TIRR, 7-Up & Ike

Yesterday, I went to visit the facilities at TIRR, which is the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research. This is a place I remember seeing commercials for during the late night news when I was a kid, so knowing how old I am, that's a while ago.

The facility is amazing, they have patients with all sorts of neurological issues, from brain injuries and strokes to spinal chord injuries to neuro illnesses. The patients are at all levels of functioning and their goal is to lead the patient to the greatest level of independence possible, regardless of what that is. They will keep him busy from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., so my "vacation" is over, I'll be back to work at least most time until he's out. Then we'll figure out what to do, which will depend entirely on how he does. I feel confident he's going to do great, he's very self motivated, and if he could just get a 7-up he'd be a happy man.

Speaking of the 7-Up, Pete wants one, badly. In fact, he's a little fixated on it. He told his mom and dad yesterday that I wouldn't give him anything to drink. For the record, I wasn't allowed to, he'd had a procedure in the morning and I couldn't sit him up! For the record also, he's not allowed to have anything that thin to drink just yet. I also asked him, in hurricane preparation, if he'd tacked down Dusty's dog house, and he said, yes, with a Styrofoam cup. So, he was pretty worthless in the hurricane preparation yesterday. But he was very cute, and he is progressing on his speech and independence. He's going to do great.

Speaking of Ike, well, it's caused some delays. He would have been transferred to TIRR this afternoon, but obviously, they're not doing any transferring today except on an emergency basis. So, it will be early next week. Pete is in the safest place possible. The hospital is designed to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane, the hospital staff has a well hewn system for hurricanes and they have resolved the serious problems the system encountered during Tropical Storm Allison. There will be no more hand bagging intubated patients while carrying them down the stairs to evacuate them to other hospitals. The staff themselves are as cool as cucumbers, they have been preparing for this for some time. Like I said, Pete is very safe. They would have let me stay with him, but not Anna so I wasn't going to do that. They would probably have let me have Anna, but she would have been awful in a storm, I think it's better that she's here with me.

Keep one of the other patients in your prayers too, she had a baby last week, and a stroke on Monday. There's a note on her door saying that nobody is to mention the hurricane to her because she's so upset.

More later--and I've lost power 3 times tonight, but not recently, and I'm hopeful I'll be ok tonight.