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June 10, 2013
Apr 19 Email: Inpatient Rehab
I was discharged to a rehab facility on April 18, 2013. The next day, I put this email together.
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:17:59 -0400
From: Jon Nathan
Subject: Re: Neurological issues
Hello again everybody. I cannot continue to thank you enough for
your support and concern and kind words throughout my ordeal.
Last night I was discharged from my surgical hospital to a
rehabilitation facility. I am about to go through occupational
therapy and physical therapy. I do not know how long I will be here
yet, but hope to know more after my two sessions today. I will be
focusing on regaining fine motor skills such as dressing, grooming
and washing myself as well as gross motor skills such as walking
unattended.
I have been progressing every day, and sensation is slowly returning
to the right side of my body slowly. My neck pain is gradually
lessening, and I hope it continues to get better. I'm off of all
intravenous drugs, and everything is by mouth except an occasional
injection or blood draw. One of the strange things that I forgot
to mention yesterday was that I was on a PICC. This is an acronym
for peripherally inserted central catheter , which means that they
pumped drugs more or less directly into my heart. I am trying to
narrow down my medications to the drugs that work in the quantities
and schedule that is helpful.
I am once again in a private room, which is helpful for my sanity.
I do miss my old roommate, but only a little bit. I am sure his
new roommate will keep him company.
I realize that my medical jargon is sometimes dry and boring, but
it is helpful to me to write it out. I'll try to share more of my
feelings and sensations though. Right now, my right hand feels
like the claw in the vending machine at an arcade. I feel like I
could reach in and grab a stuffed teddy bear and drop it in the
return slot. It does not completely feel like it is my own limb.
Proprioception of my feet and hands are slowly returning. I can
better sense where they are without looking at them, which is good
because I really can't look at them. My neckbrace prevents me from
turning or raising or lowering my head. My feet feel like bricks
attached to my ankles. This is actually an improvement over the
cinderblocks they were earlier in the week. I'm still waiting for
results from the neuropathologist.
Waking up in the morning produces a confusing sensation. The
combination of the drugs and the fitful sleep (they wake me up
multiple times a night to perform tests or draw blood or give me
medications) make me forget where I am when I actually do wake up.
It takes me a minute to realize where I am and why I am dysfunctional.
This feeling has been lessening over the last few days, and I hope
that continues.
Thank you one more time for your offers of assistance and visitation.
If anyone local would like to visit me on Sunday, that would be
wonderful. There's no physical therapy scheduled for Sundays, so I
will be very bored. Please coordinate anything like that with Julia.
I am open to receiving gifts of food as well. The food here is not
awful, but it is not great. One of the side effects of the steroids
is that it raises my blood sugar, so unfortunately I'm not able to
accept too many sweets, or else I need to take insulin, which I
would like to avoid.
Now that I've figured out how to efficiently dictate and edit emails
I will try to send updates every day. Thank you all again and again
for your support.
-Jon
Posted by jon at June 10, 2013 1:01 AM