Day 56: August 5, 2009

Day 56: The best news today is that Emily got her cast off! She was very excited and a little nervous. Her sister, Kaylie, came along to watch and learn. Watching the saw go into the cast was really interesting for both girls. No blood! Her knee looked big and her leg thin. I won't go into the details of dead skin and all, but it was better than I'd imagined. Emily immediately realized that it wasn't going to be piece of cake to walk again. Her ligaments are tight and sore. She needed crutches to get around still. Once we got in the car, she put her cast back on to support her leg! We never thought we'd be doing that--ever! We laughed! We dropped by the hospital to show Emily's leg to Travis. He gave her a fatherly talk about being careful. I particularly enjoyed the reinforcement. It's good to see DAD back.

It's been 8 weeks since the accident. The rehab team (physiatrist and therapists) thinks Travis could go home in about a week. Our insurance is pushing for sooner. Regardless, we will be home soon!

We found out that our insurance doesn't cover speech therapy (now that we're almost going home). I only write this because I know that some of you that read this have the same insurance we have (DMBA-Deseret Value). Speech therapy has been an integral part of Travis' recovery from passing off swallow tests for eating (he needs to eat!)to establishing cognitive thinking skills. Be aware--I never would have thought I would need speech therapy in ICU at a hospital. Isn't that for speech impediments? I am going through the appeals process as we were preauthorized for rehab. This is a huge hole in the policy. Without speech therapy, we don't qualify for acute rehab which means we have to move to TCU--nursing home type care at the hospital. For Travis, that move would be very discouraging. I would think that conditions brought on because of the accident would be covered--medically necessary. Regardless, Travis still needs speech therapy. Live and learn. It will be nice when this is all over. Eight weeks down....