Yesterday was a good day for Jake. He was really alert in the morning and in good spirits. He napped until lunchtime and then stayed alert for an hour or so then back to napping. He was up again for about four hours during which we all played a lively game of Phase 10. He napped until dinner time and then was up chatting with us until we left at about 8:30 p.m.
A physical therapist came in yesterday and worked with Jake. Jake did very well and accomplished all (and more) that the therapist requested. He's got great movement in his right foot and leg. His upper body strength is very good. After some extensive physical therapy, they put in him a wheelchair. Unfortunately, his right leg started feeling like it was burning. It got worse and worse until he couldn't take it any longer and they moved him back into the bed. Something about sitting up seems to put pressure on nerves or muscles that make his right leg feel very painful. They had him in a wheelchair the day before and his right leg did the same thing. We hope this will subside soon.
He talked to Traci, Gene, Aiden and Mae. It was nice for him to be able to talk to people in the outside world.
They took the drains out of his right leg. It was the first time we saw his incisions on this leg. There's one on the front of his knee extending from above the knee cap to about six or eight inches below the knee cap. This is the incision used to insert the metal plate. The other incision is on the back righthand side of his leg. It starts about five inches below the knee and extends above his knee several inches. It appears that this is where the bone penetrated his leg. Both incisions look good and have no infection.
We believe they will operate on his left leg on Wednesday, but are not certain. They told us last week that they would be operating on the left leg on wed. We've had no update on the next operations since last week so we are just guessing it is still scheduled for wed.
We came in the morning to find that they'd unwrapped his right leg and had taken the "cast" off. It isn't a cast, but some type of brace with velcro that acts much like a cast.
Mom, Missy and I venutured outside the hospital for lunch yesterday. The medical center is, unfortunately, right on the edge of a really bad part of town. The hospital and the town itself seemed rather dead so we thought it would be safe to head into the outside world to forage for food - we were so tired of hospital cafeteria food that we hoped to find something different. We hadn't made it a block when a young man started talking rude to us. He followed us another half block. We didn't even realize he was following us. We went into a small pizza/sub shop and ordered something to eat. The young man started pounding on the window outside the shop and yelling at missy and mom through the glass. He then came in and started yelling at them. It was just stupid stuff like cussing and calling them names - nothing specific. He then said he was going to pick up a chair and hit them over the head.
I was standing at a counter ordering food and was keeping my eye on the situation. He was only about three feet away from me. He noticed me watching him and decided he didn't like that so he came up to my face and started cussing and yelling at me. He said "you don't know me..." and stuff like he'd take me out. I could feel his intense anger and hatred. I could also tell he was on some kind of drug. I didn't want to get into an altercation so I thought, "what do I do now?" I had the thought to just turn away from him so I looked at him and said, "you're right, I don't know you." Then I turned away from him and looked back across the counter towards the kitchen area. He just turned and walked out mumbling under his breath. Whew! Close call. I told the story to one of the staff at the hospital who seemed very surprised. He said that nothing like that would happen during weekdays because there's too many people wandering around the streets. I guess we shouldn't venture out on a quiet day.
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