August 1, 2014

Day 120 Since Jake’s Accident, Day 82 at Bethesda Hospital and Day 1 at Red Wing Health Care Community.

It has been a whirlwind of healing and progression the past 10 days for Jacob. He has reached level four for his food stage with eating. This means Jake is eating the same food you and I would eat. He has also transitioned to normal liquids where before he was taking liquids that were nectar thick. Getting to this stage now allows Jake to take all of his medication orally and in pill form- instead of through his stomach tube which is called a PEG. On July 30th the doctor gave the OK to remove Jake’s PEG as he no longer needs the feeding tube- YAE!

Every week is a busy week with Jake’s schedule, but this past week in particular has been extremely busy. He has had back to back days of up to six work sessions per day of PT/OT/RT/Speech, to continue to build and strengthen Jake’s brain and body. In between all the work sessions, meal times and rest sessions, a series of xrays were taken over two days this past week. This was done to reevaluate the progression of healing of all of Jake’s broken bones from head to toe.  Everything appears to be healing well and finally set in place. He was given the OK by the ortho doctor to start bearing weight with his bionic man built legs on July 30th. Some of you may remember from our earliest written posts- that the orthopedic surgeons in Texas had to rebuild Jake’s legs from his ankles through both knees to both of his femurs with steel plates, bolts/pins and screws to support Jake’s entire body weight and frame- allowing him to be able to walk again someday.

Jake has been waiting for the day to come where he could start to walk again and was ecstatic to finally get the news that the day has come. On July 30th his PT therapist allowed and assisted Jake to stand with guided support and he tolerated the activity for one minute, without any light headedness or dizziness. They evaluated the positioning of his stance and the placement of his feet on the solid surface. It was noted that due to the length of time of Jake not walking he has a slight foot drop of his left foot in particular, and this will require additional surgery of his foot tendons and bone placement within Jake's left ankle.  Jake also has a broken right foot that never had surgery completed and this will be reevaluated over time and taken care of at a later date to possible rebreak and fuse back together. On July 31st Jake again was assisted by the PT therapist and a lift to stand, and he tolerated close to three minutes of standing and tried taking a few steps with success. Jake was beaming with joy and had the biggest smile and he is so happy. Jeff and I are so proud of him!!!

With Jake’s successful weight bearing progression and his tolerated level of increased daily and physical activity of work sessions, he can now make it to the next transitonal level of care. Today, August 1st - Jacob will be transported to Red Wing Health Care Community, where he will continue on for several more months of his healing journey to focus on regaining his ability to walk, improved speech and continued brain development. The Red Wing facility specializes in TBI and one of Jacob’s main doctors monitoring Jake’s TBI from Bethesda also works at the Red Wing facility. It is important to us as a family unit to have consistency with doctor care and follow through to meet Jake’s health care and wellness needs, so the Red Wing Health Care Facility was the facility of choice.