks with gel or fusing those vertabrae, depending on what they find.
Mom is returning to Denver on Sunday the 6th, and Russell's sister Gaye will be arriving on Sunday to stay for a week.
The Rehab center wants Russell to do caregiver training on Monday and Tuesday, the 7th and 8th. They'll put them in a special unit, where Russell will get as little help as possible.
Lynne has ordered a wheelchair and other equipment to be used at home. They are looking at public transportation to and from rehab.
Lynne has switched to her right hand to eat, which she says is working as well or better than her left. She continues to work hard in rehab and make progress every day.
Lynne says she is struggling with her supervisor instinct vs. her need to surrender. Please pray for wisdom.
Thanks again for the prayers, cards, and other expressions of concern. They make all the difference.
Love,
David
From: Russell
Date: February 3, 2000
Sounds pretty accurate.....here are the corrections as I see them:
Dr. Farrokhi is one of the neurosurgery residents. He is the only one we met with yesterday PM. The goal of the surgery is preventative, not corrective, but if they can relieve some of the pressure on C-1, that is a good thing. If that goes part of things goes well, then they will look at working on the herniations between C-3 & 4, and between C-4 & 5. These herniations are old, as well, so there are probably some spurs that will have to be removed from the disks. If there is a need to fuse C-3-5, they will either take a small section of bone from her hip, or use cadaverous bone tissue from the bone bank.
I started caregiver training today, and will also be there tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM, to see how the bowel program works. We will spend the night together Monday and Tuseday, in the Temporary Living Apartment. This is like our final exam, where I do everything for her, and they evaluate the situation.
I got there this morning at 9:00AM, we went down to the TLA, because they have a shower bench similar to the one we will have when she gets home. We transferred her to the bench, and got her going on her shower. It was pretty wierd having a third party watching Lynne take a shower, plus me helping her. She does really well bathing herself, and Celeste, the Occupational Therapist giving pointers.
We also worked on transfers from chair to whatever today. We were trying to work with the transfer board, but Lynne does pretty well without it. I think we will need it when we work on transferring from chair to car.
As far as Lynne switching from supervisor to surrender, we are trying to approach things as her being a coach. She knows what needs to be done, and she can coach me (us) through it, and still have a spirit of surrender.
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "That's about it."
Thanks,
Russell
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