DAY 112: Rehab

This week delivered a major step forward: Mom finally left St. Anthony Central and went to Boulder Community Hospital's Mapleton Rehabilitation Center.

Emily and I visited the facility, decided we liked it, and passed along our recommendation to the case manager at St. Anthony. A day later, the doctors talked and on Thursday, she was transported by ambulance while I followed behind. Here's the ambulance on Highway 36 heading into Boulder:


Here's the ambulance turning into the hospital parking lot:


Here's paramedic Tara helping to unload Mom at the hospital:


Had I known paramedics looked like her, I'd have become an ambulance driver!

At first, Mom was disoriented and scared in her new room. She kept telling me, "This is a place where you bring people to die!" Despite my assuring her that it was just the opposite, a place to get well, she was miserable the first evening:


Later, she relaxed and was able to eat a little:


Her rehab program began immediately on Friday. Each day, she participates in a total of three hours of therapy including speech, physical, occupational, and tasks of daily living like dressing, brushing her teeth, and going to the bathroom.

Her immediate challenges are much the same. The feeding tube through her nose is out because she pulled it out herself. The doctors at St. Anthony decided to keep it out and see if she could eat enough on her own to avoid needing to re-insert it or go through her abdomen with a PEG line. So far, she's not eating enough to avoid artificial feeding again. We urge her each day, we try to get it down her, but she doesn't want it. She only wants juice, and that's not sufficient. We're hoping her appetite kicks in soon.

She tells funny stories all the time. She's lucid enough to string together the bits of memory that have come back, but she rarely weaves accurate stories.

For instance, this morning she had the nurse call up to our house. Here's how the conversation went:

MOM: "Can you come down and get me?"

JASON: "Where are you?"

MOM: "Well, I got stuck here at the Long's Peak Visitor Center."

JASON: "The Long's Peak Visitor Center?"

MOM: "Yeah. They just slapped a sticker on me and kept me here."

JASON: "Like a used car?"

MOM: "Kind of. Anyway, can you come and get me? I'm stuck right here. It's at the end of 48th Street."

JASON: "Got it. I'll be down in a little while."

I couldn't find it at the end of 48th street, so I just went back to the hospital instead, where I found her still in bed and telling all kinds of new stories. We're writing the funnier ones down, and I'll share them one of these days.

I will be returning to Japan soon. I've been waiting for Mom's rehab to begin successfully. Now that it has, there's a window of opportunity for me to get back to Japan, take care of some business, and then return to Colorado soon to help the family and see Mom through the next transition, which we hope will be going home.

I will be in touch with Mom, Emily, and the family while I'm away, and will update this blog periodically as well.

What a wonderful turn of events that has made Mom well enough for me to feel comfortable going back to Japan. Not so long ago, such a possibility was a dangerous dream.