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Steve Laszko |  |
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Steve Laszko | |
It's been a little crazy around here (Denver) since Steve arrived Monday morning, but I apologize for not getting an update posted sooner. It's pretty late at night as I write this, so I'll be short and to the point. Steve is in very capable hands. Meeting with all the doctors, nurses, administrators, technicians and specialists over the last three days have instilled an incredible confidence in the level of care and caring that Steve will receive at the Craig Hospital. Touring the facility was akin to being invited into the inner-depths of HRC in Japan. This place is amazing.
That's it for now - I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it up here OK and Steve is doing fine. I'll post more detailed information about the plans for Steve's rehab and his progress over the next few days.
The MO at Craig is to assign a primary doctor to act as the coach for a team of doctors and nurses that will care for the patient throughout his / her stay. Heading up Steve's team is Dr. Indira Lanig. Dr. Pete Peterson is the pulmonologist (lung doc). Megan Higbe is the nurse in charge. From Occupational Therapy we have Ina Schakaraschwili, and Steffany Toppin heads up the Physical Therapy team. There are a host of other specialists, as well as departments unique to a rehab environment that will be involved with Steve's case before he heads back to the golden state.
The first few days of Steve's stay at Craig were devoted to evaluating his condition and developing a preliminary game plan for his care and rehab. At the top of the list is attending to the serious health issues that have plagued Steve since early June. Clearing up his lungs is job #1. Here is an example of why we pushed so hard to get Steve into Craig: Steve has been fighting pneumonia for the past two months. What I haven't written about yet is a problem he has had with a partially collapsed right lung, including some blockage and pockets of fluid. Although he has shown some improvement over the last two months, it was a very, very slow process. One of the first docs that took a look at Steve this week was Dr. Peterson. Dr. Pete started an agressive program to open up Steve's lungs and I'll be damned if the majority of the blockage and pockets of fluid didn't clear up in two days. Dr. Pete is considered to be THE TOP lung doc in the U.S. by many people I've talked to. After seeing what he's done for Steve, I believe it. Dr. Pete is representitive of the level and skill of the staff that are found here.
The second priority is another issue that I've yet to write about - pressure sores. Steve has a couple of bad ones; one on the back of his head measuring about 50mm wide, and one on his tail bone measuring about 25mm deep and 75mm wide. Pressure sores are the result of dead skin, fat, and muscle tissue. They are open sores that, when they reach the level of the ones on Steve's body, require surgery to correct. Dr. Lanig and Dr. Steve Snively (the plastic surgeon) are shooting for the week of September 11th to do the surgery. The delay in performing the surgery is to allow Steve's lungs to come back up to full strength and to rid his body of infection (and the antibotics that are taking care of the infection). He will have to remain fairly immobile for up to five weeks following the surgery to allow the repairs to heal properly.
Steve's docs have scheduled a conference for Tuesday to discuss their plans with us. Although taking care of his lungs and the pressure sores are priorities, there are a number of programs that can be started while the serious problems are being worked on. I'll post more information about Steve's overall rehab plan after the meeting.
Yesterday was the first time Steve has been out of bed for three-and-a-half months. Steffany and Megan, along with some able-bodied help, put Steve into a high-back wheel chair for about an hour. We pushed the chair over by the window in his room so he could catch some rays ("where's my sunglasses"). This will become a daily ritual, at least until he has the surgery for his pressure sores. The goal is to get him as upright as possible (good for the lungs), get his body used being up (good for the blood pressure) and break up the monotony of laying in bed all the time.
His lungs are doing 1000% better than when he first arrived, but there's still some more to go. He is suffering from both bi-lateral pneumonia (both lungs) and ARDS which is a hardening of the lungs. Dr. Pete is confident that both conditions will be corrected soon. Based on his performance thus far, I have no reason to doubt him.
Today we had our meeting with the heads of all the departments that are assigned to Steve's case. In addition to the folks mentioned above, Dr. DiMaggio (no relation to Joe, I asked, though he does look a little like him) is assisting Dr. Lanig. Dr. Lester Butt (not sure of the spelling, he left his name tag off, but that's how it sounds out) is his psychologist and Pat Tracy from Patient and Family Services (some would call her a social worker, I consider her the Expediter). Pat takes care of all the loose ends for both Steve and the family, interfaces with Gretchen at Workman's Comp, and just makes things happen (Expediter).
