Day 89 | DECEMBER 08, 2021
Good evening Friends, today is day 89 of our new and amazing life!
Today I went to visit the Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation. It was a highly anticipated visit, this will be Charlie’s next stop before returning home.
The rehab center is brand new and located at Short Pump or around 50 minutes from our house , it will cut my daily commute by 40 minutes or so.
The facility is state of the art, the latest technology to help people with all sorts of mobility issues, from amputated folks to spine injury, or complex issues like Charlie.
They have an entire team made of different specialists, and they are eager to welcome Charlie at their facility and provide her with the best possible care, I was very impressed by their kindness and genuine interest in making all possible accommodations to cater to Charlie’s needs during her stay there.
I also realized that when talking with doctors and nurses outside of the burn unit, I am now realizing how unique Charlie’s case is, inside of the burn unit , they see burns all day, but outside very few people have had the chance to meet a burn survivor with 85% burn surface, simple because they don’t really exist, as sad as it sounds , most burn victims don’t survive burns over 80%, there is very little statistic but it is rare to see one I was told.
It was a mixed feelings visit, in one hand it is almost surreal to be talking about Charlie rehabilitation, and in the other hand is a new reality that we will need to learn all about it, I felt like I was on a Si-if movie, the facility is spotless, nothing is out of place, there is a lot of natural light coming thru the floor to ceiling glass panels, some of the rehab equipment look like robots, I even saw a person that looks to be quadriplegic, get on a robotic exoskeleton, and start to walk like a robot, it was absolutely amazing!
The rooms are all private with a huge window, there is a large smart TV , and a large bathroom with a walk in shower, it has a very Scandinavian feel to it.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have such a world class facility near us, so Charlie can receive the best possible care, but it will be an adjustment, specially since Charlie will be spending a good amount of time in there, we don’t know yet how long, but we do know it will be a while.
My thank you to the team at sheltering arms, they made me feel very welcome and I am looking forward to having Charlie mobility rehab at their facility when the time comes .
after this great visit I made my way to see Charlie , that was around 3:30pm, Charlie was in her chair once I got there , she was watching TV, she was pleased to see me, she wanted to hear all about the rehab facility, so I gave her my report and she seemed excited about it
Charlie had a busy day today, she started her wound care and air drying early at 5am, she was done by 9:30a, she did some PT , mostly range of motion on her legs, she also had her second session with her psychologist and she said she enjoyed it.
She had a busy and productive day, and she was tired around 4:30p , we attempted to listen to a new audio book called Fearless , but she feel asleep 20 minutes in, we now want to listen to a book together for 1 hour and watch a show for 2 hours , and do music for 30 minutes. Now that she is more stable , we want to create a more structured schedule for our visit.
I left around 6pm and Charlie just wanted to sleep.
Dr. Feldman, her Surgeon came by to see us and he gave us some promising news, he said that Charlie will be off the ventilator for the next 48 hours starting today at 6am, and if she does well and has no issues, he will downsize her tracheae collar to a size 6 on this Friday visit to the OR.
I could not believe my ears! I let it out, The source of my frustration, would finally be downsized!!
He smiled and said yep, it may happen, it all depends on how well Charlie does on the next 48H.
I am holding my breath and praying hard for the next 48h to go smoothly!
This would be a huge step for Charlie’s well being, she would be able to talk weeks after the downsizing, eventually starting to drink liquids and further down , even eat food!
This Friday has the potential to be epic!
Please let’s all pray for Charlie to do well in the next 48h off the ventilator!
Thank you for your incredible support!
And may I please ask you to each invite 5 people to this group! I want to share Charlie’s incredible journey with more people, I think we have something good to offer and let’s share with your friends and family!
Have a good night, and God May Bless You !
André
