UPDATE 4/26 (From Home)!!!

Sorry for the delay but it has been a very busy 4 days since we have arrived back in Colorado. Michele and I arrived in Colorado on Friday at 2:30 pm. We were met at the airport by an ambulance and taken to St Anthony’s Hospital. Michele had a full day and was wiped out from the trip. She spent 2 days sleeping and the doctors spent there time giving her tests and learning her case. All of the family had time to visit her and spend time with her over the weekend. It has been so long since we were home and it has taken a few days to get everything unpacked and back in order. Michele is 30 minutes from the house so the family has worked out a schedule to break up the time with Michele and make sure someone is with her at all times during visiting hours. Today I received a call from the doctor and he was very impressed with her condition and therefore released Michele from NSICU to the long term acute care facility I have picked out. Michele was again transported to another hospital Kindred Care where she will spend the next few weeks building up her strength with occupational, speech and physical therapy. She needs to be able to participate in therapy before she goes to the last hospital Craig for intense 30 day therapy. Michele is in stable condition now and is no longer in an ICU unit therefore the family is able to be with her more and we are at the next stage on healing. She still is not very responsive, she cannot move her body on command but when she is asleep she moves all over the place. She needs to learn how to do everything all over. Today we put her speaking device on her “trake” and she was able to make noises. I asked her to say John John’s name and she tried but after several tries she clearly said “NO” meaning she could not do it. I was so impressed that she even tried and I could see her determination and she really did a great job for her first time trying to talk in 2 months. The family is very dedicated in keeping her motivated and pushing her to get better. Alyssa, Tana and Jordan sang songs to Michele tonight and her attention to them was unbelievable. I though Michele was going to join them in singing as a few times we caught her humming along. I spent the last 2 days with the help of the family giving Michele a spa treatment including her nails, toes, legs shaven and hair cut. We really never had a chance to do this before as she was always in a critical stage and the infections that she had did not allow us to keep her groomed properly. She is now glowing and I know it makes her feel even better. Just because we have made it home does not mean this tragedy is over it is only the next stage of her healing process. I will continue to send emails in hopes to draw upon all the prayers still needed to keep her on the path of 100% recovery.

John

Some pictures of our flight Home sweet Home!