Update on the Medical Rounds/Meeting Today

Cherie attended rounds today Via phone, I copied and pasted directly from the email, information for you:

Rounds today on your Dad were attended by his doctor, a member of the nursing staff, OT, PT, the neuro-psych team, the social worker and your parents. I will go through by category:

Medical
Cardiac status is improved so that Digoxin and Potassium have been stopped. One other cardiac drug will be weaned over the next couple of weeks.
The MRI re-read showed an area of brightness at T9 (about 4" above the waist) that might indicate an area of damage due to oxygen loss. There is also, on closer look, a variation in the vertebrae that they will do a CT scan to more fully evaluate this week. This is thought to be the cause of the partial paralysis from waist down.
Coumadin (blood thinner) will be needed till at least May or June. Your parents were advised to follow up with their primary medical doctor to see if clots are still there in legs or why they developed in the first place.
Your Mom expressed concern about Tim's feet and legs swelling even with compression stockings on. She was told this is "dependent edema" and will be present to some degree as long as he is using a wheelchair and not walking.
Nursing

Nothing to report. No nursing needs identified.

Occupational Therapy
Endurance is improving with each session.
Tim is now feeding himself independently
He is learning to use adaptive equipment for reaching and dressing himself and transferring from the wheelchair to the bed.
Upper extremity independence is limited.
Lower extremity independence is maximally impaired.
Catheterization technique still needs work.
They will start work today on teaching him to be independent with shower and bathing in a roll in shower. The OT thought this had been completed but it has not been started yet. He is currently still doing bed baths.
Still having episodes of stool incontinence. Will begin bowel schedule training today. Again, the OT thought this had been done and it has not.

Physical Therapy
Doing so much better in therapy sessions with dizziness now a rare occurrence.
Still needs minimal to moderate supervision with transfers as he tends to forget steps he must use to be safe.
Tim is attending RAPS classes designed to teach him how to live and function well with a spinal cord injury. They were pretty clear today that this is likely to be permanent.
He will need a custom fitted wheel chair when he leaves the skilled nursing facility (SNF) and there is great potential for fraud here so TIRR wants him to come back to their wheel chair clinic when he is discharged from the SNF and suggested he rent a wheel chair until they could get one that was fitted to his needs. The SNF will provide him with needed equipment while he is there so the purchase of a chair will not be for 2-3 more months. (End of notes from Rounds)

Please continue the prayers for his recovery. Also Wed of next week dad has to move to a Skilled Nursing Facility...pray we choose the right one. Mom and I are going SNF shopping this afternoon. God Bless!!