Remember that roller coaster I told you about? Today has been ride all of it's own. It started last night when I decided that Shannon needed to celebrate Easter all week. So we started pulling things together that we could do for her. But- what do you do for someone in rehab, with no use of their legs, who can't eat food, or "do" anything? Who can't have their family nearby? Or decorate eggs? We do focus on Christ on Easter, and also Holy Week, but we traditionally do eggs, baskets, etc on the Saturday before. And, well....it just got VERY complicated.
After talking to her Rec Therapist, we decided she needs to have mind games; not the "playing with your mind" games: thinking games. So we pulled together some word searches, crossword puzzles, coloring books, pens, markers, crayons, card games, seek and find games, etc. We also printed Disney Quotes, and fun messages from family, and hospital jokes (because... why not?) and put them in the eggs in her Easter basket. With the help of my good friend Leslie, we created a visual "egg hunt" for Shannon's walls using eggs we cut out of pretty printed paper. There are two of each large egg, and one of each small egg. I wrote down several ways she can "hunt" for eggs on the instructions for her therapist. They can put them on her walls and she can search for all 60 eggs (!), or pairs of eggs and then the matching smaller egg. They can use the small eggs to draw out of a bowl and then race (her and her therapist) to find the ones on the wall.... hopefully that gets her thinking. We also gave her some craft eggs to color with markers. Shannon really loves to color eggs, so we didn't want her to miss out.
We also learned that Shannon can have flowers in her room, so we gave her some tulips and hydrangeas to brighten it up! Also, a photo of the Philly Temple, and my favorite painting of Christ- Greg Olsen's Joy of the Lord. And of course there are some other decorations to make things festive. We can't have her sitting around in a dreary grey hospital room!!
I also was able to meet some REAL LIVE PEOPLE IN THE FLESH that are working with Shannon. When I dropped off her goodies and picked up her dirty laundry, her Rec therapist met me and then her Case Manager came down to chat for a bit.
I was doing Shannon's laundry (more on that in a bit) when her doctor called with her update for today. We learned that over the weekend, Respiratory Therapy got pretty aggressive with her treatment. I'm guessing she went from 3 hours off ventilator Friday to 6 hours on Saturday, because her doctor told me that she went 12 hours off of it yesterday-- which is why they told her "at this rate you'll be off by next weekend". Unfortunately, that's not the case after all. They are not sure if the treatment caused it or if it's something else, but Shannon has a really bad cough. We noticed she was coughing more yesterday. She sets the machine alarms off when she coughs a lot-- and it kept happening.
But that's not even the bad news.
Because she's coughing, and because she has a fever that "may or may not be her neurological fever she's had off and on" which is slightly more elevated than it's been recently; they have to assume it's..........COVID-19. {insert heavy disgruntled sigh here} Now she's stuck in her room, having all of her therapy done there while they wait to see if it improves in the next several days. Unfortunately, if her fever goes up, or her cough gets worse, she has to transfer to the ER for Covid-19 testing again, and if it IS Covid- she has to move back to the hospital isolated ICU again. We knew there was a risk of her catching if from someone at the rehab hospital. The medical staff do have to go home, do have to buy food, do have be around other people- and some people can have it without even having any symptoms. Her main doctor said he thinks it was just from her being overworked this weekend (which I am NOT pleased about), but they have to take the precautions because of the world we are currently living in.
Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, and enjoy the ride. We go up....then 7 story drop, loop, another loop, and then the corkscrew.....so hold on tight.
I haven't been great about updating the miracles and blessings post- so I'm just tossing this one in here. Seven years ago when we were relocating to PA for Lancer’s new job and house hunting, Lancer “randomly" met a guy named Milan at the Washington DC Temple. Long story short- we moved into his ward in PA. We instantly loved Milan and his wife Leslie. Their son Matt and our son Austin hit it off as well. Fast forward to last year, Milan was called to be the Temple President of the Philadelphia Temple. They moved into the apartment building owned by the Church a block away from the temple. Two blocks from their apartment is Magee Rehab where Shannon is. And guess who invited me to do Shannon's laundry at their place so I don't have to drive 45 mins downtown, then back home to do laundry, and then 45 mins back? Yep. Milan and Leslie. They've offered us a whole lot more than that; their friendship alone is something I am extremely grateful for. But what a blessing that they are living downtown so close to Shannon. Not luck. No way. You can see Shannon's hospital from their balcony. I'm sure Heavenly Father's hand was in that.
I feel like it's Groundhog Day here: Please pray for Shannon to overcome her cough and to be free of Covid-19, for her lungs to continue to improve as well as the use of the muscles that control her breathing. Pray for her understanding of time so she is better able to grasp how long she is going to be there before she can be with her family. Pray for her strength, endurance, and ability to continue with her therapy, and of course please pray for her spinal cord to heal.
We love you all and hope you are able to feel closer to our Savior this Holy Week.
"Like so many things, it's not what's on the outside but what's on the inside that counts" Aladdin
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