Craig Hospital specializes in TBI (traumatic brain injury) and spinal cord injuries. It is a hospital that helps people regain their life. Craig helps people and their families recover and adapt into their new life. I can't even describe the people and families we met while Andrew was there. I enjoyed every visit and a lot of burden had lifted being around people who were going through the same things. I did not care that I now had an hour drive to come visit. Craig hospital helped make staying in the hospital pleasant with activities and families were welcome to participate in those activities as well as therapy.
While at Craig the main focus with Andrew was adjusting medications, gaining range of motion and cognitive therapy for his TBI. At first I think the cognitive therapy was the hardest for him. He is a very smart man and learning new tasks and retaining information had never been a problem for him before. He now knew this was a problem and I think knowing the problem was difficult for him.
At this point Andrew was also relearning how to feed himself, write, and to take care of his personal hygiene. He was gaining strength and motion to wheel himself through that halls of Craig in his wheelchair. Fatigue was still a problem and often other people would have to wheel him to therapy.
For the first time since May 11th 2010 Andrew was finally able to leave the hospital (on a pass) for something other than doctor visits. A 3 day pass was given to Andrew for Thanksgiving; 6months and some days since the accident. My father-in-law rented a van for the wheelchair and because there was no way we could bring him home (37 stairs just to get in) we took him to his dad's house.... the house he grew up in. There were still some stairs however it was not 37 of them and Judy taught us how to safely get the wheelchair up and down a few steps.
The only downside to being at Craig was the short visit. Because of our insurance Andrew was out before Christmas. Even though the stay was helpful, Andrew's goal to walk had not happened... he had barely worked on standing. We had no place to take him home to. Sadly (at the time) we had to give in to a perk of our insurance and send Andrew to a Skilled Nursing Facility. Our insurance allowed 100 days 100% covered and that was our only choice..... Part 7.
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