Journal entry by Carmen Kirby —
Yesterday marked three months that Scot has been an inpatient at Shepherd Center in Atlanta. It is nearly impossible to communicate what these last three months have been like but one of his doctors described traumatic spinal cord injury as “a nuclear bomb going off in your lives” and that feels true. Despite that, there have been many victories both big and small which we've joyfully celebrated:
- Gradually was taken off the ventilator and had his tracheostomy removed in December.
- Recovered from pneumonia and a collapsed lung.
- Went from being unable to speak at all due to the ventilator to using a speaking valve to speaking normally.
- Transitioned from ice chips to sips of water to bites of pureed food to tiny bites of food to eating normally.
- Had the feeding tube removed.
- Recovered from the cervical fusion surgery
- Learned how to drive his wheelchair
- Began regaining some movement in his limbs/fingers/toes
- Began leaving the hospital to be with family at their apartment
The staff at Shepherd Center has - sometimes literally - wrapped their arms around us and shown us care, compassion and acceptance while we’ve begun coming to terms with Scot’s injury. We will miss the inpatient PTs, OT, Nurses and Techs tremendously when Scot leaves inpatient and goes to the outpatient Day Program, which will be February 13th.
There are so many questions regarding his recovery that we simply don’t know the answers to yet. If recovery from paralysis were simply a matter of willpower, Scot would be home already. The reality is that there is no cure - yet - and only time will tell. We continue to remain hopeful that he will have a full and complete recovery but until that happens, he is learning to navigate life from a wheelchair. Regardless of where he’s sitting, Scot’s energetic and upbeat personality hasn’t changed and he looks forward to coming home, celebrating his daughter Gracie’s graduation from high school, going to the Indy 500 and returning to work.
We appreciate your continued prayers, cards, letters, packages, phone calls, texts, emails and many, many visits from dear friends. Your love and support continues to lift us up and we are grateful for it.
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