Andie's out-patient days

Thursday morning Andie and I rode on the handicapped - equipped bus that picks people up to go to therapies at Good Shepherd. Once we got the the neurotherapy section of the building we realized that the building was one that we looked out at from Andie's in-patient days. We could see her old window and she was trying to describe that to the nurse and case manager who were doing her intake interview and she said "they just let me out of that nuthouse!" They told us that they've had patients from the other building - once they start coming to - try to hold pillows with messages written on them up at the windows and some write messages on the back of their daily menus to try to let someone know that they're locked in over there... Funny and tragic at the same time.

During the intake interview we joked around about different things like some of the things Andie did when she first got to Good Shepherd and she seems amazed that she doesn't remember most of that. The case manager explained that not remembering that stuff is the brain's self defense mechanism and that it's hard but she's been through a life-changing event and things WILL be different from what they were before the brain surgery.

After their evaluations the physical therapist said if Andie sticks with her homework exercises three times a day she should be done with at least her part in four to six weeks! At times it's been hard for me to believe what people have told me during this whole thing - She'll come out of the coma, she'll get out of the wheelchair once they get her moving in therapy, she'll be able to go live at my parents' house, but time and time again she's done as predicted. Is that disbelief on my part my defense mechanism so I don't get my hopes up too high and get disappointed if it doesn't happen?

Since she's unable to negotiate the steps to get into the place she was renting her stuff has mostly been moved out, furniture will go today and then Wednesday should be the last day there. She'd been renting there for something like 15 years so I asked her how it feels to be leaving there and she was noting that she has no more stuff, she has no money(she carries a little purse around and noted at outpatient rehab that she has none in there) , she has no job and she has no "people" I'm not sure exactly what that meant - but that she realizes that things are different and that they have to be until she works to get back physically and til her brain heals enough to have things become clear for her mentally. With the anemia being better she does seem to have motivation but the trauma of the whole thing plus the list of meds that she's still on plus the fact that just re-learning basic skills makes her tired but I think she does have a new attitude and will hopefully continue to lose weight and keep moving once she's on her own.