Karen's Blog

Paul's Update: May 26th at 3:30pm

When Karen first had her injury - today marks two months since it happened, we were told it would take a very long time for her to recover. We were also told that progress would be slow and there would likely be setbacks along the way. Well, we experienced one of those setbacks this week. Unfortunately, due to a sudden lack of continuing progress in Karen's rahabilitation, the Doctors suspected and confirmed with a new CT scan that Karen had developed Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). This is due primarily to the bleeding that occured two months ago causing an obstruction in the body's natural process of flushing out of the fluid in one's brain. So, yesterday the neurosurgeon placed a Ventriculo-Peritoneal Shunt in Karen to reduce the pressure caused by the excess fluid. For those of you who are interested in these things, you can get more information by going to http://www.preemies.org/buckwal/shunt.htm. The surgeon told me yesterday after the surgery that all went well, and she should be able to resume her rehabilitation sometime after the holiday weekend. Hopefully, this will correct Karen's recent lag in the rehabilitation progress, and she can quickly get back on the road to recovery and resume the amazing progress she has previously shown. I saw Karen this morning and fed her lunch. She seems to have come through the surgery OK. She just has one hell of a headache and a really interesting haircut. I can say she has been the typical, tough Karen through this whole thing. I suspect she will come out of it just fine. I will keep you all posted, ofcourse.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Friday, May 26, 2006 2 comments

Paul's Update: May 22nd @ 10:30am

I think, as we move into this period of Karen’s recovery you are likely to see fewer blog postings. There just isn’t much to report on a daily basis. I will try to give you all something a couple of times a week, unless there is big news.

Karen has had a pretty good week since my last post. She continues to regain a bit more movement in her left arm, but still can’t use it for much. Her left leg however, continues to be an area of concern. She continually complains of pain in both her left arm and left leg. The doctors are aware of this and have begun to treat her with medication.

I will say though that the last time I helped her out of her bed and into the wheelchair that she was much stronger and was doing a great deal of the standing on her own. I told Karen over the weekend that I would expect she might be standing on her own in two weeks (most likely assisted with a walker).

She continues to get a full schedule of rehab every day. In fact, Ken and I were commenting just last night that she will have a very full day today with 5 therapy sessions. Karen seems motivated though, and her stamina is improving.

Her spirits are good, and she has become quite a chatterbox at times. These days however, you can understand every word she is saying.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Monday, May 22, 2006 3 comments

Paul's Update: May 16th at 6:30pm

Karen has had a fairly good set of days since my last post. There is nothing huge going on, just a tiny bit of progress each day with no major setbacks. One item of note is that late last week they removed the feeding tube from her abdomen. Apparently, it was rather painful for her, but it is a good development.

She continues to get her daily regiments of therapy – occupational, speech, physical, and now some recreational (it’s not exactly what you would think). She usually is pretty beat by the end of the day, but we can see her stamina building.

There was a meeting today with all of her doctors and therapists. I attended the meeting with Ken and Judy. It was very informative, and we got some answers to some questions that basically confirmed what we already knew. There was nothing terribly troubling in what was said, which was a good thing for me. They did say two things of note. First, they expect Karen will be in the rehab facility for another 5-6 weeks. Second, they still would like to keep the number of visitors to a minimum, especially before 4pm. What they are finding is that if she receives too many visitors early in the day she will be too tired to get the full benefit of her therapy sessions. With that in mind, we would like to limit visits on Monday through Saturday to after 4pm, and Sunday after 11am. We also would like it if you would check in with either me, or Ken and Judy before you come to the hospital. We will try to keep somewhat of a schedule so she doesn’t get overwhelmed with visitors on any given time/day. Karen is particularly susceptible to sensory overload with multiple visitors, and this tends to tire her out. She also is likely to remember less of your visit with her.

I want to thank everyone for the response so far to the last post. We are already seeing both monetary contributions and leave contributions. You all have been very generous, and we all appreciate your support for Karen.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Tuesday, May 16, 2006 2 comments

Paul's Update/Special Requests - May 11th

Each day is another small step towards Karen’s recovery, and we all continue to be pleased with the progress she is making. However, it is obvious to us now that Karen’s recovery is going to take a long, long time. It could be a year or longer before Karen is able to go back to work.

Karen’s parents and I have been touched by the response from her friends and associates. We tell her about the blog, and how everyone is rooting for her recovery. We appreciate your kind words and your sincere concern for her.

Many of you have asked us how you can help Karen, so I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you.

The first is by Gifting Annual Leave. For those of you who either work for a federal agency, or who know someone who does, gifting annual leave is an excellent way to help her stay on her feet.

Unfortunately, Karen only has enough leave left to carry her through to May 17th. If Karen’s leave runs out she will have to go on long-term medical leave, and will likely get a significant reduction in her pay. Our hope is to bank enough gifted leave to keep her paychecks intact, and her health insurance in force. If you are a federal employee, or if you know someone who is, there is a very simple procedure to move some of your annual leave to Karen.

Another way to help Karen is financially. For the period that Karen was at Inova Fairfax Hospital – March 26th through April 20th, the hospital bill alone was $168,000. This does not include the bills for the individual doctors, and we expect the total amount to exceed half a million dollars. Thank goodness Karen has very good insurance with the Library of Congress, and most of this will get paid for. However, we are beginning to see some bills arrive in the mail that require co-payments, etc. These bills could ultimately run into the thousands.