Ok, so on to the meeting. The primary focus today was to lay out the plans for Steve's care over the next two months. First, get his lungs as strong and healthy as they can be before he undergoes surgery for the pressure sores. The surgery is still planned for the week of September 11th, followed by five weeks of recovery. While Steve waits for the surgery, the various departments will be putting together the custom equipment and programs that Steve will need to begin full-blown rehab. The equipment will be ordered and should start arriving about the time his recovery from surgery is complete.
Another milestone passed today - the nose tube through which Steve has been fed these past months was removed and a GI tube was inserted into his stomach. Imagine having a garden hose stuffed up your nose, down your throat and into your stomach - that's what Steve has lived with since the crash. Once his appetite picks up and he's able to eat real, solid food (probably after the recovery from surgery), the GI tube will be removed.
Steve spent almost five hours sitting upright in the chair yesterday. The nurses and docs were pretty impressed. After being confined to a bed for almost four months, he shouldn't have been able to tolerate being up that long. But that's typical Steve, eh?
With the vent and IV tree in tow, we wheeled him over to the Swedish Hospital (next door to Craig) for a barium swallow test and a CAT-scan of his neck. I don't know the exact results of either test yet, but Dr. Lanig was comfortable enough with the CAT-scan to have his neck / chest brace replaced with a soft neck collar last night. Another milestone achieved! The neck / chest brace consisted of a chest and back brace connected to a cradle under his chin and along the back of his head to keep his head from moving while the vertebraes fused. Imagine an motorcross-style chest protector attached to a big bowl under your head and you'll have an idea of what it was like. The soft neck collar is now in place to support his head, because his neck muscles have attrophied from lack of use. 'Noodle Neck' as Dr. Lanig likes to call it. I'm sure we'll learn a new therapy today to get those neck muscles back into shape.
We learned the results of the CAT-scan on Steve's neck and his swallow test yesterday - both were fine. The bones in his neck are healing nicely - so much so that the soft collar should come off by the end of the month. Steve will learn a series of isometric exercises to strengthen the muscles in his neck this afternoon.
Dr. Pete has started a program to get Steve talking again. The trach in his thoat includes a pressure cuff to prevent any air from escaping up and out of his mouth. Yesterday, the cuff was depressurized to allow him to talk for two minutes. It was good to hear his voice again. His 'talk time' will be increased each day to allow him to build up his 'voice muscles'. The program is also a first step in helping him breath on his own.
Steve is also back on the road to eating again. Like the talking program, he's starting out with just a few spoonfulls of pureed food (yesterday was turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes). He says it tasted like hell, but he enjoyed the chocolate ice cream for desert.
Weekends are purposely laid-back at Craig. Friends and family visit, and there is usually an outing or two around town for the patients. There was no rest for the wicked, though, as we kept Steve busy with his exercises and got him up in the chair for a couple of hours. He's eating a little more each day. Pureed food isn't the most appealing fare in the world, but he does his best.
Steve broke out with a case of hives Saturday afternoon. Hives are a skin rash that itches like crazy. A big dose of Benedril took care of them in short order and they didn't come back. He also developed a bacterial infection around his new feeding tube yesterday - one of those blah-blah-blah-blah-coccus thingies. This isn't an unusual development and it isn't a big problem for him. It is a big deal for the other patients, though, so the staff instituted a gown-and-glove quarantine to prevent them from spreading it to others under their care.
Steve's lungs continue to improve. It appears that the ARDS (hardening of the lungs) is well under control. One of the effects of ARDS is an impaired ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen into the blood stream. The ventilator mixes regular air with pure oxygen while a sensor attached to his finger monitors the saturation of oxygen in his blood stream (pulse-ox for those of you who watch ER on TV). Steve started last week running a 50/50 mix of air and oxygen. As of last night, he was down to a 30% mix of oxygen while maintaining the same saturation level (96 - 98%). The normal mix for healthy lungs is around 20%.
