Round 3

Round 1: JPS Hospital,  Level one trauma hospital.  ICU for 18 days. Trauma unit, 8 days. Surgical Unit, 10 days.

Round 2: move to Encompass rehabilitation hospital, May 20- June 23rd. ( longer stay than expected)

Round 3: We moved to a skilled nursing facility today. The length of stay again will be determined again by the insurance and Jim's progress. I'm betting on Jim's progress. Also, there will likely be some other procedures to fix his right eye, and perhaps the right orbital facial fracture that will be coming up and require hospital stay again. So, how long he will be in this facility is questionable. I'm still expecting Jim to surprise. In all areas.

There are a lot of suggestions as to how much we should be encouraging the doctors, who should be pressuring the insurance companies for extended stays, etc.. If only it could be that easy. There are so many influential factors that cannot be put out in type here. But, one of the most interesting is one that I have brought up before. The doctors have teams. If the weekly team input is not one that has a report of consistent progress, the line of progress goes flat. If that progress line goes flat, for whatever reason insurance will not approve any further accommodations. The doctors spend seconds... minutes... at best with the patient. A wink and a nod. Maybe a handshake. Therapists spend up to an hour each session. If therapists rotate teams, then it is square one after square one after square one. Looking at it from the outside, my business instincts say it could certainly be organized a lot better. But, no one has real control over that arrangement. It is a matter of staffing, economics, scheduling and patient cooperation as a bottom line. Covid influenced a lot of these issues we have today. All but the patient cooperation. That one you pray over. When you add communication skills and patient cooperation to the mix of those floating opinions... We are fortunate we had the length of time we did. He may be able to come back later, but you gotta leave when they say leave.

Bottom line. You'd better be prepared to attend, observe, initiate, advocate, and sacrifice. And, be good at poker. And, if you're good...get better. You never know who is going to be at your table.

So... Round three. New therapists. New surroundings. New staff. New noises, tastes and smells. New relations on my end, too. But... Jim is progressing. Maybe not the way the previous teams have calibrated.. But, I know what I see. What I hear. What was. What is. Jim is consistently improving, and we will have a great time going back into a couple of these facilities to say howdy. I wonder if they will recognize him... walking in... Standing tall.

(Improvement note for the day: When taking things down in the room to move, the only thing left on the wall was my Napoleon Hill quote. I could see Jim squinting to look at it. So I took it down and handed it to him. And, outloud, he read the entire page perfectly:

"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat." Napoleon Hill)