Jaime and Steven!

Jaime and Steven have now been at home together for a couple of weeks and are doing quite well, although they both still have a long way to go.  They each wrote their own update, so you can hear from them in their own words! 

 

Jaime’s Update…

 

5+ months post-accident our days are pretty quiet.  I’m looking forward to starting back up at school next week for the summer semester & have already begun registering for fall!  It’s very nice to have Steven at home so that we can begin settling back into our routine.  We are both doing our outpatient rehab at Northwest which is very close to our apartment & much easier to get to.  It’s a very nice facility complete with an area called “Easy Street” which simulates real world situations (sidewalks, bank, grocery store, movie theater, kitchen etc).

 

I had surgery two weeks ago to remove a bone growth on my right femur that has caused issues off & on since the accident.  My mobility was set back a bit but I’m now getting back to where I was & then some as I no longer have a poky piece of bone thwarting my progress.  The sutures came out last Thursday (yay no more taping up half my leg in order to shower) & I have another pretty scar to add to the right leg’s collection.

 

We had a very nice visit from the Canadian contingent over Memorial Day weekend, & I was able to attend a close friend’s bridal shower.  Steven & I had a wonderful home-cooked meal with close family friends as well.  & I am finally back to driving.  It’s very nice to have that freedom of mobility back.  We’re all mending, & though we’re not back to “new normal” yet we’re on the right track.

 

 

Steven’s Update…

 

I have been doing very well, well for what can be expected at least. I am finally at home (came home 16 days ago) and home is much more comfortable except for sleep. I’ve been lucky enough to have been visited by my family and some Canadian friends!

 

My condition is pretty good – I’m walking now with 2 crutches and that is going well. Only problem with that is I’ve walking on the side of my foot and I have trouble getting it flat so it hurts like hell. For longer trips, I’ve been sticking to wheelchair until my stretches/workouts strengthen the foot to flat.  This problem has, sadly, led to me skinning my foot on my carpet and getting the start of blood poisoning.  I am taking antibiotics for it but it it definitely hurts like hell.  The good news to come from it is that I am supposed to be off my feet as much as possible at the moment so I am catching up on all my console games and Netflix 🙂 I went in for a checkup on all of my injuries and they seem to be all still healing which is a HUGE thing. It’s very common that traumatic injuries will stop healing and then they’d have to open up wherever it is, remove the bar holding me together and put a thicker one in – don’t want to know the recovery time / pain on that! I’ve been in quite a bit of pain but I’ve been able to cut my painmeds down to 3 times a day, slowly down from 6. 

 

For going back to work, it’s very tricky – as much as I like to underplay my job, a fair bit of complicated work and multitasking is just commonplace. I was hoping that I’d go back by the end of June since my short-term disability ends there but the more I think about it, it’d probably be best for me not to at that time. I’m hoping to make it in time for July but I’m going to play it by ear.

 

Once again, thank you everyone for your support during this time. It’s definitely a long process but your support has made it easier and faster 🙂