Two steps up and one step back.
Steve was treated for a pneumo thorax Monday morning. This is a condition where air builds up in the chest cavity, outside the lungs, putting opposing pressure on them and making it tough to breath. A chest tube was inserted, which acts like a relief valve to bleed off the air. This isn't an uncommon condition, and the docs have it under control. It didn't deter him from getting up in the chair yesterday afternoon for about three hours.
It also appears that the hives have come back, this time as a full-body rash. Benedril acts quickly to clear them up while the docs try to figure out what's causing them. It could be an allergic reaction or induced by stress.
Steve is scheduled to have a abdominal CAT-scan this morning. His bug doc (infectious disease specialist) is concerned because his white blood cell count has remained pretty high, in spite of the cocktail of IV antibiotics he's on. The CAT-scan should reveal any areas of internal infection that might be causing that.
The CAT-scan from Tuesday didn't reveal any internal areas of infection, so there's a little bit of head-scratching going on. The source of an infection can sometimes by tough to find, but we have confidence that Steve's bug doc will figure it out.
On the bright, sunny side, Steve got outside for a little while yesterday afternoon. With respirator in tow, he was rolled out on the patio to soak up some rays. On the way back to the room, we stopped off in the gecko lounge; a glass enclosed walkway spanning the east and west wings of Craig. To the north he saw some of the skyscrapers of Denver and Pike's Peak to the south.
The air pocket around Steve's lungs (pneumo thorax) is getting smaller every day. On Monday it was down to to 10% of it's original size. The pocket was caused by a small hole in his right lung which let air escape into his chest cavity. He gets xrayed every day to keep an eye on it, but it shouldn't be too much longer before the chest tube will come out.
Steve is up to about eight hours a day in his wheel chair. His current chair is a full-power unit which he's learning to drive via a 'sip-n-puff' device (we call it the puff 'n stuff - you baby boomers out there should get that one). It's pretty simple by design, but tough to get the hang of. An air line is connected to a pressure sensor, which controls the motors on the chair. The other end of the air line is connected via a flexible tube to Steve's mouth. The sensor is calibrated to sense positive (puff) and negative (sip) pressure. A hard puff moves you forward, hard sip moves you back. A soft puff turns right, soft sip moves left. Pretty damn slick.
The surgery for Steve's pressure sores is scheduled for the 13th. During surgery, the doc will take bone and tissue cultures to ensure that there is no infection present in the wounds. In order to get an accurate culture, though, Steve has to be off all antibiotics for one week prior to surgery, which started yesterday. Any infection has to be aggressively treated post-surgery to ensure that the sores will heal properly. The up-side of the surgery is healed sores and considerably less pain. The down-side is five weeks of bed rest. That part will be tough, but once he makes it through that he'll be ready to participate 110% in the rehab programs.
Quick reminder: the benefit poker ride in San Diego is this Sunday. My father and I will be flying back to participate along with the rest of the team and our family. Don and Bobbie Presten, Rick Moyer and the rest of the Wanderers Motorcycle Club have busted their butts to put together what promises to be a great event.
Just a couple of quick notes for today. Steve's surgery has been rescheduled for the 14th at 4:00pm.
A lot of our non-riding friends are planning to show up on Sunday at the end-point of the poker run. It will be located at St. Bernard Software in Rancho Bernardo. The address is 16882 W Bernardo Drive. Directions: I-15 to Rancho Bernardo Drive. West one block, south one block. Click here for a map. If you get lost, find a motorcycle and follow it in. The bulk of the festivities at the ride's end should get going between 12:00 and 1:00p.
What a weekend! My father and I flew back to San Diego on Thursday. As we were driving in from the airport, my brother James called to announce he's a father for the second time around. Hailey Nicole Laszko weighed in at just under nine pounds. Ten fingers, ten toes, everything fine and as cute as someone related to us should be :>
The benefit poker run was held on Sunday. Don & Bobbie Presten, Rick Moyer, and the Wanderers Motorcycle Club came through for Steve and put on a great show. 150 riders participated on a 125 mile route through the foothills of eastern San Diego. The riders enjoyed a BBQ lunch at the Hideout and munchies at each card stop. The door prize raffle at the end of the ride was a hugh success. The large number of donations had almost every participant heading home with something.
