Day 1 in Rehab

Well, Donte has officially survived his first day as a Rehab Hospital patient. Let me preface by saying that he moved down to Rehab yesterday and when I saw him during my lunch hour, before he moved to his new room, he told me that he was nervous to go to Rehab. Donte just advising that he was nervous set me into a state of anxiousness myself. I wondered if he was REALLY ready and I wondered how well he would do. I was calling the hospital every hour on the hour just to insure that he was acclimating to his environment well. And to my surprise, he was. All night the nurses said he was patient and cooperative. He was calm and spent the night watching basketball.

Today, when I saw him, it was after work, I thought to go during lunch, but opted out of that because I didn't want to excite or overwhelm him on his first day with new therapist and a full load of Rehabilitation. When I finally saw Donte he was having dinner in a dining room with other Rehab patients and he was laughing and engaged. When he saw me he smiled, waved and blew me a kiss. I told him not to rush dinner and that I would be waiting for him in his new room. When he came into his room, he told me he had a good day, he showed me his schedule and told me how hard his schedule was. He told me he stretched in PT (Physical Therapy) for and hour, he told me he assisted in grooming and dressing in OT (Occupational Therapy) for another hour and then her worked on a louder voice in Speech Therapy. Donte told me he was tired.

I was so impressed with how talkative he was today and I did not have to prompt him as much for information. He even told me that he made friends at dinner. He remembered his friends names. Then he even asked me about my day.

But that is not even the BEST part! Donte caught me mid sentence and whispered "I can move my left leg now..."

I thought I heard him wrong but then he moved his left leg; he lifted it up in the air and then put it back down. When I asked him to do it again he did it immediately on command! He has not been able to do that consistently. He says it came back to him this morning. I cried like a small child because him moving that leg just made its possible for my husband to not only regain movement in his left arm, but also to walk out of this hospital. Although his left leg movement is significantly weaker than the right, it is still movement and If you have ever dealt with a TBI on any capacity, you will quickly understand that any movement is a miracle and means the world.

The moral of the story is that his brain is still healing and the progression is still coming. If this first day is an indication of what his whole stay will be like, then we should expect nothing but great things from my miracle of a husband, Donte Miranda-Baltimore.

Stay strong, Stay safe, Take care, and Have HOPE!

Kelli