The Hard Work Begins

Tim had a bit of a down day on Sunday, he was in bed all day with a fever. The staff kept him cool with damp face cloths and fans, and ran tests to rule out any infections. Fevers are somewhat common due to normal circumstances associated with how the respiratory and circulation systems are affected.

By Monday morning, Tim had a good night sleep and the fever was down. After breakfast, he had a PT session with Kevin that he drove himself to in his chair. This session was about balance. Tim spent the whole hour learning how to sit on a mat and hold himself up. He feels stronger about this then he has earlier. He was able to hold the position for a fairly long time - 10 to 15 minutes. That simple activity was exhausting, and that illustrates what Tim's world is like now.

His OT session was a bit of a preview of things to come, as he was too tired to try anything new. Tomorrow, they will space the sessions out a bit to make sure he's ready to go. But for today, Rachel set him up with some Adaptive Technology tools that will allow him to turn on the TV and Radio and operate a speaker phone. He also got a look at some tools and techniques to wash his face and torso and to brush his teeth. Two weeks ago, I probably would have made some wise ass comment about that, but no longer!

Just after lunch, Kathy and Brianna Davis of West Stockbridge stopped by to visit while they were out at this end of the state. Tim was asleep and wasn't able to see them, but Kathy had worked with us to pick up and deliver our mail, and we were able to share a lot of cards and notes of support from even more of our friends and neighbors. Then, I showed Tim Conor's post and he was a happy guy. Tomorrow we look forward to a visit from Sam Schrager after he finishes he orientation at Northeastern.

After watching one of the Scream movies, Tim is pretty whipped and is heading off to dream land. But before that went there, we discovered that one of his nurses, Kristin, has relatives in Housatonic. Her mom is a Sakowski - she has had dinner at Jacks Grill and loves the Prime Outlets at Lee. So, the Berkshires spirit is carried over to Spaulding, too.

On the parents front - Brian is working his way back into the workplace, exhibiting at a trade show in Boston in the afternoon after spending time with Tim in the morning.