Many of Steve's friends and all of our uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews showed up at the end of the ride. Our cousin Sheri had boxes of t-shirts made up to commemorate the event. We still have a few large and extra-large shirts available for those of you who weren't able to purchase them on Sunday. They are available for $5 each, shipping included. Call (760-728-4397) or email (rml@aramel.com) us to place an order. We can accept credit cards and checks.
We should have some pictures of the event posted here in the next few days. A video editor from the local NBC station was on hand to record the event so that Steve will be able to enjoy it as much as everyone else did.
Let's see ......... am I missing something ............ oh yeah, the total amount collected from the ride ............... better sit down for this one ................ $9,000! I thought Don was kidding when he called this morning with the news.
There really are no words to properly thank all of the folks who put the benefit together, participated in the ride, donated merchandise and services for the raffle, and were on hand to show their support and love for Steve. The best I can do is to reprint the speech my father, brother James and I gave as the event was winding down. Even that doesn't come close to how grateful we are and how much the benefit will improve the quality of Steve's life.
My father and I flew back to Denver Tuesday morning to find Steve hanging out in his chair watching LA Law reruns. While my father and I were attending the benefit in San Diego, our good friends Frank and Sue Snively drove up from Buena Vista, Colorado to spend the weekend with Steve. Even though we have a lot of faith in the staff at Craig, it set our minds that much more at ease to know they were keeping an eye on him. Frank and Sue represent the best of the racing and riding communities - folks who come together to aid a rider in need. Thanks guys!
While we were gone, the pneumo thorax condition cleared up and the chest tube was removed. Steve's lungs in general are back to about 99%. He's down to a 21% oxygen mix on his vent (normal mix is 20%). He's able to go two to three hours with the trach cuff down, allowing him to talk and work on coordinating his breathing efforts with that of the vent. Putting the cuff down is one step on the long road to weening Steve off the vent altogether. That will be a major accomplishment and will improve his quality of life tremendously. He's giving it his all to try and make that happen.
The operation for Steve's pressure sores has been moved to Friday afternoon. No problems with Steve, just a scheduling snafu with the surgeons. He's looking forward to having the surgery done, to relieve the pain, but not to the five weeks of recovery. He was able to remove the soft collar around his neck for the first time last night. It'll be a few days before we can toss it out the window for good, as he needs to strengthen his neck muscles more to support his head. And he's in bad need of a shave :>
Peter Howell alerted me to the fact that I goofed the listing of the email address to order benefit ride t-shirts in my post on Monday. It's fixed, but here it is again: rml@aramel.com Thanks Pete!
Steve had surgery to take care of his pressure sores last night from 5:00 to 9:00. It was late by the time he made it back to his room, so we didn't get to talk directly to the plastic surgeon, but according to the post-op report, everything went well. I'm sure we'll see him this weekend and I'll post more info as I get it. Our biggest concern was the affect the anesthesia would have on his lungs. His last surgery was direct contributor to a collapsed lung and pneumonia. All the magic Dr. Pete worked to restore his lungs to normal function seems to have paid off. His lungs are clear and working great.
Steve won't let me post any pictures and the chances of anyone seeing the results of the surgery on his bum are pretty slim, so you'll just have to take my word for this: Dr. Snively is the Michelangelo of plastic surgery. He did an amazing job. The surgery was probably the easiest part of this next phase in Steve's recovery. He has to spend the next five weeks pretty much flat on his back to allow the surgery to heal properly. I'm open for entertainment ideas to help him pass the time.
Steve is still doing well after the surgery on Friday. It took a couple of days to develop, but his lungs did take a little 'hit' from the anesthesia. It is very mild compared to the last time. His lungs hardened up a little, affecting thier ability to absorb oxygen, but they are clear and there's no sign of pheumonia. Like I've said before, Dr. Pete really knows his stuff and he'll have Steve's lungs back to 100% in no time.
