YIPPEE!!! Jake is off his PCA and is controlling his pain with the oral meds!! :) They disconnected him from the PCA this morning so that he could come over to the Mologne House to do his safety assessment. The Mologne House is a hotel on the Walter Reed Campus. This is where Jake and I will be living during a portion of his out-patient stay here.
The safety assessment allows Jake and his team of specialists and opportunity to review the new facility to ensure it will meet his needs. The OT and PT therapists went with us--they are the ones who do the assessment. They made sure that Jake could transfer from the wheelchair to the bed, wheelchair to the toilet, toilet to the shower, open the door to his room by himself, and manuever around the room easily. The Malogne House is a short walk from the hospital and Jake was able to push himself all the way over except for one hill. The room is a nice one--two double beds, two dressers, a comfy chair, a desk and chair, a cabinet with a mini frig and microwave--just about everything you would need to live here for a while. The bathroom is very large to accomodate wheelchairs. Jake was very excited to be over here and is hoping for a 24 hour pass tomorrow so that he can stay the night with us to do a "trial" run away from the hospital. :)
The rest of the day was an easy going one and Jake was very happy and talkative. We believe that this has been his best day yet. It's so wonderful to see him like this. :) While Mike and I were gone to take care of some paper work, Matt came in to work on Jake's legs one more time. When Jake is discharged on Monday (which is still the plan), he will no longer have Matt as his PT therapist or Jacqui as his OT therapist. :( That is soooo sad. We have come to love these two wonderful people. Before Matt left, we got pictures of him and Jake together. We will post the pictures later after I get some of him and Jacqui tomorrow.
We received a phone call from Jake's social worker (every soldier here has a social worker) requesting us to move over to Jake's room at the Mologne House so that it will stay his until Monday. The rooms here fill up fast due to the overcrowding at the hospital. It's sad to have both the hospital and this hotel so packed--because that means so many of our brave soldiers are being seriously wounded. :( Mike and I left Jake immediately, went back to our hotel, packed up everything, and moved to Mologne. We got checked in, dropped our bags and went back to visit with Jake.
When we arrived in his room, he wasn't there. His wheelchair was gone and he signed out at the ward desk when he left. We thought he might of been in the courtyard, but he wasn't. We checked all around the ward but couldn't find him. Even the nurses didn't know where he went. All patients have to sign out at the nurses desk writing down when they left, where they were going, and when they get back they have to sign back in. All he wrote for where he was going was "walking around". So, we had no idea where he was. The one thought that kept coming to Mike and I was that maybe he was visiting a friend. We decided to just wait in his room for him. After 1 1/2 hours, he finally strolled in with his Lieutenant from Afghanistan. :) His Lieutenant was injured very recently and Jake knew that he might be coming to Walter Reed today, but didn't think he would see him because he did not know the extent of his injuries. It was wonderful to meet him and we could see that it meant a lot to Jake to have him there so they could talk about their injuries. Jake was releaved to hear good news about his other buddies in Afghanistan and to hear good news about the ones that were injured in the recent attack.
It was a glorious day for all of us! We can't wait to have Jake in "his" room with us tomorrow. :)
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