It is hard to believe that four weeks have gone by since Brad came home from the hospital. In that time I kept meaning to update the blog to say he’s been doing very well, but have never quite found the time. The needs of his care have been fairly overwhelming for me, honestly, despite lots of good help. Brad’s mother was here helping tremendously for the first couple of weeks, and I also hired round-the-clock caregivers. It’s essential that we have someone here, as doctor’s orders (and the assessment of his physical therapist) mandated that Brad never be left alone in the house. I’m so grateful every day that we were able to find home attendants, because without them juggling everything would be impossible and beyond exhausting.

The focus in these weeks has been on rehab to get Brad stronger and more independent. Our insurance company, to my astonishment, went out of its way to find and authorize service from an integrated, in-home rehab company with a team coming to the house to provide intensive physical therapy, occupational therapy (in this case, helping Brad adapt to his impaired vision), counseling, and guidance from a dietitian. They come about 20 hours a week, in total, and in addition to these visits Brad has clinic appointments and a twice-weekly home health nurse, so our household has been a very busy one. The rehab is going really well—over the past weeks Brad has gained some energy and quite a bit of strength, which was sorely lacking after so many months in the hospital. He can now take walks of up to 20 minutes and much better able to climb our house’s many stairs. In the past week, he has even come up to the top floor and helped put Lucy to bed—though thanks to his ongoing vision issues, she read stories to him.

A word about his vision: It’s still very much clouded and he remains functionally blind, though he has regained a little more peripheral vision and some of the corneal scratches and swelling are starting to clear. Progress is, however, very slow, and the ophthalmologist following his case can’t say for sure whether the remaining cloudiness is healing injury, permanent scarring, or some combination of both. If his vision does not clear, the treatment—far, far down the line—would be a corneal transplant. Because it is likely to be many months, he’s trying to learn some technological adaptations (for using his phone and, we hope, a computer) and workarounds for mobility. We’re adding routines and particular spots for items so that Brad can find what he needs easily, and I am pleased to have an excellent reason to make the girls pick up their stuff, since anything left on the floor would be a tripping hazard. All in all, we are slowly adjusting to and settling into this new phase, and while it’s still going to be a long haul, we are all enjoying not being at the hospital so much.