We had a bit of excitement around here late last night. I was just crawling into bed when I heard what sounded like an explosion outside and all the power went out. I looked out the window and all the lights at the hospital were out too. Damn. I grabbed my pants and as I was heading out the door a HUGE lightning bolt hit the transformer across the street. Wow. I ran across the street to the hospital and up the stairs to Steve's room. He was snoozing like nothing happened. As far as he was concerned, nothing had. All the critical equipment, like his ventilator, are on switched circuits to emergency generators. I guess they're used to that up here. As soon as the lights went out the staff hit all the rooms with vent-dependent patients to make sure everything was OK. It was.
I paid a visit to the Kinkos down the street and scanned some photos from the benefit ride. Check them out by clicking here.
Steve's lungs continue to improve on a daily basis. Like before, the docs monitor the percentage of oxygen in his bloodstream as they lower the percentage of pure oxygen mixed in with regular room air. Since last week he's gone from a 50% mix of oxygen to 35% and from 17 breaths-per-minute to 14. His lungs remain clear with no sign of pneumonia.
Also on the lung front: Steve's #1 goal while he's at Craig is to be able to breath on his own. While no one can guarantee it one way or the other, he is making progress. One way they test for his ability to breath is to remove the vent line from his trach and measure his ability to move air out of his lungs. When Steve first arrived at Craig, he moved 0 (zero) air. Three weeks ago that changed to 140 (cc's, ml's, I dunno - ml's sounds good). It was measured again on Sunday and he was up to 300ml. The target volume they're looking for is 1000ml.
Cultures from the bone scrappings taken during the surgery revealed some bacterial infection deep within the wound on his tailbone. It would have been surprising not to have found something in there. Steve's on a 21-day dosage of an antibiotic specifically to treat the bacteria. His temperature remains normal, so there's no reason to think that the antibiotic won't take care of the infection.
Steve's buddy Gabe Novoa flew out to visit over the weekend. Gabe hadn't seen Steve since he left San Diego and one of the first things out of his mouth when he arrived was 'WOW, he really looks good'. It's tough from our perspective to see the overall changes in Steve's condition when we're there everyday. Thinking back to Steve's situation before he came to Denver, I have to agree - he really does look good.
As they say in Denver, if you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes. We got a good dose of that over the weekend. On Thursday it got up into the low 80's. It started turning cold on Friday, Saturday night it started snowing and we woke up to a nice dusting on Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon the snow was gone, but it was still cold. Yesterday it got into the 70's and is supposed to stay that way for the rest of the week.
We had a meeting on Tuesday with the docs and staff that take care of Steve. The biggest news is we may be home the week after Christmas! I think the docs thought it would take longer than it has to address Steve's health issues. This is by no means an absolute date, though. The discharge dates for most of the patients at Craig move around frequently, but this is their best guess right now.
It's been almost three weeks since the pressure sore surgery and Steve is still doing well. Two more weeks of bed-rest and he'll be ready to get going with rehab again. His lungs are now back to normal (20% oxygen mixed with room air on the ventilator, 12 breaths per minute) and the repair work is healing nicely. He experiences bouts of severe head pain from time to time, though. As I understand it, the level of his spinal injury (C2 / C3) aggravates a zone of nerves that run through the back of his head - coincidentally in the same area as the pressure sore. Doses of morphine and / or demerol help ease the pain.
The plan to put Steve on a program to wean off the vent is still up in the air. He blew 420ml on the 'breath-o-meter' this week (up from 300ml last week). He's been working on a technique we call 'frog breathing'. He's able to increase his intake of air (off the vent) by gulping or swallowing 'chunks' of air into his lungs. Besides being a safety net should his vent malfunction, frog breathing may stimulate his diaphram back into action - a definite must for getting off the vent.
The weather here is still mighty confused. All of last week through this Tuesday it was nice and sunny and in the 70's and 80's. It started getting colder last night, and drizzling rain today. Snow and icey-rain (what the hell is that) is forecast for tomorrow followed by sunshine and 70's again this weekend.
No news is good news, as they say, and that's pretty much what it's been since the last update. Yesterday marked the end of the second month since Steve's arrival at Craig and he's having more good days now than bad ones. Medically, he's in pretty good shape. His lungs are clear and working fine and the repair work on his pressure sores is healing well. He's cracking wise with everyone and teasing the hell out of the nurses. Yep, he's doing much better.
