Searching

Answers. Reason. Sanity.  We were searching for a lot of things, but most importantly, at the time, we were searching for our next move.  As I mentioned in my last post, Morgan was either coming home with us where we would learn to care for her, and we would transport her to outpatient facilities for some rehabilitation; OR, we had to find a place that would offer her some long-term care.  Yes, there are facilities, but I think what a lot of people do not understand is that you have to be ACCEPTED!  We could not just call a place and say, "Hey, this happened to our daughter and now she has this acquired TBI and we would like for you to take her into your rehabilitation program."  Nope.  That is not how it works.  And there are some places local, yes, that we could maybe have gotten her into as well.  But some of these places have rules, such as you cannot just come see her whenever you want, and you cannot stay with her, and you cannot be with her overnight.  Nope again.  That would have never worked for me or Kevin.  I was NOT leaving my baby alone for one minute.  So, there were a lot of variables working against us.  One of those was the state of Morgan's awareness (or consciousness).  We had gotten in touch with The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia (no, it wasn't as simple as that statement implies), but they had seen and reviewed all her medical records, and etc.  The SC sent a lovely young lady to Arkansas to meet with us and with Morgan and her purpose was to evaluate Morgan..  what could be a very long story, I will shorten for you and just say that by the grace of God, Morgan was accepted into their Disorders of Consciousness program.  This is not their rehab program, but while in the DOC program, Morgan would be going through rehab.  She would be on a schedule, just like someone who was in that program, working with therapists, all while teaching us how to care for her when discharged.  The DOC program is meant to be a 4-6 week program, and hoping that possibly the patient will "emerge" into full consciousness while in the program and get promoted into the rehabilitation program.  Once we were there, the doctors decided it would be beneficial for them to place a shunt to drain excess fluids, so after Morgan had that surgery, it did extend our stay.  The shunt did seem to help her awareness and she continued working through the rehabilitation daily.  Throughout all of that, I was learning how to move Morgan from the bed to the wheelchair; from the wheelchair to the shower chair; how to shower, etc.  I think for me the scariest part was learning how to administer her medications, but it was something that had to be done daily - or more like 6 times a day, including nights!!  She and I were on a pretty routine day.  When we had time to spare, I would take her on walks around the game room - they had a huge aquarium with pretty fish and she liked looking at that.  When it was nice outside, we could walk around the garden area and sometimes just sit outside and take in the sunshine.  I enjoyed that time, just being together.  Morgan had her shunt surgery, they were changing meds, monitoring meds, trying to improve her sleep, and she was doing her therapy.  The doctors were great, our case worker was super nice, the nurses and patient care techs were just some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life!  Angels from heaven, I tell you, just angels sent from heaven.  Things were going, you know..... well, things were just going...along, I guess.

This is the day we arrived at The Shepherd Center


And I cannot forget the great and amazing pilots who got us there on Angel One!!!!


Morgan working it out on the bike...

Some walking they would do to help strengthen her core and her leg muscles.

And, of course, her favorite kind of therapy... the sweet dogs!!

This is one of those beautiful days we were spending some time outside.