So, I have set up a separate checking account in Karen’s name in which we can accept donations to help Karen offset these expenses. Any contribution you can make to this fund will go a long way to help ease Karen’s mind. The last thing I want her to do is begin to stress out about money. Those of us who are close to her know how proud Karen is of her home, and the small nest egg she has worked so hard to build. She would be devastated if she thought it was at risk because of her accident

My hope is to raise enough money to cover all of these expenses, and if we all could pitch in a little bit I know it can be done.

Please see the various links to the right to either gift leave or contribute money.

You have all been so wonderful in you concern for her, and I know I can speak for her parents when I say we have all been touched by the kind words in the blog, your wonderful cards, and the nice gifts some of you have sent. They all have gone to make her recovery the success it has been so far, but as I said earlier, we still have a long road ahead of us.

I also can pass these words on from Karen herself . . . “Thank you”

posted by Karen's Blog @ Thursday, May 11, 2006 0 comments

Paul's Update: May 8th at 1:30pm

I think this was a good weekend for Karen to catch her breath and relax with friends and family. Her good friend Missy came down from New York on Saturday, and spent most of the day with Karen. We took Karen outside for about an hour, and at the same time Karen’s father went home to get their dog Nikki. Karen enjoyed both being outdoors and visiting with her favorite poodle.

Karen also spent about two hours outside on Sunday with her friend Eden. I wasn’t there during that period, but I’m told Karen didn’t want to go back inside. She always did like being outdoors.

Overall, Karen continues to progress well. She is showing a little more mobility in her left arm, but it is still minimal. We are hoping this week will show us more.

(other photos to follow during the week...please check back).

posted by Karen's Blog @ Monday, May 08, 2006 3 comments

Paul's Update: May 5th - late evening

I think we're in that period where we may not see huge leaps in Karen'scondition.

There hasn't been much of a change since Wednesday's post. They did remove the PICC line from Karen's right arm. She was beginning to focus a lot on it, and started picking at it. They weren't using it to administer anything either. She is now eating solid food, but still hospital fare. She is in pretty good spirits most days, but does get a little down sometimes, probably from sitting in the hospital all the time. We're all looking for a bit more progress on her left arm, but we aren'tseeing much yet.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Saturday, May 06, 2006 1 comments

Home Bistro Update (from Lisa Manion) - May 5 at 2:30pm

Many thanks to all of you who made contributions for the Home Bistro gift certificates for Karen's family and Paul. Your checks were forwarded en masse to Home Bistro and as of yesterday (May 4), the gift certificates still have not arrived. I am following up with Home Bistro to see why the delay. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me via email (click here to email). ....or call if you have her number (as I don't want to post this on the internet).

posted by Karen's Blog @ Friday, May 05, 2006 0 comments

Paul's Update: May 3rd @ 7am

I think we are probably in a period where we will continue to see minor steps of improvement over a longer period of time.

Karen continues to make progress, but the changes are incremental. For those of us who see her everyday, sometimes they are a little less noticable.

Karen is beginning to use her voice a bit more, and is whispering less and less. However, she is still difficult to hear when there are other noises competing.

We are beginning to see a little more movement in her left arm, but not much at all on her left leg. I am presuming that the more she moves her left arm, the more her brain will recognize the rest of the left side.

She seems in pretty good spirits though, and she smiles often at my stupid jokes.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Wednesday, May 03, 2006 3 comments

Paul's Update: May 1st @ 6:40am

There really wasn't much in the way of news from the weekend, so I sort of took a break from the blog.

Karen continues her regiment of speech, occupational, and physical therapies, but gets Sunday's off. I took Friday off and spent most of the day at the hospital with her, watching her through her physical and occupational therapy sessions. I also sat with her during her lunch. All of the therapists have a unique interest in Karen, and seeing her succeed. This is apparent in the way they work with her.

She continues to improve, but sometimes the incremental changes are small. She is definitely getting better though. She still has what the therapists refer to as "left side neglect", where she has not yet regained the use of her left side. She has muscle tone and the limbs can move, but her brain is having some difficulty recognizing them, so she tends to use her right side for everything.

Karen seems to be in generally good spirits, and enjoys being able to feed herself, and drink her water. She still has a pretty good sense of humor, and will crack a smile now a then if she thinks something is funny.

It appears that she can read fairly well, except for the fact that she has difficulty holding a book open with one hand. Yesterday, I was holding a water bottle, asking her if she could read the label as I was pointing to the big letters - DEER PARK. Karen responds by saying "Established in 1947" I take a second look at the bottle, confused as to what the heck she is talking about, and noticed that just below the Deer Park is the fine print.

Seeing this, I picked up one of the books that was brought in for her, and I held it for her. By looking at her eye movement she was definitely reading the page. She seemed to enjoy what she was reading, and I think she somehow recognized the book, but wasn't quite sure. She is also able to write her name as well as others.

I'm certain she will improve fairly rapidly in these areas as she gets more in depth therapy.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Monday, May 01, 2006 0 comments