Better every day

Chukka was a little tired on Friday after the transfer to rehab, but otherwise she is looking and doing better every day. She is already able to steer the wheelchair, even while backing up, and can turn over on her stomach and also can sit up.

She has phantom pain, or more like phantom sensation, and she can feel exactly where her virtual feet are. She can even put them inside each other! But when they are like that, she can only feel one at a time. It can be either one, and they switch back and forth, she says, like "vases faces". Supposedly the sensation will be helped by the desensitization process and also when she can wear prostheses.

She got a call from John Callahan's publicist, who saw the blog and is sending her a free autographed copy of his book. That's pretty cool.

As for me, I'm finally letting go a little. I talked to the hospital rehab social worker yesterday -- she's the person I've been wanting for the past two months! It's her job to negotiate insurance, keep track of Chukka's progress, help plan for coming home, etc. etc. It's really hard to do without it! When Chukka got to John Muir and got started on rehab, she told me "That's why they sent me to John Muir, because they have a really good rehab program." I thought, wait a minute -- "they" is me. But of course the hospital wouldn't imagine that all we got told in Austria is, "Can you find a hospital in the US that takes her insurance?" Fortunately one of the people who takes horseback riding lessons the same place I do is an ER doctor, so he made some suggestions and put me in touch with the Trauma Coordinator at John Muir. And everyone else I asked agreed it was an excellent facility.

But now there's someone else to help, who knows what she is doing and I can start to relax (a little). You don't know how much weight you're carrying until you start to put it down.