Friday July 10

Today marks yet another milestone in John's journey. He moved from Triumph Hospital to TIRR and it felt a bit like the first day of school. All new surroundings and people. John did great on the ride and Holly rode in the back of the ambulance with him to soothe him if necessary. He was very curious and wanting to touch everything inside of the ambulance and talking a lot on the way. It is important to point out that this facility has a lot of longer term patients many of whom stay at least 4-6 weeks and some even longer. There are large photographs along the first floor hallway of prior patients. This is a particularly moving area because their individual stories are next to their photographs and each of them is an extreme example of worst case scenario turned good. Family members at this facility are friendly and several came up to us to meet us and John and tell us about themselves. This is a unique group of people who have that knowing look in their eyes that comes from worry, lack of sleep and the gift of empathic listening. The truth is, when they say they know what Holly is going through, they really do. They are also wives, husbands and family members of a person who has been through a traumatic event and by the time they arrive at this facility, some time has passed and they seem obligated to reach out a hand and help those of us newbies. I'm quite sure that at some point we will do the same and we will be welcoming and reassuring others who arrive on the first day and exchange numbers and names and situations...there are few barriers in regards to asking us about John here, no whispers and no embarrassment because they have a situation which rivals ours and there is a sense of pride in helping each other.

Initially, John will be in a single room. He had a bacterial infection previously and although he has received antibiotics and seems to be past an infection , physicians want to keep him isolated from other patients and err on the side of caution. Once infection is ruled out, which should be sometime this weekend, he will be moved into a normal room. There are 2 or 4 patients per room and although this seems like a lot, patients are rarely in the rooms except to sleep. John will be in some sort of therapy for most of each day and will have little time in his room. There are several common areas on the floors and there is the feeling that the walls speak of success and of the hardships of past and present patients. So far we have met several folks who have loved ones who have been involved in serious car wrecks or had strokes and it is obvious that John is exactly where he needs to be right now and hearing how much their loved one has been helped only reiterates the belief that the staff here can do the same for John. We felt reassured by the staff in that they are very used to patients who are like John or much worse in terms of prognosis. Tomorrow, John will be meeting his therapists and I will be taking the morning shift to give Holly some much needed respite and allow her to start preparing for her (and John's) new schedule.