{"id":1288,"date":"2015-12-13T18:31:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T18:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2015-12-16T14:34:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T14:34:41","slug":"adventures-in-rehabilitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/adventures-in-rehabilitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Rehabilitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello my friends!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0001\"<\/a>I know I\u2019ve been away for a month. A lot has happened\u2026and some of you have bits and pieces of the story. So I thought I\u2019d write up the facts of the last few weeks to bring everyone up to speed.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m home as of today. I\u2019ll be recovering for a while longer, but I\u2019ve been released from hospitals and rehab facilities and deemed healthy enough for home care so this is a very good thing.<\/p>\n

So. What happened?<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My Nemesis: The “Imperial Walker”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six weeks ago, I developed a blood clot in my right leg (A DVT or \u201cDeep Vein Thrombosis\u201d). I was put on anti-coagulation meds\u2026and then the bottom fell out. On Sunday, 15 November, I was running an errand for the cat shelter Tina volunteers at when I began to cough up blood. I called the wife, had an ambulance meet me at the house. I pulled into the driveway, put the truck in park and proceeded to fall out of the vehicle continually coughing up blood.<\/p>\n

I remember being placed in the ambulance and pulling into Faulkner hospital\u2014but nothing after. I have about four days missing from my memory that my wife helped piece back together.<\/p>\n

I was intubated, while they worked on my bleeding lung, which had collapsed. The medical team discovered I\u2019d developed anti-bodies to Heparin\u2014the anticoagulation meds they injected me with. This resulted in clots blowing everywhere into my system impacting my lungs and resulting in over a dozen mini-strokes.<\/p>\n

Apparently (I was unconscious at the time) I should have died. Twice.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, I\u2019m still here causing mayhem and mischief.<\/p>\n

Once I woke up a week after being transferred to the main Brigham hospital complex in Boston, I found myself in intensive care with three main medical teams \u2013 Thoracic, Cardiovascular, and Neurology –working my case.<\/p>\n

Hospital stays are bad. The experience was by far the most frightening and humiliating of my life. I was still in a bit of a fog, I couldn\u2019t walk and my speech center had been effected. I was at a pretty low point\u2014then my children and ex-wife arrived. Tina had called Valerie to let her know what had happened and my ex offered to bring the kids up for Thanksgiving. It was the sweetest thing\u2014and became the pivot point putting me on the path to recovery.<\/p>\n

I was moved from Brigham and Woman\u2019s Hospital to a Rehabilitation center a couple weeks later. At this point, I could only walk with a walker, but my speech had improved. Once I was settled in the Spaulding West Roxbury Rehab center, I was immediately signed up for Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.<\/p>\n

I will say this about the team at Spaulding. They worked me incredibly hard. I went from constant pain and an inability to function by myself to being able to handle all normal day-to-day functions and walking unassisted.<\/p>\n

I improved so fast that they cut me loose in 10 days. I was told that going from my original condition to being able to go home in the timeframe I\u2019ve worked toward is nothing short of a minor miracle.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s all down to the remarkable doctors and therapists I had. I\u2019m sure my stubbornness played a role\u2014and wanting to get better not only for me, but for Tina and the kids played a major part in where I am today.<\/p>\n

I still have pain in my leg\u2014and I need to rest every 20 minutes or so. I\u2019m still building back my cognitive abilities that are slowly returning to normal. We still have to figure out definitively what caused all the clots and resultant strokes, but I have a great team of doctors on the case.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014I have a long ways to go until I\u2019m back to being myself. I lost nearly 40 pounds in the past month\u2014a lot of it muscle mass that will have to be built back up. I\u2019m going to have to figure out how to pay the medical bills that are coming in\u2026<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0006\"<\/a>But I\u2019m alive. And I\u2019m getting better each day.<\/p>\n

So many of you sent me words of encouragement and prayers\u2014I \u2018m blessed to have marvelous friends and family who have been with me every step of this process. To my wife Tina who dealt with everything\u2014including the possibility of losing her husband\u2014I love you baby. Thank you for taking care of me. To Valerie and the kids\u2014Your visit meant the world to me\u2014thank you for making me laugh and celebrating Thanksgiving with me…and for smuggling in your mom\u2019s most excellent Apple Crumble.<\/p>\n

To my work colleagues who have been concerned and have done their best to balance concern with respect for my privacy\u2014thank you for the cards and best wishes. I will be back\u2026<\/p>\n

With continued support and effort I WILL return to my normal self\u2014sans a few bad habits. Just need to mitigate the clot situation once and for all and continue my therapies\u2026<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s it, in a nutshell. You\u2019ll hear more from me as time goes on.<\/p>\n

Peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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