Act Your Injury!

Friday, April 23

8:00 pm

When my exceptionally spry parents were well into their 80s, their friend Juli took them to an Olympics event in Atlanta where they lived. Because decent parking was at a premium, Juli parked in a handicapped/preferred parking spot, figuring having two people in their 80s should cut it. As a security guard approached the car to check their eligibility, Juli turned to my parents and hissed, “Act your age!”

This story has become family legend, so when I told my daughters tonight that I’m doing so well that insurance wants to kick me out of SAI, Lauren hissed at me, “Act your injury!” (Un)fortunately, it seems it’s a little late for that!

Let me back up a bit. On Wednesday, I got my second COVID vaccine shot. As mentioned, I also developed an infection from Cathy this week. Between the shot and the infection, yesterday (Thursday) I was running a temperature of about 101, which made therapy sessions a bit difficult for me that day. My therapists did not care.

Despite all these impediments, I still worked pretty hard. I did a lot of walking with just a passive belt on, which works like a belay in that it only catches you if you fall. I probably would have fallen a couple times, if Brian hadn’t been right behind me to help me keep my balance.

It’s gotten to the point now that pretty much every day is the same kind of routine: therapy of different kinds, back-to-back, some more “fun” than others. I did get to play bocce yesterday again during recreational therapy. Jasmine beat me, but it was still a lot of fun, and Brian took pity on me and let me sit in between rounds. Otherwise, yesterday was hard in the usual way.

This morning, I felt much better than yesterday. As I have progressed, one of the nicest things is that I can finally take care of my own itch. It’s another way to mark my improvement—for example, the other day I was able to scratch the back of my head for the first time! As my dad often said, I scratches where I itches, no matter where I is or where I itches. (Dear reader, Christine is groaning along with you.)

The day started with my alternate occupational therapist, Aaron, which was good because he showed me all the exercises that I’ll have to do with the devices I will take home with me to do therapy after I leave SAI. After OT, I spent half an hour on the stim hand bike, had lunch, and then had PT with Brian. In the CORE gym, Brian put me in the harness (only offloading 15 pounds), and we did laps around the gym, including the four steps up, and then four steps back down. He also put some “speed bumps” in my path, maybe three inches high, which I had to step over. I don’t think I could have done that two days ago, but I did okay with it today. In total, I walked more than three thousand steps in just over 30 minutes.

Brian then brought me back to my room, where he tested me on how well I could safely get myself where I need to go around my room and bathroom. My status has been updated to “modified independent,” which means I’m allowed to do things like transfer from my bed to my wheelchair on my own. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is huge to me. Now, in the morning, I can get up, go get my clothes myself, and get back in bed and put them on. Or, if I have a 45-minute break in between appointments, I can transfer myself to my bed instead of waiting uncomfortably in my chair the entire time.

Brian went over what I need to do to safely transfer from the bed to the chair, from the chair to the toilet, from the chair to the shower, and so on. We practiced on a 36-inch-high bed, like my bed at home. He seems perfectly comfortable with me getting in and out of that bed on my own (with the help of a step), but nobody else seems comfortable with it. (Christine can confirm that no one else is comfortable with this. That bed is really high!)

A little before three this afternoon, the day fell apart. Dr. Miller came in and told me that my insurance company had called him at 2:30 and told him that they had decided I no longer required inpatient care. So I was to be discharged not next Friday, April 30, as we had been planning for, but Saturday, April 24—tomorrow morning. Dr. Miller strongly disagreed with the decision and told me he had already filed an appeal with the insurance company and was waiting to hear back from them soon.

Things have been chaotic here since then, but SAI has remained on my side. They felt confident they could keep me until Monday because they had not had much of a chance to file their appeal on my behalf before the weekend, so they promised me they would not bill me for the cost of my stay until Monday if insurance denied coverage.

Later this evening (after hours of mild panic on the part of many concerned), insurance did finally call back and agreed to an early Tuesday discharge instead. Not as good as next Friday—still three days short of what we would have liked—but I’m okay with it. Just as important, it gives Linda more of a chance to prepare for my homecoming. We don’t have most of the equipment we need yet (including a ramp into the house and a wheelchair), and she has not yet been trained on my care, so the extra time is crucial.

The abruptness of the decision is difficult to understand, but the reason insurance is kicking me out is because my progress has been so rapid; insurance basically decided that whatever care and rehab I’m getting at SAI at this point I could get on an outpatient basis instead. I regularly undergo strength tests of all my limbs rated 1­­–5, and in my last test I earned a 5 on all except one. There is still a long rehabilitation road ahead, but I’m simply doing too well for inpatient care, apparently!