New exercises, Flashbacks, HELP: Zoo, Baby corral

For exercises, Denise had to get on her hands & knees and try to crawl. Her arms couldn't support her upper body and move at the same time. She's also starting to do squats. There was a stroll to end of the hall, rest, and stroll all the way back to her room. While standing, she wrapped her grandpa's Christmas gift. Not bad. One of her visitors dropped of a fruit smoothie for her. She gulped down lots of it too fast and threw up. After that episode, she wanted to finish the smoothie, but the nurse didn't think it was a good idea. Too much good stuff, too fast.
We're thinking of trying to get Denise to come home on December 23rd. The idea came up that if she came home on the 24th and then we needed some help at home, it would be harder to get. Denise said that the rehab doctor thought that might be a workable date. Part of me says, "The sooner, the better!" Part of me says, "Keep her at the hospital as long as needed... no rush." When she does come home, we need to get a caregiver. Any suggestions and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Insurance *will* cover the physical & occupational therapists that will come to our home (YAY!), but insurance will *not* cover the caregiver that we'll need once I start back to work after Christmas vacation (DOH!). By the way, I got a memo from work the other day that said our insurance is going to go up in January. Never a nice thing to hear. But I'm confident that at the end of all this, I won't have much to complain about when it comes to how much of this ordeal has been covered by insurance versus how much I've paid into it over the years.

From a medical standpoint, things are slower paced in comparison to the PT & OT departments. Haven't heard anything from the endocrinologist yet. I think that Denise should be about due for another evaluation by the ophthalmologist. The neurologist popped in and all seems to be well. The only tube/line she's got in her currently appears to be a PICC line for IV fluids from time to time. Tonight she was tucking the line under her sleeve. I started choking up a bit. She asked what was wrong and I told her that a couple days ago I was reading through a bunch of old posts to the blog, from when things were really bad for her. Seeing her hands on the line tonight reminded me of times when she'd just be coming out of sedation, and I'd always have to keep her hands away from the lines or she'd try to pull them out (and sometimes did). If someone wasn't around to do this, she'd have to be restrained. She couldn't believe that. I also told her that it's good to see her sitting up, because early on her blood pressure was so bad that if they raised the head of the bed, her heart couldn't handle pumping the blood. But if she were laying down to make it easier on her heart, her lungs would fill with fluid and she couldn't oxygenate. I told her how thankful I was for the times when I saw the head of the bed raised even a few degrees, because that was a sign that she might live. How far we've come, huh?

I forgot to mention last night that a family from my school delivered a really nice Christmas tree to us. Thank you! It's by far the nicest tree Denise & I have ever had... full, cone-shaped, flocked (the kids are loving that!). It's much nicer than the Charlie Brown trees we usually get, or the fake tree that the kids have been using so far this year.

Free San Diego Zoo Trip: I'm looking for someone to take the kids to the San Diego Zoo over Christmas break. I have four tickets to the San Diego Zoo that are good until December 31st of this year. One ticket is for Gracie, and Jacob is under 3 years old, so he's a freebie. That leaves three tickets. Our minivan will be gassed up for your use.

Baby Corral Needed: Does anybody have a baby corral that I could borrow until Christmas? I need to put something around the tree. Jacob's trying to open the gifts a little early.

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