We have been busy bees the last few months... I haven't done a great job updating you guys on how my husband is doing, so I thought I'd share a quick (er... or not... I'm longwinded) update!
He has his full-time, fancy new prosthesis with hydraulics and microprocessors and all kinds of cool stuff. He is walking very well, still with a cane, but has very good form. This is totally awesome because, I think I've mentioned, we were told in the hospital that he would not be able to walk! He is really doing well. We go a few places without his chair, now, like to restaurants or some appointments. We also recently took a shopping trip to Walmart without his chair, and he walked for over an hour straight! He was pouring sweat at the end, but he did a great job.
He was cleared to drive, woohoo!, with two pieces of adaptive equipment - steering knob and turn signal extender. He drives himself to therapy now, and it's a joy to see how much he loves driving alone! (And I can't stand his driving so it's a win win for me too
hehe)
There has been no change to his arm - still no feeling and no movement. BUT! This Thursday (a week from today) he will have surgery to transfer some donor nerve into his bicep, which if successful may restore his ability to bend his elbow! This would be a HUGE improvement! They will also attempt to repair any of the damaged nerves as best they can, if those grow back successfully he may have some sensation returned to his arm. The prognosis for anything returning to his wrist, hand, and fingers is next to nothing, unfortunately. Although... he has proved prognoses wrong at pretty much every step of the way so far, so we'll see! The only bad thing about this surgery is that you don't know if it's successful for weeks or months. They said that wherever he is in two years, that will be what he gets back for good. So it could be months without seeing any results, and it will be hard to not know if that's because it didn't work, or if it's just we need to wait longer for the nerves to grow. GRR!
In September, the person who hit him was convicted of reckless driving and sentenced to a year in jail with no time suspended. The person has since appealed but we are confident it will be upheld. This was a difficult process for my husband, but emotionally rewarding.
We're both in school, and I'm going full-time. It's a wonderful outlet for me. It brings some of its own stress, but it's a good stress that I feel mostly in control of. And it lets us both have alone time without me feeling selfish. Plus, the feeling of working towards my goal that I had before the accident, and the sense of accomplishment I get from earning good grades, have both really helped me cope with life lately!
We have a new niece and nephew - my two brothers each had a baby within 2.5 weeks of one another! We're childfree ourselves, but we LOVE our new babies and it's been a lot of fun to have other, more positive kinds of "drama" in our lives!
And, we finally got our ducks in a row with everything and will be having the reception/celebration party for our wedding this Saturday!
Overall, things are good. His independence is skyrocketing, which is awesome. But the more emotional traumas are beginning to surface, and after we get through the surgery next week, we will both be in counseling individually as well as together. We're doing fine, it's not a "do we want to stay married" kind of counseling, just trying to learn to cope with the changes as well as all the stuff that goes on in a marriage even without severe injuries. There's nothing in our life that wasn't changed when he got hurt, and it's just a lot to deal with. But considering where we were this spring and summer... we're doing pretty damn awesome.
