{Karlton Bontrager}

Karlton can walk! I saw it with my own eyes! He can walk!
Monday afternoon only two PTs worked with Karlton in therapy. They stood on each side of him, helping him maintain balance by holding onto a belt around his middle. He lifted his pelvis so his left leg could swing forward. The L-shaped [...]

Two in a row. And then he was back to zero again. These PTA scores are becoming an obsession for all of us. Throughout the day Karlton rehearses the names of the three pictures he is supposed to remember from one day to the next. We’ve even tried to help him by coming up with [...]

I’ve mentioned before that time has been amorphous for Karlton. He gets impatient if he has to wait 5 minutes, thinking it has taken hours instead. I believe the problem was that he was not able to read the face of an analog clock. The night I spent with him, I kept track of the [...]

Thursday was homecoming day. Yes, Karlton did get to go back to ISIS, the rehabilitation center. Ever so many people came round to welcome him back. More encouraging for his parents were their comments about his appearance. He lost a lot of ground in his 10 days back at the hospital, but the ISIS staff’s [...]

Wednesday’s big event was the insertion of a PICC line. Was it a response to the stand-off of Sunday night? Or does it just make medical sense not to keep jabbing a patient each time blood work is needed or an IV must be administered? No one is giving us any answers, but someone made [...]

Tuesday was another good day. Karlton sat up for most of the day. And his appetite is coming back in full force. During lunch he mentioned that he’d like to eat French fries. Not wanting him to eat the fat, greasy hospital version, I headed off to the nearby McDonald’s. Choy-Lang and I hadn’t eaten [...]

The proverbial “calm before the storm” overlooks the fact that sometimes calm follows a storm. Monday was that kind of calm. Outside the window, rain poured down. But inside Karlton’s room, all was much better.
Dozing in the chair next to his bed, I woke up to Karlton’s telling me that he wanted to get [...]

Note: Monday was a much better day. Details will be posted tomorrow. The following is an account of Sunday in New Zealand.
Sunday started out so well. There was no warning that everything was going to go berserk. Karlton sat up for a long time in the morning, taking a shower and washing his hair. He [...]

I object when nurses refer to Karlton’s “good arm” or his “good leg.” My problem is that such terms imply that his other limbs are somehow “bad.” If the purpose of rehabilitation is to make those limbs functinal again, we defeat our efforts when we use negative language and mental images. At ISIS I confronted [...]

Friday morning was a busy one. Karlton’s nurse got him up and into the shower–the first shower he’s had since returning to the hospital last Monday. He also got a shave; his being on anticoagulants makes us nervous about letting him use a triple-blade razor. In the midst of all this, he had to answer [...]