An long-time friend of Steve's, Wendy Wilcoxen, left for home (Boston) yesterday after spending a week here. We hadn't seen Wendy since Steve broke his ankle at Loudon last year. It was wicked terrific having her here and we already miss her. She works in the health care field, so she knows the ropes and was a tremendous help to all of us this past week.
Craig lost one of it's best last week. Steve's primary nurse, Megan Higbe, left for South Carolina. Her husband recieved a job offer he couldn't refuse, so their family headed east. Megan is a take-charge, jump-in-with-both-hands-and-feet kind of person. She really made a difference to a lot of patients here and will be sorely missed.
There's been a lot of excitement around Craig the past few days. Melissa Holley, a new patient, is the first recipient of autologous macrophage therapy. A concoction of her white blood cells, skin tissue and bone marrow was injected into her spinal cord after an auto accident left her a paraplegic. This therapy has only been approved for trials on laboratory animals in the U.S., so Melissa was flown to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel for the procedure. Her injury, like Steve's, is considered incomplete. Two vertebrae in the middle of her back were crushed, the spinal cord bruised but not severed. Before leaving for Israel she had no sensation in her legs. Arriving at Craig on Friday, Melissa has recovered some feeling and sensations of pain in her legs and toes.
This is a BIG DEAL! If her therapy proves successful, it could usher in a whole new era in treating spinal cord injuries. Everyone at Craig is holding their breaths and crossing their fingers, hoping and praying for the best. If you want to read more about Melissa, check out the article in yesterday's Denver Post at www.denverpost.com/news/news1014p.htm.
Free at last! The staples came out of Steve's bum yesterday and we got him up in his wheelchair for a little while. It was a short test to see how the repair work would handle the stress of bending his legs and sitting up. Everything looked just fine. After laying flat on his back for almost five weeks, it will take a while for his body to get used to sitting up again. Yesterday was for fifteen minutes, today I think the plan is two half-hour sessions. By the end of next week, he'll probably spend more time in his chair than in bed. He's off a full-time IV, so with the ventilator packed under the chair, he'll be completely mobile and able to roam around the hospital and catch some rays outside.
Whoa ..... it's been a few days since I posted an update. Let's see what's been going on .........
Steve's gone from fifteen minutes at a sitting in his wheelchair last week to seven hours yesterday. Today is the last 'timed' session, for eight hours, then he's pretty much on his own schedule. Except for some squirrely chairs, everything has been just fine. His own, custom chair will be here in about four weeks, so he's been using loaners from Craig's corral. The first power chair lasted two days before breaking a support bracket (hitting a few walls probably didn't help). The second chair has held up all week, but the controls are a bit screwy. Gabe Novoa is out this weekend - he and I spent a couple of hours fine-tuning the controls (and a little rewiring, more power, uh uh uh), but it still requires some attention to keep it from bouncing off the walls. Steve will get a third loaner chair tomorrow, of the same type that his custom chair is. That one is tuned by a hand-held programmer - and of course, we ordered one to play with. Steve will be doing wheelies and burn-outs before next week is out. He's already accepting challenges to race other patients in their chairs :>
Steve's seen the last of his IV meds and antibiotics as of Wednesday. He still has a tap in his arm for the pain killers, but otherwise, the IV tree is a thing of the past. He's been eating like a horse, gaining six pounds, so the G/J feeding tube was pulled out. Cindy with Speech Therapy has been working with his off-the-vent breathing exercises and found a couple of tricks to improve his capacity. Steve still has a long, hard road to travel to get off the vent, but he's making progress and giving it his best efforts.
The last piece of news this week actually happened on September 24th at Willow Springs International Raceway. Every September, the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club presents the Keith Barnes Memorial Open Superbike Race. Keith was a racer with the WSMC who lost his life in a racing crash in 1995. The Open Superbike Race has been a vehicle to raise funds to benefit injured racers. This year, Steve and the daughter of LeAnn Machado, who was killed in a racing accident earlier this year, were the intended recipients of the Memorial funds. In a gracious act of generosity, LeAnn's family donated their share of the proceeds to Steve. A whopping $2400 was raised this year to assist Steve in his rehab process. Click here for a list of the contributors and a copy of the words that were read during that weekend's rider's meeting. Our thanks go out to Kenny Kopecky and everyone in the WSMC.
