The big rehab begins

It ended up being eight weeks instead of six weeks in the casts, but today was the long-awaited day when Bobbi begins her inpatient rehabilitation stay at Gillette. Dad, Eben, and I joined her as they began with removing the casts, taking x-rays, meeting with the rehab doctor who will be overseeing her stay, and then seeing Dr. Healy to confirm that, yes, we're seeing the degree of healing he wants to see in her bones before beginning the intensive work of getting up on those legs. She got the final fitting on her ankle-foot orthotics, and then we found our way (with the help of her physical therapist for the duration of the stay) to her room in the rehab unit - a new unit for us at Gillette.

The casts are going away! (The tool in the tech's hands is the saw that will do the work...)

Washing her legs a bit after the cast removal.

Taking a few minutes with Eben

Watching the bubbles while Bobbi got her x-rays taken.

I still marvel at these images. The one on the right is before. Notice the location of her kneecap. The one on the left was taken today. Now, do we wonder that she wasn't able to ever straighten her legs?? It still boggles my mind that anyone can do something like this to the human body and expect it to work.

Bobbi got to use the remote control to lift herself from her wheelchair into her bed.

Batman, who was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa (Andrea's parents) during her first hospital stay, "decided" that he was going to come along for rehab as well. Here Bobbi and Batman are optimistically checking out their new home for the undetermined future.

My mom is in town with us again, and will do the honors of staying with Bobbi at the hospital so I don't have to take care of everyone here single handedly. Eben in particular is going to miss his sister, because now that 1) her room is available, and 2) she's not here to be bothered by some crying, he's going to get some practice sleeping a little bit more during the night. For the last week he's been up about every hour and a half wanting to nurse and snuggle for an hour, leaving me with very fragmented sleep. Poor guy himself isn't really hungry, and by the 5am awakening is pretty overtired, too. We're hoping a slightly more secluded place will give him the chance for some more undisturbed sleep, and that he and I will only snuggle once or twice during the night. The duration of her stay should be the perfect amount of time to settle into some new sleep rhythms!

In the meantime, we're pretty excited about the changes that the next days/weeks hold for Bobbi!