Steve just finished his first week of the complete rehab program. The serious health issues he faced when he first arrived at Craig three months ago are now mostly behind him. Now he can start concentrating on regaining strength and flexibility, waking up the muscles that have been mostly dormant since May 6th. Other than time off to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, his daily schedule is full - occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy (exercises to help him breath on his own), psychological therapy and educational classes. He wakes up each morning ready to tackle the day's sessions and is exhausted by the time he hits the sack at night.
All work and no play can make Jack a very dull boy. Craig also has a recreational therapy department to give patients a break from the day-to-day rehab program. Steve had his first 'outing' this past Tuesday night. Claire from recreation, Lonnie from respiratory therapy and I put Steve in a van and escorted him to a piano bar in Denver for dinner. It was nice to get out. Other than flying from one hospital to another, Steve hadn't been out in the 'world' for six months. We all enjoyed the evening.
On Wednesday we had our third family conference with the primary staff from each department charged with Steve's rehab.Gretchen Bashaw, the case worker from the insurance company, flew out for the meeting. We discussed Steve's progress thus far, planned his rehab schedule, and set a discharge date of January 9th.
Wednesday also saw Steve get up in a standing frame for the first time. The frame looks like a medieval torture device, but it's pretty slick. By supporting the back, butt, knees and chest, it allows Steve to stand upright. Good for the bones, lungs and attitude.
Steve's customized power wheelchair showed up on Thursday. We tried to get it in Aramel Racing team colors of red, white and black, but had to settle for red. That's OK, though - Dave sent up some number plates and sponsor decals to dress it up. Setting up a race bike is a helluva lot easier than customizing the settings on the chair. I'm still looking for ways to set lean angle and launch speed, but I'll get that figured out. The motor is a little weak in the mid-range, so I need to look for a better pipe, maybe a new jet kit. The brakes aren't too bad, but stainless lines and sintered pads couldn't hurt. The suspension definitely needs revalving and maybe lighter springs. The rake and trail of the front casters are too pedestrian and the swingarm angle needs some adjustment to get the rear wheels to hook up and stop sliding so much :>
Gobble, gobble, gobble. Thanksgiving in the Rockies is now a memory and it's time for an update. It's been pretty cold up here, at least for us thin-blooded born-and-raised California boys, but Thanksgiving day was warm enough to enjoy some turkey under the winter sun. The Craig staff put on a nice spread, including deep-fried Italian and Cajun turkey, along with oven-baked and barbequed varieties. Steve and our father tried the exotic varieties while I stuck with the traditional offerings. We've made a lot of friends here among the patients, their families, and the staff, so we had a lot of folks around to enjoy the day with. We missed not being with our family and friends from back home, but all-in-all, it was a good day.
Steve continues to make slow, but steady progress in the rehab program. His neck muscles are getting stronger every day, which let's him control his environment more through the "puff 'n stuff" switch. He's getting pretty good at driving the chair - he'll be ready to race for pink slips soon :> Everyone at the hospital got a kick out of the number plates and decals, but they assume he is a race car driver. I think I'll have to put a 'Roadracers do it on two wheels' sign on the back of the chair.
Last week we started playing with all the adaptive technology equipment that Steve will be able to take advantage of to make life easier for him. Voice activated computers, complete with interfaces to control lights, appliances, doors, phones, etc., were the most impressive. Mouth-sticks (aluminum tubes with a mouth piece on one end, pointers and pen attachments on the other) will help him turn pages in a book, dial a phone and write letters. The learning curve on all this equipment is a little steep, but with practice it will go a long way towards helping him be more independent.
The big news, over the past few weeks, is his continued improvement breathing off the ventilator. Using only the frog-breathing technique and his shoulders, he was able to capture enough air in his lungs to blow out 2.5 liters of air! Even Dr. Pete was impressed with that. Cindy from speech therapy came up with an adapter that provides a direct flow of oxygen into his trach tube. Off the vent, Steve is able to maintain a high level of blood-oxygen saturation for as long as he wants. Frog breathing is a lot of work, so he's only up to about 10 minutes so far. The obvious situation for the adapter is during a malfunction of his ventilator. The side benefit of this is the possiblility that he will be able to "wake up" his diaphram and perhaps be able to breath on his own.
Support for Steve from friends, family and the racing community continues to be the foundation of his determination to work hard at the rehab process. The calls, emails, cards and letters he receives every day really mean a lot to him. He got a couple of shots in the arm recently when he received posters from Doug Chandler and Eric Bostrom of the factory Kawasaki squad. Thanksgiving morning got off to a great start with a call from Scott Parker (nine-time AMA Grand National Champion), who was in the area doing publicity stuff for the local Harley dealer.
Steve is still going strong with his rehab program. We just finished a three-week course called Re-Entry, which prepares a patient for life back out in the 'real world', and a six-week course called Tetra Topics, which covers the health, medical, and technical issues associated with spinal cord injuries. The staff did an excellent job putting on the classes and gave us a firm foundation to build upon once Steve heads back home.
Craig Hospital put on their annual Christmas dinner buffet this past Friday. Looking over the menu - Prime rib, ham, shrimp cocktail and all the traditional side dishes - I was a little worried about how the food would turn out. This is a hospital, afterall, and although most days the food in the cafeteria is OK, some days everyone orders out. My worries were for naught, though, it was as good a meal as you would expect at a nice restaurant.
We took a few breaks from the rehab grind over the last two weeks. First was a trip to a local wildlife conservatory to observe some of the indigenous bird population - Hoot Hoot Hooters. Gotta love them owls. Next was a trip to the mall to: A) tackle some Christmas shopping, B) buy some Craftsman tools to work on the hot-rod wheelchair, or C) see who could knock down the most floor displays at Sears. (multiple choice, guys) .......... tools, of course! Yesterday the entire Broncos cheerleading squad dropped by the hospital to the raucous enjoyment of about forty guys who've been cooped up in the hospital way too long. Nobody was arrested, but you could hear the occasional sound of a wife / girlfriend smacking a patient upside the head.
Homeward bound (at least two of us, anyway)! My father and I packed up and started driving back to California yesterday. We will arrive home sometime tonight and spend the next two days getting Steve's apartment ready for his return on Tuesday.
Leaving Craig Hospital and the Denver area is a bittersweet experience for all of us. Sweet, because we're heading back to the 'real world', back home to friends and family, back to a place where Steve can begin rebuilding his life and continue the process of recovery started at Craig. Bitter, because we've been surrounded these last five months by some of the best people we've ever known: Some of us in the same boat - families trying to understand and work through tragically life-altering injuries - the Stoop Group of '00 (you know who you are). We thank you for those 'therapy sessions' where we cried, laughed, bitched and dreamed of better things to come. Steve's fellow patients and partners in crime - Ryan, Steve (desert racing spoad), Josh, Krissy, Tony, Mike (Semper Fi), Chris (Mr. Do Do Brown), Paul, Kris, Brad and all the others whose paths we crossed and to whom we say hang in there and may every day be a good day.
And the people of Craig Hospital. Steve arrived at Craig on August 15th with serious health problems, a body attrophied from months in intensive care, and the three of us more than a little dazed, confused, and facing an uncertain future. Steve is returning home much more sound of mind, body and spirit. We have a clearer picture of what the future holds, confidence in Steve's ability to fight for recovering everything he can, and optimism for the possibilities. The world-class people of Craig have made all of this possible. These are people not in search of a paycheck, because you couldn't pay them enough for what they do. They work at Craig because it's a place of caring, a place where they can make a difference in the lives of others, a place where miracles occur. These folks are what makes Craig what it is. To them, the Laszko family says thank you. Thank you for the compassion, respect, concern and hard work. You have given Steve the tools he will need to get on with his life and given the rest of our family the insight and skills to help him along the way. For that, we will be forever grateful and forever in your debt.
Gotta run - the road is calling ........ I'll post another update once Steve's back in town and settled in.